Official Dog Friendly Cottages

Hello Sean,
I was delighted to find your Dog Friendly Cottages website as we always take our dogs with us on holiday. It does take my hours though to sift through the cottages featured in order to find the handful prepared to take more than one or two dogs (we have four). There is a filter to select the number of human guests, would it be possible to have a filter to select the number of dogs as well, or would it require a huge amount of work to set up?
Many thanks for the website and best wishes.
Annette

 

It's always worth asking Annette. I say we will take 2 of any size and breed, no questions asked but in practice it is much more flexible. I'd struggle to accommodate 4 Great Danes for example but I have taken 5 whippets!

 

East ruston cottages cater for more than 5 dogs and have cottages all over Norfolk. ...we have just found a detached bungalow in yorkshire away from other properties overlooking the yorkshire national park but has a pub up the road. ..they take up to 6 dogs but do charge £25 per dog extra ...

 

Thank you both for your replies. We have used East Ruston cottages several times and enjoyed our visits but we also like exploring different parts of the country. I know many owners will agree to more dogs than stated, just a bit worried about approaching owners who might not appreciate somebody trying to bend the rules.

 

Nothing wrong with asking politely, maybe offering to pay an extra deposit. I've done this with cottages that say dogs aren't allowed in the bedroom, and only once did someone say we'd have to stick to the rules.

 

We really don't mind you asking!

 

Just arrived back a day earlier from our week in yorkshire. ..lovely surroundings but the cottage was awful ....dirty smelly and lounge furniture uncomfortable.....not an enclosed garden as stated on welcome cottages and the photos were taken 19 yrs ago when itwas first let out ...false advertising ...and we paid £750 .......

 

Oh that's not good Kara. Did you manage to have a good time despite that? Have you put in a complaint? You might even be entitled to a refund if the description was incorrect (though they probably have something in the small print about that...).

 

Thanks Judy we did have a lovely relaxing ....we spent most of the time sat on the bed as the sofa and chairs were so lumpy and bumpy ...the only good thing was we were allowed to leave the dogs whilst we popped out and the dogs had their own twin room ...a secure garden though is a must for us and it was an acre garden ....with view across the 3 peaks but where it was not properly enclosed we couldn't risk it as there was sheep and lambs the other side of the dried stone wall that part of was fallen down ...we always take a roll of orange fencing and we made a 15ft x 15ft area outside back door but to us the place wasn't worth half of what we paid ...I stopped going through welcome cottages as I had a similar problem before..but I specifically asked if it was secure ...they said they had contacted the owner who said it was,,,I have taken lots of pics too so will be complaining Monday

 

A secure garden makes a huge difference, doesn't it? Especially with dogs who are so good at doing something they shouldn't do really quickly. Taking a roll of fencing is a brilliant idea, but you must have a much bigger vehicle than we have, we don't even have room for OH's guitar which he hates leaving at home!

 

Haha ....that made me laugh ...we have a nissan pathfinder and a topbox (our woodlice ) thats what my sister calls it ...

 

Aw, sorry you had a bad experience. Just a thought, but maybe before any of us book a place in future it would be worth asking if anyone happens to know the place. I know I'd be happy to check places out if they were close by, I'm sure others would too.

 

Then depending on who it is you can say, 'It's lovely! We must meet up for a walk!' or 'No, I had a look, it's infested with cockroaches, you really, really shouldn't book it!'

 

Trouble is alot of these places wont give you the full address or post code until you have paid in full..but thats a good idea joanne

 

If you book direct with the owner then you should always be able to get the full address from them.

It's only the big OTAs like AirBnB, TripAdvisor, HomeAway, Booking. com and the agencies that are secretive as they need to get their hundreds of pounds in booking fees off you first! And I do mean £100s. AirBnb now charge guest booking fees of up to 20% on the rental price.

#bookdirect and save money!

 

We booked through welcome cottages...they charge £38

 

Yes but they'll be charging the owners 20% or more +VAT. They don't want you contacting the owner direct until you've paid the full amount as you'll probably find the owner would do you a better price than via the agency. Use the agencies to find somewhere you like by all means and then do a bit of detective work to see if you can find the properties own web site. I've saved £100s by doing this.