NU12 for May 29, 2012 by Mike Ligayo - Making Places Pet Friendly

Prof. Jorge,

Below is my NU12 for May 29, 2012.

This answers the question "What pisses me off in a mall / resort / hotel?".

Regards,
Michael Ligayo

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PET-FRIENDLY RESORTS

I am a certified dog-lover. That is a sure thing. My dog has always been the "spoiled" one in the family. And yes, he is considered to be part of the family. And why not? He seems to be an extension of myself. He knows when I am feeling down. He knows when I am busy. He knows when I am happy. Basically, my dog is truly my best friend.

However, as a pet-owner, one of the biggest problems that I always have is during vacations. It is always a dilemma where to go, be it a hotel or a resort that will accept my pet. Of course, I want my dog to experience the vacation where I am going to but it is often a problem if the hotel or the resort where I am going will accept him. Even on the house rules, you will see the clause, "Pets are absolutely not allowed", especially on the luxury hotels and resorts. Oftentimes, we end up either not going at all or going for a less "luxurious" accommodation just to ensure that the dog is accepted. Unfortunately, these have downsides. It limits what we can experience in the vacation.

It is very unfortunate that the Philippines, despite the number of pet-lovers, is still not a pet-friendly nation. Facilities and accommodations are still very restricted in terms of allowing pets to come in. I remember trying to bring my dog inside a mall and the guard said that if they allow the pet to get into the mall, I would have to carry him while inside the mall. Imagine the discomfort (especially that my dog is about 6 kilos).

And so I thought of this new idea to have a pet-friendly resort…

What is necessary for a resort to be pet-friendly?

Of course it is going to very expensive for a new resort / hotel to be established. So here is just a list of some changes that current resort / hotel owners can do to make their resort / hotel pet-friendly:

·       Allot some rooms with no carpet. Carpets are usually one of the features that make a room not pet-friendly. The pet easily destroys it. Thus, it is best to create / allot rooms that do not have carpets.

·       Protect bed foams and mattresses. Pet-owners cannot prevent their pets from going to the bed. Thus, these foams and mattresses should be well protected such that dog poop and urine will not sip through. Similarly, mites will also not get through. It is also suggested to ensure that washing is possible after every customer with pets.

·       Have separate accommodations for pets, if possible. The resort / hotel can do this as an additional service. They can provide stay-in rooms for the pets where they can also offer services such as grooming and the likes. This way, the pets are also having a vacation while their owners are enjoying their time. In addition, the owners can visit their pets anytime they want to.

·       For beaches, have a separate location where pet-owners can roam their pets. This is just to separate the pet-owners from the non-pet-owners. In this section, the owner can have frequent personnel to roam around in case there are irresponsible owners who will not clean the mess of their pets.

·       On sale on the resort / hotel can be cleaning materials that the owners can purchase to clean the mess of their pets. This can be packaged tissue, pet diapers, plastic containers, etc that will be necessary to clean poop and urine.

·       Trash bins should also be located everywhere where the owners can throw cleaning materials that they used. This will make it very convenient for pet-owners to clean the mess of their pets and would naturally encourage them to do so.

·       Railings along the shorelines (for beaches) can also be installed to have pet-owners tie their pets while they go swimming. Of course, pools will have to have the same railings but a little far from the pool itself.

·       Very much similar to smoking areas, restaurants inside these hotels / resorts can have designated open areas for customers with pets.

·       Of course, there may still be areas that are restricted to pets. I'm quite sure that pet-owners would understand that.

Conclusion

The Philippines is still very far for being a pet-friendly nation. To a certain extent, pet-owners are still being discriminated especially on resorts, hotels and other establishments. Business owners are afraid that their customers might not like it if they have pets roaming around. However, in a similar fashion, business owners have also not considered they are discouraging pet-owners from becoming their customers. They have not explored enough to ensure that they accommodate for pet-owners and non-pet-owners. I'm still waiting for the day that wherever you go in the Philippines, pets are welcome just like humans are. 4