Sorry but we're not a kennel

I actually have something to blog about!  This will be my first "true" blog post.  Yay for me!

Once again I got an inquiry for our studio VR ( Garcia House VR )mentioning dogs plurally and then it turned out the fellow wanted to bring with him "two 65-lb, housebroken dogs".  We limit the size of dogs there to just one dog under 25 lbs.  Rules can be bent and broken but not to that extent.  I had to turn that down but did point him to this VR that happily takes dogs of that size, waived the pet fee and dropped the price so that it was only $100 a week more than the studio.  It's the summer in Tucson and it's empty so it was okay by me.  What a deal right??!!  Never heard back from him :-(

The thing that's most important to understand to travelers is Vacation Rentals are NOT kennels.  You may have the most wonderful dogs but they're still dogs and they shed and can chew and they shed and they've got nails and they shed and they can be stinky and they shed and they can have accidents and did I mention they shed?  

We limit the size or quantity of permitted dogs for a reason and it's not only for our sake but unfortunately some people want to take advantage of good-natured VR owners and try to find budget VRs that will act as housing that's cheaper than a kennel would be.  There's actually been a couple of inquiries where I've  wondered if I'd even actually get a human guest along with the dogs or if they'd just come and go to walk and feed them.  

I'm lucky to be a hand's on VR owner and hopefully my subscription with VRBO/HA will continue to be honored in that regard until it expires but it goes to show yet another reason why I won't be able to continue with them.   

We allow dogs to accompany our Guests but there has to be limitations as we are primarily lodging for humans.  I always want to help caring, loving dog owners but when one takes on the responsibility of owning multiple dogs or large dogs, traveling with them is not always possible and they're better left at home or kenneled.