Un-dog friendly hotels

Hello people. I'm sorry if this has been posted before, I couldn't find it. And apologies if this sounds like a rant. :(


I'm still fuming about Hotel La Sauldraie in Salbris in le centre de la France, a Logis de France hotel. We changed our route to travel north on the A20 last Friday, to avoid possible snow problems in the Clermont Ferrand and Lyon areas. I rang on Friday morning to book and Madame told me there would be a room for OH and myself and our dog Teddy, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel.


The welcome, or lack of, apart, we were showed to a room in a separate block that is kept for people with mobility problems and people with pets. Madame told us that Teddy couldn't go on the bed [he's indulged, I know] but also that if he barked at all, he was to go in the car. After 7 hours in the car, he did bark a bit as we were moving our stuff and Monsieur, the chef came out to say he heard Teddy barking in the room. Again, he said 's'il aboit, il va dans la voiture'. The temperature was hovering around 0 degrees at the time.


After a brief discussion, we decided that we couldn't risk eating in the restaurant with Teddy in case he made a noise, or leaving him in the room in case he barked. We went to another Logis de France which is just down the road, explained the problem and they said there was absolutely no problem. We went back to La Sauldraie and said it was best if we left, very sorry and for the first time in either of our lives, left a hotel within an hour of checking in.


We still can't believe that they wanted our dog to sleep in the car in freezing temperatures and the few dog owners we've talked to about it wouldn't do that either. I would like to warn other dog owners and wonder if there are any sites where I can post to let people know, if you guys can let me know please.


I've already let Logis de France know via their website because the only other time I've had cause to complain about a hotel, they took it very seriously. I'm told that if 5 serious complaints from different people are received in a year, the heavy squad descend on the hotel. It seems to us that La Sauldraie would be better saying they don't accept pets rather than letting people book and taking this attitude when they arrive at the hotel.


Rant over, thank you if you got to the end.








Thank you Elaine, I will. If I'd had time to see the comment by the lady who's children were shouted at because of their cocker spaniel, I could well have thought twice.

Jennie: As a regular Trip Advisor user I would always pay far more attention to a customer comment than an owner’s reply. I would definitely write something on there.

I agree Bruce. if I'd had a long drive and Little Teddy was yapping then I would probably have felt like giving him a well aimed kick up the fundament. Looking at the reviews and the responses of the patronne on Trip Advisor I would hardly have described her as unduly combative. Seem like a couple working hard to drag an hotel up the ratings and succeeding. I have no desire find myself in a room previously occupied by any dog.

I'm guessing you don't have a dog? :) I take your point about wolves, but that was a long time ago. Most domestic dogs that I know don't sleep outside and I don't think overnight in freezing temperatures is the time to start, sadly.

No other hotel that accepts dogs has said anything like us, and we use some of them regularly on our way to and from Narbonne. Teddy doesn't bark at night, but sometimes he barks a bit when he's arrived in a new place. It's not ideal, but dogs bark sometimes. Part of my point was that if dogs are such an inconvenience for this couple, they would be better off not accepting them in the first place, or at least explaining the rules when you book. Looking at reviews, we're not the first to have the problem.

Dogs descended from wolves. Do wolves sleep in hotels when it's cold?

Teddy got told off for barking? Oh dear! Folk had only paid good money for a quiet night.

Is it too much to expect that the bed that you sleep in hasn't recently had a dog kipping in it?

Too much anthropomorphism is what I say. It's a dog, after all!

Wouldn't be cold in the car if he had his designer clothes on!

Thank you for reading and replying, Carol. Do you mean the hotel's website? I've seen this lady in action on Trip Advisor and she's quite combative with critical reviews. I worry that she might twist what I say. A couple of other people have mentioned frosty welcomes and someone else's dog got chastised, but she tends to wade in and go on the offensive.

I've used pet friendly websites for the UK where users share their experiences and just wondered if there were similar ones for Europe. I'd really like to help other people not to go through what we did. I just haven't found the right site [apart from SFN] online yet.