Gracie Doodle's First Hotel Stay! (Video too)

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Gracie Doodle is having the time of her life.  We drove for 8 hours from San Diego up to San Jose to visit our 5 month pregnant daughter, her husband and of course Luna Paw who is Gracie's cousin and a Rhodesian Ridgeback.  We left San Diego on Wednesday and then Friday drove up here to Santa Rosa to stay in the Hilton Hotel which is a dog friendly hotel.  Now I do have my input to what they say is a dog friendly hotel and what I think a dog friendly hotel SHOULD be.  The only thing friendly is that they can stay in your room with you.  They can't be seen in the lobby, pool area or in any of the patios where food or drink are served.  Well...WTD...where do you take them?  Also, you are not supposed to leave the dog unattended in the room at any time.  So how do they expect you to enjoy their hotel, restaurants and grounds if you can't take the Doodle with you?  There is an area where we threw Gracie's ball today that is grassy and back behind the fence of the swimming pool area.  There were other dogs out there this morning so I am assuming it was OK to exercise them there though it was a total swamp after raining all night.  Then we had the problem of muddy feet, legs and tummy.  Now what...back to the room to track in mud, put her in the tub and attempt to clean her up with a real glass that is what you find in your room (no plastic) and then take the nice white towels to dry off the feet that never come completely clean thus leaving mud on the towel???  Then up onto the white duvet for a short nap while we are showering???  NOT!  So we walked Gracie to the steps of the pool and had her stand on the first level while DH splashed off her feet, legs and tummy as best as he could.  Then we found the pool towels which are dark green which was good for hiding the mud.  Since we had no place to actually wash her legs with shampoo we had to do the best we could which I thought was being very thoughtful to the staff and cleaning personnel.  And, the pool was already a mess from the rain and wind blowing stuff in.  A little mud will never show up in this huge pool...right?  So, as I drove around with the family and dogs to all the "dog friendly" wine tasting places in Healdsburg and Sonoma in the rain I was thinking about what a truly friendly dog hotel should be.  They should have public places where you are allowed to bring your dog so you feel like part of the hotel experience and can actually enjoy yourself.  There should be a section of a patio where you CAN bring your dog to lay down while you enjoy your meal.  Also way back in the corner of one of the parking lots they could very discretely put a little fencing up and have a paved area with a hose so we can clean off our dogs before entering our rooms.  I don't mind Luna would freak out if you tried to rinse her off with cold water...but that would be asking too much to have hot water available.  People take their dogs out hiking and obviously they come back dirty.  As it is we have a $50 a night fee cleaning fee to have a dog in our room.  I kid you not...if you were to come into our room you would never dream there was a dog living here and sleeping on our bed with us.  All you would see is Gracie's suitcase, a leash, container of dog food and her bowl.  There is not a strand of dog hair or smell to be found.  Now in our daughter's room that is a different story.  Luna sheds like crazy so I guess I can understand the $50 but for that price I should have just brought Gracie into the room and put her in the warm bathtub, let her shake all over to get the water off and used the nice white towels don't ya think?   So that is my take on "Dog Friendly" hotels and this is how we exercised her tonight to get her tired before we headed out to dinner!!! 

Check out the video: http://www.doodlekisses.com/video/gracie-doodle-plays-at-the-hotel

 

 

 

 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Good that they diidn't charge for Gracie, they didn't deserve it : )

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

Well, we have left the Hilton and are back in San Jose at our daughter's house.  Unfortunately this long planned trip that was going to be a totally dog fun trip with hiking, wine tasting, swimming in streams if we could find them and tons of photography turned out to just be wine tasting only.  No hiking or swimming because it has rained off and on since we arrived last Wednesday and it will continue through this next week.  Good thing we decided to leave our golf club at home.  We were going to try a "once in a life time" walk on at Pebble Beach.  There are no rain checks once you tee off and I would have really been "p---ed if we paid $500 each for a round of golf.  We now are doing some more home improvements in the "kids"house!  But, the doggies did have a good time being with us 24 hours a day.  I think now Gracie is thinking..."so this is what you do when you leave the house...I think I will stay home and sleep on your bed!"  The poor babies were so tired because they never got to take naps as we all know they like to do off and on throughout the day.  We left in the mornings, drove 1/2 hour and then walked, tasted, walked, tasted, walked and tasted all day long.  They did get to go into a covered patio with us while we had lunch but it sure was cold, even with the heater lamps.  The temperature has dropped from 70s to 50s in a day and that is cold here in California!  Gracie did get to chase her ball every morning and then again in the evenings as you saw in the video.  Both dogs were "dog tired" each night when we would leave them together to sleep while we went out to dinner...yes, we left them ALONE in the hotel room!!!  There wasn't a peep out of them either.  Gracie's next hotel visit is going to be in the spring to Mammoth Lakes in the High Sierras.  We went up there last year with our grandkids and stayed at the Westin.  It is totally dog friendly...well, not the restaurants, but you can have any size dog you want and you can hang out with them in the lobby.  There are lakes within a 15 minute drive for them to swim in and just down the street several places to eat with outside seating and dogs are allowed!!!  Our daughter took Luna up there last fall and they had a wonderful time.  It is probably as dog friendly as you are going to get for a hotel.  They put out a dog bed, bowls and a treat in the room.  Of course the dog bed was for a small dog and our dogs use our beds anyway!!  ha ha   Geez, all we got was a dog bone biscuit when we checked in the other day!  Luckily I packed Gracie's bowl!!!  All in all...the girls had a good time and Gracie put a smile on our faces!  Oh...and I am looking at our final bill and they didn't charge us the $50 per room per night dog fee!!!

[Kathy Sharp]

We took our doodle to Boise Idaho we stayed at the DoubleTree Club.  They were very accomodating and didn't charge a cleaning fee.  The Marriott Residence Inn also allows pets and they can be left by themselves in the room except for when the staff is there to clean. I agree, if hotels are going to be dog friendly they should offer amenities to make your dog welcome.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Boy, you would think the Hilton could do better then THAT!! Very disappointing! Well, it looks like Gracie totally enjoyed herself regardless!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

La Quinta also doesn't charge extra for dogs, as long as there are not more than two. And their rates are very reasonable.

[Linda, Webber and Seda]

Webber was allowed in the lobby of all the La Quinta's, Motel 6's  and  the Super 8 (even in the breakfast area in Yosemite).   We could 't afford the Hilton.  There were no room charges for him either.  Try La Quinta.  They are quite nice!

[Pat and Traveler]

I've stayed in quite a few 'pet friendly' motel rooms with Trav, and haven't found much variation in the 'rules.'  Dogs can be in the room but not left alone there, they aren't allowed in restaurants or pool areas, and there's usually a variable-sized area of grass behind the facility where the dogs can potty.  This seems to be the standard for mid-priced motels.  A couple of places provided sheets to put over sofas and beds so the dog wouldn't shed or get sand/mud on the furniture.  Some have doggie welcome baskets with dishes, treats, potty bags etc.  Charges were approximately $10-$25 per night per dog.

Throwing a ball in the hallway looked like lots of fun! 

[Carol and Banjo]

It's not easy traveling even when you find supposed "dog friendly" hotels....but it looks like Miss Gracie is having a wonderful time!!!!    We need a chain of Doodle Day Inns across the country!!!!

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Thanks for sharing, this was a bummer of a hotel!

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

Looks like the Hilton should label itself "Dog Barely-Tolerant" rather than "Dog Friendly"!