a place to stay with my dogs

April 24, 2009 5:42 PM

I will be driving west on I 80 from PA to Colorado. I would like to stay with families,farms or dog friendly inns or B&Bs rather than the chains. My dog friendly travel guides list the common chains so Im hoping for some folks to invite us in. (we're very nice,well behaved and would pay for the privelge)
posted by Palmerpoodles to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

Just to be clear, you're asking for suggestions of places to stay - not for folks here to take you in, right?
posted by barnone at 6:04 PM on April 24

Couchsurfing.com
posted by ssg at 6:04 PM on April 24

Have a look at couchsurfing.com and see if you can't line up some places to stay along your route.

I can guarantee you that you will not have the slightest bit of luck just driving up to farm houses and begging to stay the night. That shit doesn't work anymore, if it ever did. The best you could hope for in that situation is that they'd let you pitch a tent on the front forty.
posted by Netzapper at 6:05 PM on April 24

Pet Friendly B&B/Inns. Another. Dog-friendly -- has listings for off-leash parks, camp grounds, etc. Here's a place you can join for more info too.
posted by barnone at 6:22 PM on April 24

I'll third couchsurfing. If you go this route, expect to find couches and floors to sleep on. In my experience, it is much less common to find someone with a spare room. I'd wager that it's also unlikely to find someone who will want another person's pet in their home. Not to scare you away, but if you're considering inns and b&bs instead of camping, couchsurfing might not be your thing. Then again, you could get extremely lucky and find a few people with a spare bed who don't mind your dog. :)
posted by bengarland at 6:37 PM on April 24

Not to be too much of a downer, but most farms would not welcome an unknown dog onto their property unless it was going to be leashed at all times. And, you never know what a dog is going to do around farm animals until it happens. Most town dogs don't deal with too many chickens.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 9:49 PM on April 24

In my experience, it is much less common to find someone with a spare room.
...
I'd wager that it's also unlikely to find someone who will want another person's pet in their home. Not to scare you away, but if you're considering inns and b&bs instead of camping, couchsurfing might not be your thing.

Actually, these are really good points.

The "accommodations" you'll find through couchsurfing are, almost universally, bohemian. Couches, floors, garages, etc. These are people who're willing to let you crash at their place because they enjoy novel company or because they want (or feel obligated) to help out cash-strapped travelers, not necessarily people who are looking for houseguests to whom they'll play gracious host and serve breakfast.

I actually heard about a guy recently who couchsurf(.com)ed on a roadtrip. One of the places he crashed gave him an old mattress in the (uninsulated) garage and wouldn't let him use their bathroom--not even to pee. This was a totally bizarre exception to a much higher rule of hospitality. But, he was fine with it, pissed on a tree in the back yard after they'd gone to sleep, and rolled up in his sleeping bag in the garage.

So, if you're more B&B than punk rock, you really should just get a list of B&Bs on your route, call them, and ask them about pets.
posted by Netzapper at 10:37 PM on April 24

I am going to recommend against couchsurfing. Perhaps this is a common misconception; couchsurfing is not about free places to stay, it's about cultural exchange between travellers and hosts. A passing motorist who (presumably) only stays for a night is not going to provide much opportunity for that. The fact that you expect to pay for the privilege of staying suggests to me that you value your own comfort more than the shared experience you might have by temporarily experiencing life from the point of view of your hosts. There's nothing wrong with that, but you may have trouble finding hosts on couchsurfing who operate like hotels.
posted by PercussivePaul at 1:59 AM on April 25 [2 favorites has favorites]

Kinda hoped somebody would invite us in.
Oh well.
posted by Palmerpoodles at 9:24 AM on April 25

To be really, really clear: it would not be okay to use Ask Metafilter to ask folks here to take you in. We decided to be charitable and assume you were asking for pointers on how to find places to stay, and folks have made an attempt to answer that in good faith, but if we'd known you were just fishing for invites we would have deleted the question immediately.
posted by cortex at 9:58 AM on April 25 [1 favorite has favorites]

Sorry
posted by Palmerpoodles at 10:04 AM on April 25