Question for owners: Reasons for not accepting cats, even if you list as "pet friendly"?

[David4399]

Hi there, my family was recently looking for a vacation rental near a Delaware beach and we wanted to bring our two cats. We quickly found that even places that were listed as "pet friendly" would not take cats. I'm curious to hear from pet friendly owners why they draw the line at cats. I'm not looking to shame anyone--just curious. Thanks for your feedback!

[Sally221]

Dear David,

I am a cat ( and dog ) person myself & had the experience of needing a temporary accommodation after a house fire a few years back so I am speaking from personal experience as well as book learning about cat psychology. Dogs are pack animals and, for the most part,  if their human leader is with them, they feel pretty okay about whatever place they may be staying.  ( they are most likely to trash a place if left alone for hours)

  Cats, on the other hand, are  territorial creatures and it is very stressful to be put into a new and unfamiliar territory and they are not fans of car rides in the first place. An unhappy cat in a strange place might well do some editorial peeing/marking of territory. My cat didn't do that but she did have an upset stomach about the move and did a lot of spitting up & lost a significant bit of weight. Our dog was just fine.  If you can find a pet sitter, your cats will probably be much happier and you will have many more options to rent. Your cats will miss you and might snub you at first when you return but isn't that better than miserable kitties? Also, if they get out of your rental, and they will be motivated to try, you might lose them forever. Your cats might be the absolute exception to all this but it's a risky experiment for all concerned, Sally

[Ria16]

@David4399  Unless you cage the cats how are you sure they won’t run away ? I guess you could keep every window shut? 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@David4399 

I had a few cats and a few dogs in my life.

Dogs never did any damage. Cats were peeing/marking the territory and scratching sofas and jumping all over the furniture even high closets, trying to catch the fly and ripped the curtains, throwing things off the table, etc... Maybe your cats are sterilized and just sleeping all day long but the host doesn't know that and doesn't want to risk.

You may be the responsible guest and would pay for any damage but with back to back bookings, hosts doesn't have time to deal with such problems.

We are pet-friendly but not during the high season.

[David4399]

Thanks for all of your input!

[Kelly149]

@David4399 two things: your profile could be better - there is an "about me" section that you can fill in. and then also ABB ToS specifically disallow covering any damage caused by pets, so many ABB hosts disallow pets bc they are vulnerable to unpaid damage. Vrbo has better security deposit options for hosts so you might have more luck there.