I have been self-managing my property since April, 2026. I cannot believe how often guests do not disclose that they are bringing pets. Can anybody provide some insight on how to handle this? Should I request my $125 pet fee? It is really tough and unfair on the cleaners to have to handle the pet hair and accidents. BUT, I am getting resistance from the guests. I don’t want to jeopardize my reviews. My sites say that we are “pet friendly” but it doesn’t actually say that the guest needs to disclose pets during the booking process and that there is a $125 charge to bring their pet. Maybe the guest doesn’t understand that they need to include the pet number in the booking? Any insight would be appreciated!
Undisclosed Pets
+1The VRBO interface for adding a pet to your trip is not straight forward, nearly every guest I get from VRBO that brings a pet does not have it listed on their booking. I honestly just gave up trying to collect the fee from VRBO guests.
AirBnB on the other hand has the pet option very clearly shown, and almost every guest I get through AirBnB with a pet has it on their booking and pays the fee.
For me VRBO represents such a small portion of my bookings I don’t really bother making a big deal of it and just eat the extra cleaning/damage costs.
+1I have been self-managing my property since April, 2026. I cannot believe how often guests do not disclose that they are bringing pets. Can anybody provide some insight on how to handle this? Should I request my $125 pet fee? It is really tough and unfair on the cleaners to have to handle the pet hair and accidents. BUT, I am getting resistance from the guests. I don’t want to jeopardize my reviews. My sites say that we are “pet friendly” but it doesn’t actually say that the guest needs to disclose pets during the booking process and that there is a $125 charge to bring their pet. Maybe the guest doesn’t understand that they need to include the pet number in the booking? Any insight would be appreciated!
We have this in our first message to a new booking.
If you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to ask. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. By the way we are dog friendly, but we do have a Pet fee of $50.00 per stay.
We also send this if they ask about pets
we are happy to accommodate dogs at our property! We do charge a pet fee of $50.00 per stay. We also recognize and allow any service animal as designated by the ADA guidelines at no charge. Our yard is fenced. Please let us know if you have any further questions.
+1
Then if we catch a pet on the camera that was not disclosed, we can reach out and ask if they forgot to include the pet in the reservation.
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