Hi there,
Irene here, Italian, house-sitting 4 crazy cats and a sweet doggie in Valencia, Spain, at the moment.
I know my question can may sound weird but…have you ever rented a car having your pets with you? Or if you were house-sitting and decided to rent a car to take the host dogs with you. How did it go?
I’m working on an academic project about car rental and pets and having myself 2 dogs and often having travelled with them, I remember it was always a kind of issue to book a car, fearing they may charge us extra for that hair we meticulously tried to clean up before the drop-off but that always appeared at the end.
Said so, I would appreciate it so much if you want to talk to me about your experience with it. It will be such an incredible and useful insight.
The last two cars we rented in the UK very specifically said no pets allowed. We did take one small dog in the car for a short trip, and covered the whole back seat with a blanket first and made sure she wasn’t dirty in any way. So we got away with it, but generally we just tell home owners we can’t take their dogs in our car and we always just walk from the house. One home owner had us use their car to drive the dogs to a place they normally walk.
I imagine it’s possible to pay extra to have pets in a rental car but I have not pursued it.
Both of my recent car rentals in the UK have said ‘no pets’ in the hidden language of the rental agreement. I guess if I needed to go to the vet or something I might consider it, but generally not.
I understand - so many people may be allergic now that you don’t want to spread pet dander in a car that others will spend a lot of time in.
Yes, the thing of the allergy is real.
But we’re so many with pets out there and, as you said, you always can need to take them to the vet or move them. So maybe if they would provide a proper cover/blanket for these cases or an extra cleaning at the end…I would consider it.
