New York Times: No Pet Left Behind
Five star hotels and vacation resorts welcoming dogs…
No Pet Left Behind
By WENDY KNIGHT
ONE brisk afternoon this past winter, the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch in Beaver Creek, Colo., could have been mistaken for the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
There sat Biscuit, a white-haired West Highland terrier from Denver, waiting diligently at the foot of her owner, a stylishly trim woman drinking a glass of wine in the lounge with a friend. And Bambi, a skittish border collie from Texas, wore a red Willie Nelson-style bandanna around her neck. Then there was the tan and petite cocker spaniel, prancing up and down the sunny courtyard alongside her equally tan and petite owner.
In a culture in which dogs and cats have become surrogate children (and grandchildren) and are sometimes better dressed than their owners, a growing number of hotels and resorts have welcomed four-legged guests in recent years, including the Four Seasons, the Ritz-Carlton, the Loews and the Kimpton hotels. But now, several luxury condominiums and private residence clubs are taking pet-friendly policies further by offering services and amenities that rival those meant for humans, including grooming sessions, swim classes, massage treatments (no mere belly-scratch) and even a doggie psychic.
