pet travel

Beer for dogs: newest hotel amenity

Hotels, Pets, ,

Some travelers choose a hotel for the complimentary continental breakfast and free Wi-Fi. If dogs ruled the world, they might choose a pet-friendly inn where the welcome amenities include a bottle (or two) of dog-friendly beer.

Bowser Beer — a malty, non-alcoholic brew that replaces hops with chicken or beef broth — was cooked up by Jenny Brown of 3 Busy Dogs in 2008 as something to go with the peanut-butter pretzels (Bowser Bits) she’d been marketing for pooches.

“Some people give the beer to their dogs with ice or poured over a bowl of dog food. But lots of dogs drink it right out of the plastic bottle,” Brown said.

Bowser Beer is stocked at many pet shops in six-packs, but Brown says many pet-friendly restaurants and bars have added the product to the menu for their “Yappy Hours.” Now the FireSky Resort and Spa — a Kimpton Hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz. — and some of the more than 25,000 “pet-friendly” lodgings listed on sites, such as BringFido and in the AAA PetBook, are tucking the beer into amenity kits handed to guests checking in with their pets.

At the boutique Le Parc Suite Hotel in Hollywood, Calif., pets receive a welcome note signed by pet relations director, Bella (a Boston Terrier), as well as a kit that includes water and food bowls, a pet-friendly magazine and a bottle of Bowser Beer.

“Beer for dogs is a cool product,” said Barry Podob, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. “And adding it to our welcome kit gives us a competitive edge over other hotels. The payoff is that we’re known as a very pet-friendly hotel.”

Offering an amenity that shows customers that your hotel “gets it” can “grab a potential guest’s attention,” said Katie Davin, director of hospitality education at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. “And a special amenity such as Bowser Beer or Westin’s Heavenly Dog Bed may be a differentiator.”

In microbrew-crazy Portland, Ore., the pet-friendly Hotel Monaco includes Bowser Beer in its special pet-package rates and offers it on the complimentary menu during nightly hosted wine hours, where dogs are welcome.

“We see pets as an extension of our guests, so we do everything we can to make them as welcome and comfortable as possible,” said general manager Craig Thompson. “The dogs like it and the owners like that we make that extra special effort to welcome their pet to the hotel.”

(My story about hotels offering beer for dogs as an amenity first appeared on NBC News Travel)

Homestays for dogs while you’re on vacation

Pets, , ,

Continuing the pet theme started yesterday with a post about an exhibition of classical paintings humorously redone with cats and dogs in the place of people, here’s a story I wrote for msnbc.com Travel about a site that’s sort of like Airbnb – for dogs:

Valerie Steiger, a life coach in Canyon Country, Calif., had a 4-month-old puppy and tickets for a 10-day trip to Thailand.

Steiger knew that Joey, a cavalier King Charles spaniel-shih tzu mix, would need more attention than what a traditional stop-by-the-house pet sitter could provide, so she went online in search of a good boarding kennel.

Instead she found DogVacay.com.

The site, which officially launches March 1 in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and soon after in other major cities, matches dog owners in need of pet-care services with people willing to host dogs in their homes for a fee.

“I went down the list of profiles in my city and found someone who specializes in puppies and was a trainer by trade,” said Steiger, who requested a site-arranged “meet and greet” to evaluate the caregiver and the home where Joey would be staying. “It turned out better than I imagined. When you go away, it’s like leaving your baby. You’re wondering about them and thinking about them, so I liked that [the hosts] sent me photos and video clips of Joey running around and playing.”

DogVacay.com CEO Aaron Hirschhorn co-founded DogVacay.com with his wife, Karine Nissim Hirschhorn, after struggling over what to do with their own dogs when they traveled. They also had previously boarded dogs at their own house, and after a little research discovered that dog owners spend about $275 a year on boarding.

 

“Right now there are kennels and there are private pet sitters,” said Aaron Hirschhorn. “And we realized there was a need for a marketplace to bring together responsible dog lovers with causal and professional dog sitters who can provide a more affordable and better experience for dogs.”

As an example, Hirschhorn said that right now kennel stays in Los Angeles cost about $50 to $70 per day, while day rates on DogVacay.com are currently averaging $30.

On the site, each dog sitter sets his or her own prices with assistance from DogVacay.com. Listings are free. The site takes a 3 percent to 10 percent transaction fee from dog sitters depending on their volume of business and the number of positive reviews.

For customers, fees include insurance coverage for veterinary emergencies.  Pet sitters are vetted via reviews, social network connections and direct interviews by DogVacay.com staff.

Pet owners who take their dogs along on trips may also use the service to find sitters or host homes in cities they visit, a service that comes in handy because not all hotels accept pets — especially large ones — and some travelers are uneasy about leaving their dogs kenneled in a hotel room all day. “We think this will help free people up to travel because some people don’t want to kennel their dogs while they’re away and don’t want to bother their friends,” said Hirschhorn. “This way, more dogs can go along.”

For cities not served by DogVacay.com, American Automobile Association spokesperson Heather Hunter notes that many AAA clubs have local pet-service partners available to members and that the organization’s “AAA PetBook” lists more than 14,000 pet-friendly accommodations as well as tips and advice for choosing a pet sitter. For example, “Be sure to ask what is included in the fee and how they will handle a medical, weather, or home emergency,” said Hunter.

Like Airbnb, Couchsurfing.com and other peer-to-peer, home-stay websites, hosts are encouraged to go online after the stay and rate the behavior of their guest.

“The good news is that a dog that stays at your house won’t throw a party or get drunk and invite all their friends over,” said Hirschhorn, “although we have had some dogs pee on the carpet.”

Jack the Cat euthanized

Pets, ,

Jack, the cat lost, then found, at JFK, has died

On Sunday, veterinarians in New York euthanized Jack, the cat who gained world-wide attention and more than 23,000 Facebook fans after being lost for two months, and then found, at JFK International Airport.

The news of Jack’s passing was reported in a statement posted on the Jack the Cat is lost at AA Baggage at JFK Facebook page:

“Jack has gone over the rainbow bridge,” the statement said. “Jack had extensive wounds on the back of his body, and the wounds were unable to heal because his skin had deteriorated due to the malnutrition that occurred while he was lost.

“He needed surgery to treat the wounds,” the statement continued, “But there was not enough available skin to close the wounds after the surgery… The vet was very clear that she had conferred with every possible doctor regarding options for Jack, but none of them left him with a substantial chance of survival and all of them involved him suffering. Jack had been through so much, and the last thing anyone wanted was for him to suffer more.”

Jack first got loose in the American Airlines baggage center at JFK on August 25, after his owner, Karen Pasco, checked him and another cat in to American Airlines as cargo. As American Airlines explained in an incident report filed with the Department of Transportation, while the kennels were waiting to be loaded on the aircraft, “the kennel positioned on the top fell to the ground. The impact of the fall caused the kennel to separate and the cat escaped.”

A day later, parts of JFK airport were shut down in preparation for Tropical Storm Irene. For two months after that, thousands of Facebook fans of Jack the Cat is Lost in AA Baggage at JFK followed search efforts that included at least two Jack the Cat Awareness days, a pet Amber Alert and the hiring of a pet detective. Jack was finally found on Tuesday October 25th, when he fell through a ceiling tile in the customs area at JFK’s Terminal 8.

On Sunday evening, American Airlines also posted a statement about Jack on its Facebook page that said, “We are deeply saddened that Jack the cat has passed away, and we offer profound sympathy to Jack’s owner, Karen Pascoe, for her loss. Our heart also goes out to the Friends of Jack and those in the cat-loving community who have grown fond of Jack since he went missing… From all of us at American, our sincere apologies to Karen and Jack’s family and friends.”

Update on Jack the Cat

Pets, , ,

Jack the cat – the kitty that escaped from his carrier in the American Airlines baggage claim area at JFK airport and was missing for almost two months – is still is in critical condition.

American Airlines is covering Jack’s medical expenses and brought his owner, Karen Pascoe, in from California to visit with Jack this weekend. According to Pascoe’s sister, Mary Beth Melchior, this past weekend Jack’s vital signs were improving. “His red blood cell count has gone up since his transfusion. While his condition is still not optimal, we are happy to see this progress and are looking forward to the day he can return home with Karen,” said Melchior.

You can follow Jack’s progress on the Jack the Cat is lost in AA baggage at JFK Facebook page

Jack the cat is stuck at JFK airport

Pets,

Talk about being stuck at the airport.

[Update: August 31, 2011 2 p.m. west coast time: Jack still at large.]

For msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin I tracked down the story of Jack the cat today.

Jack has been on the loose in the American Airlines baggage center at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport for five days now and animal lovers on Facebook and Twitter are joining forces to urge the airline to get serious about finding this lost cat.

Here’s the story:

Karen Pascoe and her two adopted cats, Jack and Barry, were scheduled to fly American Airlines Flight 177 from JFK to San Francisco on Aug. 25, just ahead of Hurricane Irene. Pascoe was moving across the country with her two cats to start a new job in California.

The cats, too big to fit comfortably in one under-the-seat cat carrier, were flying in separate carriers as cargo. But shortly after the cats were checked in, Jack went missing.

“I said goodbye to cats and then went to get dinner,” said Pascoe. “And then I got a call from American letting me know Jack was out of the kennel.”

The cat didn’t appear when Pascoe went to the baggage area to call out to Jack. Pascoe had to leave without finding him because the other cat and the rest of her luggage were on the last flight to San Francisco. “That’s a giant baggage area, and he was nowhere to be found. At best I knew he was hiding somewhere,” said Pascoe.

Pascoe was assured the airline would keep looking for Jack and that she’d get a call with an update the next day. But no one called, and when Pascoe tried calling the baggage area on the weekend, no one answered the phone.

“I respect the fact that a hurricane was coming and things were a bit challenging,” said Pascoe, “but I didn’t hear from American until about 60 hours later.”

American’s silence prompted Pascoe’s sister to set up the “Jack the Cat is Lost in AA Baggage at JFK” Facebook page over the weekend, which quickly attracted mor than 2,000 fans. Many pet lovers also posted notes on American Airlines’ Facebook page urging them to find Jack, prompting the airline to post a response about its efforts to find the missing cat.

“Our JFK employees are using a variety of methods to try to find Jack, including setting cans of cat food by his kennel,” American Airlines spokesman Ed Martelle told msnbc.com. “Additionally, we are working with the Mayor’s Alliance for New York City to assist in providing humane animal traps … We offer our sincere regrets for this incident and are doing everything possible to locate him.”
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Pascoe credits Facebook and Twitter, and other animal lovers, with getting the airline to finally pay attention. She said she finally got a call from someone at American Airlines on Sunday and on Monday spoke with an assigned contact person in the airline’s central baggage claim department four times.

“I can’t help but feel a little frustrated that they didn’t have a better procedure in place,” said Pascoe, “but they’re finally stepping up and are on their game to help me.”

As of midday Tuesday, Jack the cat still hadn’t been found.