Taking Pets on Business Trips
Sounds Great! Think about it!
Puppy Travel is a full service travel agency for PETS & PEOPLE. Recently we have received several inquires from the media regarding the current trend going around of people taking their pets with them on business trips. I find this quite interesting and curious. Most people who need to take a business trip and work for a company are obligated to use their company’s travel agent to book their travel-with or without their pets. Therefore we may receive inquires from other travel agents about pet travel logistics but no actual bookings on a regular basis. However speaking from a corporate/business travel agent perspective which I did for 17 years, it is not an easy request; not popular either. Corporate travel agents work FAST. Everything they do is like clockwork, book air, reserve rental cars and hotel accommodations for the traveler, get that aisle seat and by all means make sure you get the frequent flyer and hotel membership numbers into the reservation. Booking a pet is not part of that every day routine. It throws them off on their timing and puts them in an area of travel that not in their comfort zone. It made me grumpy when I was asked to figure out to get an executives dog to Australia when I was already buried in acquiring Visa’s and short term housing for the person’s family of 5 children under the age of 12; not to mention coordinating airline documents, seat assignments, special meals and bassinet seating on the international leg for the baby. Point being: more than likely the travel agent is going to be ticked! You need a PET FRIENDLY hotel too?
My next observation regarding taking a pet on a business trip is what are you planning on doing with your pet all day long while you are working? If it is a tiny little thing, MAYBE you could take it with you, if the corporate culture of your business trip would tolerate that. Other options I can think of: leave it in the hotel room or find a ‘pet day care’ for it? Think your travel agent is ticked! My dog would not even look at me for a week if I left her crated in a hotel room for even an afternoon or at some new strange kennel! Dog barks during the night? Oops, must hurry and put on something decent to take it outside and find a square of grass at 2AM in a blinding snowstorm. Forgot to bring enough food for your cat? Next thing you know your kitty has an upset tummy and is really sick; know a good vet in Des Moines?
Logic tells me that it sounds ‘sexy’ to say that you take your ‘best friend’ with you whenever you travel on business so you can run with it at night on some cool jogging path, but think it through. What about the pets travel crate? If it measures 40×27x30 inches-the standard size for a Labrador Retriever – who are fun to jog with by the way- if you decide not to rent a car, the cab isn’t going to want to take you, your dog and it’s crate for even 1 mile; hotel shuttle bus-same problem. What if your dog misconnects on the outbound and is delayed for 4 hours. Do you wait for the dog or miss that very important client meeting that the company paid for you go to?
Pet Travel Agent Advice for Dummies:
If you are thinking about taking a business trip with your pet, THINK it through. From the booking, traveling and work perspective your pet will more than likely have more fun staying home with grandma and will be so happy to see you when get back in town and come over to take it home and go for a run.
May 17th, 2007 at 1:09 am
Very true. While we love traveling with our two dogs, it is almost always by car and staying at campgrounds or dog friendly hotels (though we have occasionally had to sneak them into a motel 6.) There are so many great cage free boarding facilities available now that even if you can’t leave your pet with a family member they can still have fun while you are away. Our pups love their local cage free canine camp and get excited every time we pull into the lot.
I’d say let business be business and save the pet travel for vacation.
May 17th, 2007 at 1:20 am
There are so many high quality cage free day cares centers and boarding houses now that it makes more sense to leave your pup behind when you go away for business. Our dogs love their camp where they play with friends all day and sleep on blankets and pillows in a big room with an attendant at night.
We love to take our pups on vacation with us, but when its time for us to work, they prefer to just keep playing!
July 7th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
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Anthony Bromley
August 8th, 2007 at 5:11 am
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Taking Pets on Business Trips, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I take my dogs with me on business trips all the time. They do the same thing in the hotel that they would do at home, hang out on the bed and watch the world go by! In the evenings I take them for walks and watch TV with them in the same fashion that I would at home. We have six dogs and I will generally take two of them at a time on a trip and rotate who gets to go next. I solidly disagree with the comments made about leaving the dogs at home. I have rarely had anything but a positive experience taking the dogs. I travel 60% of my work life and a fair amount for social reasons as well, if I didn’t take the dogs I would never get to see them or spend time with them. Traveling with them allows me to have pets, I would have to make the decision to give my pets up otherwise.
I have found that Marriott’s Residence Inns and TownPlace Suites are very pet friendly and my dogs consider them to be as much a home as their own. They are not crated and ge the run of the “apartment” just as they would their own house. They are not small dogs and the staff at the hotels we stay at look forward to when the dogs visit.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
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