Hotels do it — charge extra if you stay with a pet. Our publisher recently paid $30 a night at one hotel for his dog, and $15 at the next. Our course, some hotels do not even welcome pets.
Granted, a hotel is not the same as an RV park because with the latter your pet is staying in its own home, the RV. So no danger of soiled carpets or scratched furniture.
But some RV park owners say it makes perfect sense to charge extra for Fido or Fifi. They sometimes poop where they want (not the restrooms unless they are incredibly smart), and their owners look the other way. So pickup duty goes to a park worker. And how about the cost of maintaining the dog park — picking up poop, watering and mowing the lawn — that kind of thing?
We wonder how many RVtravel.com readers have been charged extra to stay at an RV park with their pets. After you respond, would you please leave a comment?
Remember, it can take a moment for the poll to load if you have a slow connection. So hang on, it’ll be coming along faster than a speeding bullet (okay, not that fast!).
RELATED POST:Â Do one or more of your pets sleep in bed with you at night?
##RVT1059
Wouldn’t mind a $5 fee per dog so long as you hand me a package of great dog doo bags and maintain a few cans to collect them thruout the park! Cats or birds – no fee to be charged & campsite anywhere in any park so long as inside.
Really believe the more relevant issue should be up to date rabies vaccines just in case something happens in the park with any pet when outside. Life threatening trumps a stinky shoe!
No, and since they stay inside my Class A 95% of the time (unless we take them to a local dog park or for walkies) I won’t.
If a park charges for pets, it tells me I’ll find three things:
1) owners who don’t welcome good pet owners / like good pets.
2) bad pet guests who think the fee is license/payment to leave poo where it lands
3) arrogant guests who hate pets regardless of how good animal or human behave.
My dogs are near silent even when others bark at them, won’t go more than 10 feet from me even offleash without being told to, and only eliminate on command (hence, never your site). Those are the pets you’re discouraging in a pay park, where I won’t pay extra for dogs that cost the park nothing.
As you said, there can be understandable reasons for charging. But charging (and I have been charged) for a pet that does not leave the RV, is just plain greed. And if I have the opportunity to do so, I tell them that and do not stay. Unfortunately, it is often one of those local charges like taxes that gets added on when you check in. In that case I complain, mention it in the review,and never go back.
Sympathize with Neal! We too were forced into the “Pet” section of an RV park in Yuma even though our cat was strictly indoor type. The sandy, assigned lot was full of dessicated doggie poops. But that wasn’t the worst thing. Seems our lot was also the local “walk your dog without pickup up after it” park. Boy, did we get some dirty looks from folks forced to walk an extra 100 feet, like we were encroaching on their territory! It was so gross, we left after one night … we paid for a 3 nights for the price of 2. Even if it’s just a canary, if you’re asked whether you have a pet, always say “NO” … the question alone is a clue that the park has no respect for transient RV’ers. Oh yeah, despite graphic digital images of the fecal health hazards, Park management refused to refund even a portion of their fee.
We have where some parks charge extra for dogs, but have never stayed at one that does.
Pet fees are just another way the RV parks are nickel and dime us to death. I’ve also been charged a daily fee for my personal golf cart.
Disney World Fort Wilderness charged $5.00 per day for 1 or 2 dogs.
It still bugs me that we are put in a pet section of a park with our INDOOR (never been outside) cat.
The most-recent instance was a one-time fee of $10. In return the campground had numerous spots with a doggie bag dispenser and dedicated garbage can for the used bags. Many other campgrounds also offered such “comfort” stations without charging extra.
I answered “no,” but it’s because we refuse to stay at parks that charge extra for having a dog, not because we haven’t reviewed parks for a potential stay that have such fees.
Never charged extra at campgrounds but deposit at hotel I have. I have been lucky. Most parks I stayed at had good pet owners. No huge issues with dog poop. More issues of people leaving trash.
What bugs me most is that parks that charge extra for pets do absolutely 0 to police their dog parks and common areas. If you charge extra for the clean up then do the clean up. We are religious about picking up, don’t understand those that do not, but, if you charge extra you are encouraging customers to leave it.
Should charge extra for inconsiderate pet owners. Dogs 💩 outside, owner should be responsible for the cleaning duty.
Cats, inside, owner gets the duty.
No, but as we travel around and notice more poop left on the ground at more RV parks and campgrounds I’m not surprised. Just this morning I found trash left on the ground where people had gathered last night. I won’t be surprised by a trash fee in the future either.
Please pick up after yourselves and your pets!
Was charged once to have my two dogs at a park that had no dog park and had dog poop all over from others leaving it, I guess they figured that the park would pick it up, since they paid extra ! Never again will I pay to have my dogs at a park !! Diane