By now, most apartment operators understand the importance of offering a pet-friendly community. It widens the pool of potential renters and creates opportunities for residents to connect.

With that, operators have learned how crucial it is to implement clear and forward-thinking pet policies. These procedures help to reduce liability risk, properly track the onsite pet population and ensure all residents formally acknowledge the rules.

Those concepts, however, transcend apartments.

Additional forms of rental housing also can benefit from increased levels of pet-friendliness, including policies that eliminate any ambiguity for guests and their furry friends. Among them are vacation rentals and similar forms of short-term rentals, which often have not had any formal pet procedures in place.

Prepping for the pet visitor
When traveling, modern pet owners often take a different approach than utilizing a pet sitter—they bring their pets along with them. Vacation rentals can prepare for this on-the-rise trend by taking steps to accommodate these visitors.

The effort can include installing pet-waste stations, offering a fenced yard when applicable and supplying pet-friendly covers and blankets for furniture. Operators can also create a welcome kit for pets and their owners, which can include items such as treats, chew toys and food/water bowls. It can also contain information about nearby pet parks, pet-friendly restaurants, veterinarians and emergency contacts.

Additionally, while most rental listings default to dog-friendliness, keep in mind that cats are often travel companions, as well. Make certain to address this distinction and consider adding features such as secure screens to ensure cats don't have any easy escape route.

Create clear and easily accessible pet policies
Oftentimes at apartments, residents and visitors aren't fully aware of the rules pertaining to pets. That can even more easily happen at vacation and short-term rentals, where the stays are quick and no wide-ranging lease agreement is in place.

Short-term operators can partner with a platform to ensure all pet fees are collected up front, all relevant pet information (such as vaccination records) is submitted and all pet-related rules are formally acknowledged. For instance, operators may choose to prohibit any visiting pets that aren't part of the initial agreement. This covers them from a liability standpoint if an incident occurs with an unauthorized pet.

Tools are also available to enable owners or property managers to report pet damage or bite incidents, which ensures that this data follows the resident and pet for consideration for future leasing. 

Screen pets and assistance animals before they stay
As with some apartment communities, vacation rentals might have a banned breeds list. Others might choose to evaluate pets on an individual basis. Whichever the case, resources are available to help operators evaluate pets and their owners to uncover any previous incidents before approving them as guests.

Resources are also available to handle the evaluation of reasonable accommodation requests for service animals and emotional support animals, including the verification of any accompanying documents. Understanding the federal assistance animal guidelines under the ADA and HUD for both short-term and long-term rentals can sometimes be confusing and often conflated. This said, applying the right assistance animal review standard to the right type of housing is incredibly important.

Taking care of these steps before the visitor arrives helps alleviate any potentially awkward situations at check-in.

Set clear boundaries in a friendly manner
While many short-term properties might be OK with welcoming pets, some might have a few stipulations. For instance, some might not want pets sleeping on the bed or prefer that the pets are leashed at all times when outside. Kindhearted signs—such as "paws off the bed, please"—can make the request more lighthearted than heavy-handed.

Ultimately, vacation and short-term rental operators who offer pet-friendly accommodations aren't only being kind to pet owners. They are exhibiting a business-savvy approach that can help attract a wider array of renters, increase revenue per booking and lead to an influx of higher ratings and reviews.