Why should Hoteliers care about Pet Hospitality?
Pet-friendly hotels have been a great and an inclusive addition at that, to the service sector. Pet-tourism is growing rather quickly, especially in the United States. The market is currently valued at more than $70 billion. Pet hospitality is undoubtedly helpful for pet owners. However, some people often wonder why hoteliers should care about pet hospitality?
There are many advantages for a hotelier to turn pet-friendly - increased revenue, enhanced brand loyalty, full-year work, and some innovative opportunities for marketing, to name a few.
Increased Revenue
Visitor bookings that involve pets are very profitable for hotels. Especially those who charge certain amount of money as pet-fees. For instance, if a hotel charges $100 as pet fees, then these $100 would be additional revenue for it, as there are no additional costs involved. Moreover they can also charge $25-30 daily as room cleaning charges, which are very reasonable as per the market norms and would further increase the hotel’s revenue. Although it is advised to keep these extra costs as affordable as possible to retain brand loyalty.
Enhanced Brand Loyalty
Pet-owners are most often generous and sensitive customers who leave excellent reviews if they have a quality experience. Hotels can easily garner some fruitful reviews for their property and an increased chance for widespread word of mouth if they provide pet-owners quality experience during their stay. They can make their properties more pet-friendly by providing pet beds, leash-free areas, special foods, name tags, and tender behavioral conduct, for instance.
Catering for every pet
Often the pet-friendly term is inferred as a synonym for dog friendly only. Many pet owners have faced difficult situations while checking into a hotel with other pets like Cats, turtles, guinea pigs, and rabbits. If you want your hotel to be truly pet-friendly, then you must cater for all pets with similar hospitality.
Full-year business
Hotel owners have a tremendous opportunity to outgrow their seasonal business into full year business through pet-tourism. Again, effective and friendly policies with kind hospitality would go a long way for achieving this feat. But it is definitely possible.
Apart from touching hospitality, hotels who provide gifts, special treats, and other amenities for pets like towels, beds, sheet covers, name tags, food bowls e.t.c. are very highly rated by pet owners.
These are really very small efforts, however, they can have a great influence on a hotel’s bank account. Perhaps, a wise hotelier would always care about pet hospitality!