Thanks to the pet humanization trend, it comes as no surprise a growing number of people are traveling with their pets.
The Washington Post's Hotels that offer over-the-top amenities — for your pets covers this trend. Key quote:
According to research conducted by the American Pet Products Association, dogs and road trips go together like, well, Kibbles ’n Bits. In 2006, 19 percent of dog owners took their pooches with them on a road trip. In 2014 (the most recent data available), that number nearly doubled to 37 percent.
This is leading to an arms race among hotels to offer specialized dog and pet services. Again from the article:
As pet travel becomes more common, the amenity bar gets higher. Seemingly fancy amenities of years past, like fluffy dog beds and branded dog bowls, are practically a given at higher-end, pet-friendly properties today — all the ones highlighted below offer those and more.
To stand out, hotels are offering over-the-top perks such as elaborate room-service menus, dog butlers, dog spa treatments, bacon-infused water, and so on.
Bacon-infused water?
For those wanting their dog to cross the Atlantic in style, the Queen Mary 2 provides a wide range of doggie services.
This includes a playground on their "poop deck" with an authentic New York City fire hydrant. And no, we are not making this up.
Pet trend fans will no doubt remember we covered the trend towards hotels offering specialized doggie services in 2013.
The key quote from that article is:
I long ago quit being surprised at the unusual pet related things people will spend money on. But come on now, $120 for a 30-minute doggie massage!?
On a more serious note, the Washington Post's Don’t mind the wet nose: TSA enlists more dogs to screen passengers covers the growing role working dogs are playing to help protect us.
We're fine with these dogs getting bacon-laced water and even massages.
And if you still think the per humanization trend is not all that strong, this week pet retailer PetSmart announced it was buying pet online retailer Chewy for $3.35 billion. This is the largest e-commerce acquisition in history. Chewy was founded just 6 years ago.
As always, see our Pet Trends section for more on pet humanization.
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