If you stay, you have to pay.

[Carina16]

Background: I'm co manager of a 100 room hotel. My girlfriend and I work and live here along with my two children. The only people higher than me on the food chain is the owner and the other co manager, only because she has been here for 13 years.

This just happened. We are a pet friendly hotel. There is a $25 fee for a pet. As such, we have a room that has two dogs with them. At 9:30 pm, I received a complaint that the dogs were barking. So I call the room and there is no one there at the moment. I go to check how loud the dogs are. I can just barely hear them standing right at the door to the room. The people complaining are on the other side of a 12 inches concrete wall. The rooms on either side of the dogs have no problem with the dogs. At this time, the complainer calls back again. I explain to him that yes, I know the dogs are barking. I"m very sorry for this but there is not a lot I can do at the moment.

He demands I call the police. I explain to him that the room in question has been paid for as have the dogs and they have just as much right to be here as him. No only this, the noise laws in town don't start until 11:00 pm. Until this time, there is nothing the police can do either. He proceeds to tell me that if he can't get to sleep, he WILL NOT be paying for the room tonight. I inform him that we do not comp rooms. Ever. If he would like to leave now, I would be happy to refund him. If he stays in the room, however, he will be charged for the room.

This, of course, starts the rant about how he has stayed at our hotel for eight years and he will be damned if he comes back. I checked his history, he's stayed here once before for two nights. My continued refusal to call the police until 11 pm dissolves into him threatening to call the police himself, asking me how I would like that. The conversation dissolves a bit more when he threatens to call the police on me personally. At this point I simply tell him to do whatever he feels the need to do and hang up on him.

Dogs bark, and I'm terribly sorry about this fact of life. But the people that own them have to right to go on vacation as well. I was in the process of calling the dogs owner on her cell but, when he threatened to call the police on me personally, I lost all sympathy for the jerk off.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I know I would be pissed if I was staying at a hotel or motel and the barking dogs next door kept me awake. But then I always travel with earpluges. Mrs. IA snores.

Actually, on a recent trip the room below us had barking dogs. A couple of cute daschhunds that would would bark every time a helicopter or ambulance came to the hospital next door. They provided amusement and were not a bother.

[Carina16]

Well, it wasn't so much that the barking bothered them that made them so sucky in my eyes. Lord knows, it would have annoyed me. But it was the fact that 1) He threatened to call the police on me personally when I informed him that I couldn't call the police until the noise laws kicked in and 2) the fact I could barely hear them through a 4 inch wooden door but the dogs were so loud through a 12 inch concrete wall that they couldn't sleep.

[bhskittykatt]

Some people who get annoyed by "loud noises" sometimes use a very different definition of "loud".

Reminds me of once when I was MOD at my motel, I heard a strange sound outside. I looked out, and it was some kid skateboarding around our parking lot. It wasn't loud, just sounded weird.

Ten minutes later (at this point, the kid had already gone), I get a call from CW:

CW: "Yeah, [room next to me] said someone is skateboarding back there?"
Me: "Yeah, I know. So?"
CW: "She said we need to do something about it."
Me: "Okay...what exactly am I supposed to do about it?"
CW: "She said he was noisy."
Me: "I don't see how that's possible. I did hear the kid when he first passed by, but he definitely wasn't noisy. No more than anyone else walking by. I haven't heard him for the past five minutes, and my room is closer to the parking lot than hers."
CW: "Oh, ok then."

I've also had someone complain that a Harley was parked in our lot. It wasn't running. It wasn't even in front of their room. And the guest who owned the Harley was tired and was going to be sleeping all night. But Heaven forbid we have a Harley anywhere in our lot, because they're noisy and they'll wake the SC up...someday...at some point...they just know it!!

[bainsidhe]

The SC didn't need to get an attitude with you, I'm just curious how you would've handled the situation if it was a polite guest complaining? Would you have offered to move them to another room?

I only ask because I'm a person that would be bothered by even quietly barking dogs. I normally sleep with a fan running to drown out the bumps, creaks, meows in my apartment. I have a hard time falling asleep when hearing odd little sounds. If I paid to stay in a hotel, I'd expect a quiet night's rest and would deeply resent hearing someone's barking dogs and then being told the hotel can't/won't do anything about it.

And why would someone threaten to call the police right off the bat? And did they honestly think threatening to call the cops on YOU would work? Geez, most customers just threaten to call corporate.

[Sapphire Silk]

Well, it wasn't so much that the barking bothered them that made them so sucky in my eyes. Lord knows, it would have annoyed me. But it was the fact that 1) He threatened to call the police on me personally when I informed him that I couldn't call the police until the noise laws kicked in and 2) the fact I could barely hear them through a 4 inch wooden door but the dogs were so loud through a 12 inch concrete wall that they couldn't sleep.

The threat is the part that made him sucky. There was no call for him to do that.

I can't stand the sound of barking dogs, and concrete can conduct certain frequencies quite well (as I have had to suffer through, alas).

IMHO, the owners were sucky too for leaving the dogs alone in a strange place. They were barking because they were either frightened to be left alone in a strange place AND/OR bored in such a confined space . . . and possibly needing to go out.

Many dogs do not travel as well as their owners would like to believe. Most dogs, even well behaved ones, should be left at home when the owners go out of town unless the owner is highly skilled at training their dogs . . . and most people are NOT.

[MoonCat]

I can't sleep with dogs barking either, but I wouldn't make a stink about it until after 11 PM. I certainly wouldn't threaten to call the police, or lie about how many times I stayed there.

If you stay at a pet-friendly hotel, you have to expect that sometimes there will be barking dogs. Although I also agree that it's not the greatest idea to leave the dogs alone in the room. I thought most pet-friendly hotels had a rule that you couldn't leave your pets there alone.

[bhskittykatt]

If you stay at a pet-friendly hotel, you have to expect that sometimes there will be barking dogs. Although I also agree that it's not the greatest idea to leave the dogs alone in the room. I thought most pet-friendly hotels had a rule that you couldn't leave your pets there alone.

The rule at most places is that you can't leave them unattended. But people still do it anyways. As long as it's not a problem, well then how am I going to know if your dog is in the room or not if it's not barking?

I leave my mutt in my room when we go to the gym, but I know he doesn't bark. Our "normal room" is next to Boss Man's apartment, and I'm sure I'd hear about it if it was a problem.

I've sometimes had guests promise their dogs would be quiet, and left their cell phone numbers to call them just in case. I've never had a problem with their dogs. In my experience, when they are trying to be responsible like that, they likely have well-trained pets that reflect that. It's the ones that don't even bother to register their pet that you have to worry about.

[AccountingDrone]

I only ask because I'm a person that would be bothered by even quietly barking dogs. I normally sleep with a fan running to drown out the bumps, creaks, meows in my apartment. I have a hard time falling asleep when hearing odd little sounds. If I paid to stay in a hotel, I'd expect a quiet night's rest and would deeply resent hearing someone's barking dogs and then being told the hotel can't/won't do anything about it.

When I stay at a hotel I assume that there will be random noise that is made by building mechanicals [elevator, ice machine] or other guests [voices, tv sounds, banging around doing whatever, flushing toilets] and just deal with it. I have earplugs in the luggage, but have only resorted to them once, when I ended up with a travel migraine from altitude [I live within 300 feet/100 meters of sea level. Denver about killed me.]

I do alert to small sounds, living on a farm does that. I will sleep through normal sounds like the roosters cooking off at 430 Am under the bedroom window, but something unusual - dogs after the sheep or foxes/coons after poultry will get me up immediately. I also used to live under the flightline for a major east coast navy 'airport' and got this every morning at 5 am ...

[Ironclad Alibi]

[I live within 300 feet/100 meters of sea level. Denver about killed me.]

Me too. We went to Denver last May. I kept getting nosebleeds because of the altitude. The people we went to visit said it took six months for him to get acclimated and not get the nosebleeds.

[Lumina]

Any Hotel I've worked at (sofar) have been just awesome about pets from a employee standpoint (at least mine)
Course the same rule applies to smaller kids and generally to team groups.

If you are renting a room with a pet/kid/group(of younger people under 18). You are required to give us a WORKING cellphone # (We checked) OR One Adult or +18 person must stay ON property and be availble by phone. After 11pm; you are required to be on property with your dog/spawn/group.

This was awesome mostly by safety issues.
We are not babysitters.
Your dog is barking endlessly you should be able to quiet them (Our Pet agreement was basically anything longer than 15 minutes continuous), if the kids in your peewee team are running up and down the hall; Chaperones are picked for just that purpose.

I've never been a fan of people who leave thier kids places so they can go off and have a drink or something. Even tonight at my hotel. I gave a gentleman a handshake and a coupon for breakfast because it came to light he HIRED a local babysitter to watch his kids while he was in town for a convention, AND gave us his cell number if there was any issues the babysitter couldn't handle. I was SOOOOOOO impressed!

[Sapphire Silk]

I do alert to small sounds, living on a farm does that. I will sleep through normal sounds like the roosters cooking off at 430 Am under the bedroom window, but something unusual - dogs after the sheep or foxes/coons after poultry will get me up immediately. I also used to live under the flightline for a major east coast navy 'airport' and got this every morning at 5 am ...

I grew up under the major flight path for Andrews AFB. I pretty much ignore planes. That sound comes and goes fairly quickly.

A dog who barks once or twice then shuts up won't get my attention either. But incessant barking grinds my nerves terribly. I can't stand it.

Any Hotel I've worked at (sofar) have been just awesome about pets from a employee standpoint (at least mine)
Course the same rule applies to smaller kids and generally to team groups.

If you are renting a room with a pet/kid/group(of younger people under 18). You are required to give us a WORKING cellphone # (We checked) OR One Adult or +18 person must stay ON property and be availble by phone. After 11pm; you are required to be on property with your dog/spawn/group.

Those are great rules and very sensible. What did the hotel do if a dog owner refused to return and deal with his noisy pet?

Your dog is barking endlessly you should be able to quiet them (Our Pet agreement was basically anything longer than 15 minutes continuous), if the kids in your peewee team are running up and down the hall; Chaperones are picked for just that purpose.

Animal ordinances typically have similar rules. Unfortunately, a lot of animal control officers or local judges will refuse to enforce them if the dog quiets for even a few minutes in what would otherwise be a string of endless barking. In other words, in many jurisdictions, if the dog barks for 14 minutes, shuts up for two, then barks for 14 more minutes he's not considered in violation of a 15 minute rule.

But to the poor schmuck who has to listen to it, it is a real trial. This is the issue I had with two of my neighbors for the first couple of years I lived in my house. Animal control wouldn't enforce the noise ordinance because the dogs hadn't "barked long enough."

I was only able to get them involved when one neighbor didn't provide adequate shelter: shelter was in the kennel which was closed and locked when they didn't have guests visiting, dog was always locked in the kennel when they had guests he was so vicious. So the dog had to huddle next to the house when it rained in a vain attempt to keep dry. In the other case, they weren't providing adequate food (I could count ribs and see the hip bones). Both dogs are gone now, thankfully.

But it was too years of auditory hell.

I've never been a fan of people who leave their kids places so they can go off and have a drink or something. Even tonight at my hotel. I gave a gentleman a handshake and a coupon for breakfast because it came to light he HIRED a local babysitter to watch his kids while he was in town for a convention, AND gave us his cell number if there was any issues the babysitter couldn't handle. I was SOOOOOOO impressed!

I'm impressed, too. This is a responsible parent, something in short supply on vacations.

I went to Gen Con one year and stayed in the BEQ on an Army base for part of the trip (we drove); the BEQ was like a hotel for military enlisted families. One family also staying there had two large dogs that barked all night, and several kids in several rooms who went running back and forth all night long slamming doors. Evil Empryss was disgusted when nothing was done in response to her complaints; she told me that would never fly in the Air Force.

[PepperElf]

Oddly enough for me... silence is hardest for me to fall asleep too. Other people milling about in hallways or making general noises - not crazy ass parties but just regular sounds - helps me sleep. (except my bf snoring... can't sleep to that at all!).

So when it's too quiet I have to turn on the fan for the white noise aspect. Or listen to music on my headphones. Or some of the appendixes from LOTR unabridged. (those work well )

I suspect it's from being on Navy ships... noises meant everything was running well. Dead silence meant something was wrong. Dead silence and the sound of water sloshing around the ship meant "o shit, we're dead in the water," which usually woke all of us up.

[Becks]

I'm amazed at the amount of people who can hear things through 12 inch thick concrete walls.

[AccountingDrone]

I suspect it's from being on Navy ships... noises meant everything was running well. Dead silence meant something was wrong. Dead silence and the sound of water sloshing around the ship meant "o shit, we're dead in the water," which usually woke all of us up.

Rob spent 20 years flipping between shore and subs.

He sleeps like he is tied to a rotisserie - sort of spins in place. He can also sleep through anything except the ringtone on my phone I know for at least 3 years worth of deployments [time at sea not total time] he took a hammock and slept in the machine spaces because he normally crammed his rack with repair parts. He just has trouble sleeping when it is very quiet. His best way to fall asleepis to have the clothing washer and dryer running