How The Roch Dog Friendly Standard Grades A Hotel
Every assessed hotel is graded from A+ to F across policies, amenities, access and guest experience. Underneath the grade sit six minimum requirements: a written dog policy available before booking, bowls in the room, at least one indoor shared space the dog may enter, a disclosed fee, a straight answer on deposits, and a stated number of dogs per room. A hotel that meets all six carries the designation Meets the Roch Dog Friendly Standard. A hotel that misses any one of them is capped at C, whatever else it offers.
Certification is free, no hotel can opt out, and no payment of any kind moves a grade. Hotels are reassessed, so a grade can rise and it can fall. The full standard is published at rochstandard.com, open for anyone to read.
How It Differs From Other Pet-Friendly Certifications
Most pet-friendly labels check one of two things: whether a hotel has certain facilities, or whether its staff completed a course. Some are self-assessed, some are sold as a membership, and most cannot be lost. The Roch Dog Friendly Standard grades the welcome a guest with a dog is actually given, mostly through anonymous guest enquiry, against criteria that are the same in all 56 countries we assess in. The grade is public, it is dated, and it can go down.
What Certification Advisory Covers
- A full gap analysis against every data point in the standard
- A remediation plan sequenced by revenue impact, not by convenience
- Implementation support drawn from The Canine Hospitality Playbook
- A certified re-assessment and a published grade
- Typical engagement: 6 to 12 weeks
Who Does The Work, And How It Is Measured
Our assessors run the gap analysis, we write the remediation plan with you, and your team implements it with our support. The result is measured by the re-assessment at the end, so what you get is a published grade rather than an assertion. A property that hires us can still be graded C; certification is free and nothing we sell moves a grade.
From C To A Without A Renovation
The fastest grade improvements we see cost almost nothing. The largest moves usually come from the fee, the weight limit and which spaces the dog can enter: decisions, not capital. Across the portfolios we have assessed there is often a high degree of variance between hotels, even under one brand and one corporate policy, which is the same finding from the other side: what separates an A from a C is a set of decisions a hotel can take in a quarter. Our paper Dog Friendly Performance Across Luxury Hotel Portfolios sets it out.
Questions
Asked And Answered
How do I get my hotel certified as pet-friendly?
Apply at rochcertification.com. Certification under the Roch Dog Friendly Standard is free. Your hotel is assessed and graded A+ to F, and if it meets all six minimum requirements it carries the designation Meets the Roch Dog Friendly Standard.
What are the six minimum requirements?
A written dog policy available before booking, bowls in the room, at least one indoor shared space the dog may enter, a disclosed fee, a straight answer on whether a deposit applies, and a stated number of dogs per room.
Can a hotel pay for a better grade?
No. Certification is free, nothing we sell moves a grade, and a hotel that hires us can still be graded C.
How long does it take to move from C to A?
Most certification advisory engagements run 6 to 12 weeks. The largest moves usually come from policy, fee and access decisions that need no capital at all.
Is the pet-friendly certification recognised internationally?
The Roch Dog Friendly Standard is applied the same way in every one of the 56 countries we assess in, and the grade is published on the hotel's own page at rochdog.com.
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Talk To Us About The Grade You Want
Tell us where your hotel sits today, or where you think it sits, and what you want it to be able to say. We will tell you what the move would take.
Talk To Us About Your Grade