Comments on: Service Dog Rejected from Airbnb Reservation

By: Nellie

Nellie — Sun, 01 Oct 2017 17:53:31 +0000

As you say in the vast majority of situations on an Airbnb you should be able to bring a service dog. Hosts are allowed to charge an extra cleaning fee for animals, so you are not correct in your comment. They are not allowed to ask about your disability but they are allowed to ask how your dog helps you. They are also allowed to expect the dog to be with you at all times.

Why not book a pet friendly home. Good luck with finding somewhere.

By the way your link doesn’t work.

By: James

James — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 18:47:15 +0000

In reply to Jessica. Like it or not, you are legally required to accommodate service animals. If you attempt to break the Airbnb service contract, as this host did, Airbnb will ban you, as they did to this host.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 10:47:07 +0000

I do not think you can expect to take your dog with you wherever you go. An AirBnB is often someone’s private home and I think they should be allowed to make rules on what sort of behaviour they accept (for instance, I would not accept indoor smoking). I appreciate you need your service dog but it’s still a pet/non-human animal that you want to have with you indoors and I think people should be allowed to refuse your booking on grounds of this; I also think people should be allowed to refuse booking to people who intend to bring their young children with them, for instance (as they might be more prone to breaking things or show disruptive behaviour). I am sure you understand the law very well with regards to what your rights are but I don’t think it’s alright that the law would force a private organisation to put up with a pet if they do not want to.

You know not everyone is going to be happy about you bringing your dog so it’s best to enquire beforehand whether someone is happy to accept you + your dog. In my view, it’s unfair discrimination to reject a booking because someone is a man, asian, black or has green hair because those characteristics do not affect someone’s behaviour/stay. However, you bringing your dog does affect your stay as the dog will shed hair and might smell. A next person might have an allergic reaction to the allergens left by your dog, the owner might need to clean more or be allergic themselves. I love dogs so it’s not a personal thing against dogs as pets but you cant expect everyone to cater to your situation.

By: Ellen N.

Ellen N. — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 23:45:50 +0000

I’m truly sorry that you had to deal with such a horrible host. It looks like her listing has been removed from Airbnb. For what it’s worth, I welcome service dogs with open arms. Even though it requires planning on my part as one of my dogs is dog aggressive; I am committed to doing the best I can to help people with disabilities enjoy travel.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 22 Sep 2017 17:44:50 +0000

Indeed, not the type of host you’d want to spend time with. Good job that you reported her to authorities!