travel

Hotel Okura Kobe opens dog-friendly rooms

29 Comments

The Hotel Okura Kobe has begun a program inviting guests to stay, along with their dogs. The so-called “dog hotel” portion of the famous hotel chain offers pet-friendly rooms beginning from 25,000 yen per night.

Until now, pets were not welcome at the hotel, but recent customer demand has led to the new campaign, which is aimed at dogs. Guests taking advantage of the “dog hotel” stay plan will also have their dogs walked and trimmed by staff members.

Hotel spokeswoman Ayumi Tanaka said: “We want this to be a second home for dog owners who are going on trips.”

© Wire reports

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@cleo thanks for the info..guess i have to go and apologise to my wife then!i hate it when shes right..will never hear the end of it.

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Dogs should still be kept clean, mind - regular grooming, wipe their paws then they come in from outside (you can possibly train them to do this themselves), the requisite inoculations to make sure they're not breathing really pathogenic germs on the kids (or picking them up from the kids...), regular washing of dog beds and dog toys, and teach the kids that it's not a good idea to lick that ice cream cone after Fido's licked it.

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It probably is unhygienic, but a few germs never hurt anyone and the benefits vastly override the drawbacks. Your kids are more likely to grow up prone to a variety of health problems if they aren't exposed to domestic animals at an early age.

Recent studies have shown that children raised in a home with two or more cats and/or dogs in the first year of life are less likely to develop allergic diseases than are children raised without these pets. In fact, exposure to the allergens associated with pets very early in life seems to have a long time protective function.....studies are showing that exposure early in life not only protects from pet allergies but also grass, ragweed and dust mites. Pet exposure seems to cause the immune system to settle down and shift from allergic type responses...... People, even babies, are just not meant to live in sanitized surroundings. Our bodies have spent too many thousands of years evolving and protecting us from the ravages of germs. Giving our immune responses little or nothing to do by having a germ free environment is setting this powerful germ killing machine against its own host. (from children-allergy.com)

In other words, kids need puppies and the germs they bring. Listen to your wife (if you're arguing over this, I imagine she's the one advocating the puppy-in-the-house), she's right. Just make sure you choose a kiddy-friendly breed like a lab or goldie, not a nervous little chi or daschs; and buy from a reputable breeder, not some back-street puppy mill or pet shop.

As for the general mess caused by shedding dog hairs, scratched wooden floors and the occasional stain on the carpet, yes they look awful, but a room filled with happy kids and dogs is far preferable to a quiet, pristine room bereft of dogs.

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@cleo is it not unhygienic to have animals in the house all the time especially if kids have to share the same living space?its the keeping small dogs indoors that i dont understand..my wife and i have a few arguments over this one.

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giving a dog a healthy and balanced diet as well as loads of space to run around in and explore is a must

The healthy diet is a given of course (not that all dogs get one), but the running around and exploring thing surely depends on the dog? The smaller toy breeds may need less exercise than the larger breeds, but they'll scuttle around the house all day while a larger dog, once walkies is over, will happily settle down in his basket and chill out till the next walkies. Timid dogs regardless of size are not keen on exploring. Keeping a red setter confined in a tiny apartment would be animal cruelty. So would be plonking a Doberman outside alone in a field.

If a dog is a companion animal, then he needs to be with his owner in order to be able to do his job. He can't be a companion if his owner is indoors and he's outside in a kennel.

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@cleo thanks for responding..i see where youre coming from now.i guess for someone like me i need the dog to be both a pet and of practical use on the farm.also i believe that giving a dog a healthy and balanced diet as well as loads of space to run around in and explore is a must.so when i see dogs,especially in cities being kept in small apartments and dressed up etc.. it seems completely at odds with what i expect from an owner as well as a dog.but as you pointed out..different lifestyles,different dogs,different owners.their doggy hotel would be my dog kennel in the countryside.

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i really dont think that dogs like chihuahuas should be treated like human beings or better

Neither do I. But mollycoddling and pampering, I'm all in favour of. What's the point of having a dog if you can't pamper it? These are pets, not the working dogs you had on the farm. They do the job they were meant to do just like the setters and collies and sheepdogs do, it's just a different job, is all. Personally I don't think dressing dogs up and giving them manicures is pampering; pampering is doing what makes the dog happy. For one dog, that might be a scratch and a cuddle; for another, it might be a frisbee chucked in the air a million times. Or a soft cushion near the fire.

I don't have a dislike of smaller dogs. I'm not too keen on some of their owners.

Setters are beautiful dogs, but as you've discovered, they're not for everyone. I think the same can be said of virtually any breed; if it doesn't fit in with your lifestyle, then it's not the dog for you, no matter how wonderful other people might think it is.

As for staying in hotels - if you're travelling with your dog, you gotta stay somewhere.

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@cleo i think the reason why i dont particularly like some of these "little mutts" is that im tired of seeing these smaller dog types being mollycoddled and excessively pampered.as i said earlier i really dont think that dogs like chihuahuas should be treated like human beings or better...thats the crux of the matter here for me and thats the reason why i have such a dislike of smaller dogs.Especially in japan,you see the smaller breeds put into burberry clothes,trimmed and manicured,being carried around by their owners.maybe youve seen this too?i guess im annoyed at what their owners have turned their pet into..some lazy,spoiled poor excuse for a dog.

that may seem harsh but i come from a farming background and maybe my idea of what a dog should be is entirely different because of that.all our dogs on the farm have been a bit large,rough and ready,able to help out but at the same time a good companion,loyal and loveable.dogs and all other farm animals would never be allowed inside the house.thats just the way it has and always will be where im from. but to be honest,it was a big mistake getting a red setter for our elderly parents(not my idea,i have to add)..too big and hard to train. still love him to bits though!

i think the hotel idea is yet another illustration of how some breeds are over-spoiled by rich owners.

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Judderman - Yes, I do know abut red setters - they're hard-wired with an anti-training firewall, right? :-) But taking a specific example of a breed known to be boisterous and difficult to train, and using your experience with that to comment on 'dogs of any kind' is, to my mind, a non sequitur. If the 'pampered little mutts' are different to your setter, ie they behave themselves, what's the problem with having them in the room?

I wasn't being intentionally condescending in my comment about choice of breed; surely it's common sense to choose a breed that fits in with what you expect to get out of your dog. You don't see many red setters (or shibas, which is what I'm owned by at the moment) working as seeing eye dogs, or police dogs, and there's a reason for that. The pampered little mutts you object to so much are bred to be lap-dogs, and as such they do a grand job. It's hardly the dogs' fault if most of the people who choose to own them don't know how to treat a dog like a dog.

My shiba is a bit of a gangster (I'm assured it goes with the genes) and sheds like nobody's business, so I'd think hard three or four times before taking him to a hotel, and I'd check before going that the trail of fur he leaves everywhere wouldn't be a problem. Probably dress him in a tshirt to minimise the mess as much as possible. Whenever I travelled with my dear departed and much-missed Dobie, who was neither little nor a mutt but was decidedly, unashamedly and joyfully pampered, she was always a perfect lady. I could take her anywhere.

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@cleo not sure if you know what red setters are like but even with training they can be a bit of a handful..highly energetic,strong etc.. i wasnt bragging about an untrained dog..just dont believe dogs of any kind belong in a hotel room.i mentioned my parents dog because he couldnt be any more different from the pampered little mutts this hotel expects to take in. i suppose your condescending comment about not getting a setter in the first place means your own dog is ready for Crufts?

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id like to see what my parents big Irish red setter would do that hotel room..the fee of 25,000 yen would come no-where near covering the damage

Why would anyone make a point of bragging that they have an untrained dog that isn't fit to be allowed in a room? Then again, I suppose if you expect to train your dog to any reasonable degree, you don't get an Irish setter in the first place....

some spoiled overgrown rat...

Yup, that sounds like the kind of sentiment you'd expect from a self-professed dog 'liker'.

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im sick of people treating their dogs like people..putting clothes on them,haircuts,carrying them around like a child,leaving them inside the house all the time and now this..a bloody dog hotel room.dogs belong outside like all other animals. id like to see what my parents big Irish red setter would do that hotel room..the fee of 25,000 yen would come no-where near covering the damage...come to think of it,maybe i should do that and get these idiots to rethink this idea!

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limbo: So that's it? "Now I like dogs..." Hmmm

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paulinusa at 12:09 AM JST - 5th October: "Curiuos how people loving their dogs gets others hot and bothered."

It has little or nothing to do with getting hot and bothered or about people loving their pets it has more to do about people treating animals in many cases better than they treat other humans and having lost respect for others.

An example of what I mean:

On the weekend I was in this cafe where I go when I can get time off from my children, I go there because many friends hangout there, it is a dog friendly semi-outdoors place and I enjoy the staff and patrons.

Several regular patrons come with their dogs and the animals are well behaved but these are your reasonable owners and in most cases have larger type dog breeds.

But these days we ave been seeing more and more owners with these little yappy dogs Poodles, Pugs, shih tzu, etc..

and they seem to be clueless that there are others in the Cafe, their dogs bark, jump on people/tables and make things just unpleasant all around.

And if you have the audacity to ask or tell them to please control their mutts then they get into a tissy about their dog's "rights" and "feelings"!

Now I like dogs but when I have to watch out that some spoiled overgrown rat sitting on the chair at the next table owned by some stupid female doesn't jump on me, try to lick my plate or steal my food that is when I draw the line between pets and people!

And the only good thing left was that this sort of crap didn't happen in "good" restaurants and hotels.

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Curiuos how people loving their dogs gets others hot and bothered.

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"We want this to be a second home for dog owners who are going on trips"

Kennel Okura!

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This is ridicules, I am so fed up of hearing such stupidities regarding pet especially dogs.

Young people today pay more attention to their dogs then to their children! That is if they have any!

It seems that young Japanese would rather treat their dogs like Children (family) then actually have a real family.

I am a great lover of dogs I have had many dogs in my life and several at the same time, but I have always treated them like DOGS, I have treated them well but they are not people they are animals, with limits on what and where they can go and do.

If I traveled they stayed in a kennel unless I was going camping.

I have seen people complain about school expenses but not blink an eye when they spend ¥30,000 on dog grooming, how bloody hard is it to wash and brush a Dachshund?

How about the hotel starting to do like most of the rest of the world and charging per room and not per person so that it is more affordable for people with children to stay there and travel.

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elbudamex, ditto. To boot, dogs are given more consideration than people by most of the owners. Its like they can understand J-language better than foreigners. Ever get that one? Now they stay at the prestigious Hotel Okura?What next? Green cars? Dogs only trains?

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I never really hated dogs until I came to Japan! Dogs are DOGS, do not bring your smelly dogs to hotels, pubs, super markets, they SCARE SMALL CHILDREN and others. I would never give 1 single yen to this horrible hotel down in Kobe! NEVER!

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Could we get hotels to cater similarly for small children? ;)

Areas where they can chuck food, race around tables while using the chairbacks for cornering, etc.

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Will there be any checks that the dogs have had all the necessary vaccines and are free of worms etc, or is any flea-ridden mutt allowed in?

Are there similar checks on the human mutts that are allowed in?

The dog-friendly rooms probably get cleaned much more thoroughly between guests than the human-only rooms do.

At one dog-friendly hotel I stayed in up in the mountains once, it was almost a case of, 'Oh, you've brought your humans with you!' Paw-wipes were provided at the entrance, and the room had a double door to prevent canine dashes, a supply of peepee sheets, a tiled area that could be sloshed down if anyone made a 'mistake', towels, bowls and a crate. Dogs were allowed into the dining room but not the bath. We had a great time, and our excursion was more fun for knowing that our dogs were with us, safe and enjoying themselves instead of being locked up back home at the pet hotel.

Maybe if the hotels ran a discount service for dogs that had a certificate to show they had passed some kind of obedience training or Good Canine Citizen course, more people would be encouraged to train their dogs properly and the world would be a pleasanter place for everyone including naked apes and shaggy dogs.

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@stormqueen.

Let me guess you are not a Dog-Person.

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dogs will be walking thru the hotel peeing and poopin',dropping hair,jumping fleas,wet animal stink,danger to kids..yuk yuk yuk !!!

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Beginning from 25,000 yen per night?

Sounds just like an airline ticket before all the surcharges are added on. Is this the single cheapest, smallest room in the hotel, facing a brick wall or elevator shaft, and all the others are double the price? What is the average cost/ range of costs for such dog-friendly rooms? And would they consider cats?

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The dog in the picture is sat on the sofa, which is quite unhygienic for a start. Will there be any checks that the dogs have had all the necessary vaccines and are free of worms etc, or is any flea-ridden mutt allowed in?

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how about having some service that provides baby beds, instead of expecting parents to sleep in the same bed as the little one ?

This aspect of the culture has been going on for a long time. If you think that some change is needed, you need to make more and more Jpeople aware of how this is not done in other parts of the world.The message should be conveyed to the Jpeople so that they recognise the importance of it and start making changes.

As for the doggies, I think it is a good thing. But do you think that all guests have the same standard of hygiene and that you would use the facility without getting stressed out?

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how about having some service that provides baby beds, instead of expecting parents to sleep in the same bed as the little one ?

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Humour? No, business. More and more people are becoming dog-owners and are treating their dogs as members of the family instead of just tying them up outside in all weathers. More and more people are wanting to travel with their dogs, and hotels either cater to this new demand or see their profits fall as potential customers go elsewhere, where they are made to feel more welcome.

That comma after stay in the first sentence is a bit unfortunate, though. I should hope the Hotel Okura Kobe already had a programme inviting guests to stay and it's the dogs that are the addition, not the other way round.

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JT you should provide a humour section,because this is where article this belongs.

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