Restaurants go to the dogs
DURBAN restaurateurs have been quick to catch on to the growing trend for pet-friendly establishments, but the city’s hotels aren’t yet on trend.
A recent global study found 57% of people internationally have at least one pet and are increasingly willing to pamper them with tailored diets, advanced vet care and speciality services. They often want petfriendly accommodation and facilities.
According to Hotels.com, a booking platform that offers the choice of hundreds of thousands of hotels in more than 60 countries, one-third of the hotels listed on their site welcome guests with pets.
Recently Cape Town’s first five-star canine hotel, @Frits Dog Hotel & Daycare Centre opened, complete with a concierge service, spa, daycare, premium rooms and even day tours for furry friends.
Durban restaurateurs Samantha Small-Shaw of Surf Riders on the beachfront at Addington and Judd Campbell of the Prep Room at Glenwood’s Bulwer Park allow hounds to hang out with owners.
“I love dogs,” said SmallShaw who has drawn up a “woof menu”. On it are a Poochini snack biscuit and a Bag of Bones.
“Dogs have become part of people’s families. I wanted to instil that.”
A regular visitor is a miniature dachshund called Leyla whose owners Denver and Vashti Govender sometimes dress up when they pop in to Surf Riders for a “chow” or for special occasions such as birthdays, both human and canine.
Then there’s Bella, the three-legged Yorkshire terrier that fancies the ice-cream dish from the human menu.
Campbell, on the other hand, tolerates them, puts out water for them and offers chopped-up bacon to canine regulars who usually pop in after their walk in Bulwer Park while their owners take cappuccinos.
His reason for not having hounds close to his heart is that 10 years ago a boerboel attacked him.
“It jumped on my throat and knocked my glasses off and dragged me around the room,” he recalled, showing scars on his arms and shoulders.
“It took me 10 years to allow dogs into any of my restaurants. Now it’s fine but I’m still a bit twitchy.”
Sonja Mellet, who with her ridgebacks, Soren and Nim, is a regular at the Prep Room, said it made an enormous difference when restaurants had the “spontaneity” to allow dogs. She also visits Surf Riders and Pop Up Society in Florida Road for the same reason, she said.
“I’m more loyal to a place that is dog friendly, even if I am without my dogs.”
On the Berea, Dominique Owen walks her black Labrador, Jake, at Jameson Park with a community of dog walkers who “often know each others’ dogs’ names but not each others’ names”.
Across the road, Vida e Caffè allows dogs to drink water from bowls while the owners have coffee, said Owen. The same applies at the outside eating area of nearby Blue Zoo restaurant in Mitchell Park. Also on the Berea, Bread Ahead has a tap with a bowl to catch the water below a sign, “For Joggers and Their Dogs”.
Allowing dogs in outside eating areas at restaurants and providing them water is also a feature of much of the beachfront where patrons sometimes request hamburger patties for their dogs.
Online information shows that B&B and guest houses in Durban are more dog-friendly than hotels.
Certainly, beachfront hotels contacted by The Independent on Saturday said pets were not allowed.
“There would be issues with dogs in rooms, like a flea or two,” said Tsogo Sun’s KwaZulu-Natal operations director Mike Jackson.
Dale Simpson, curator of Radisson RED Hotel V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, says the hospitality industry either had to cater to this need or lose potential guests.
“There is a growing consensus among this market that bringing their pet along will actually enhance their holiday as it eradicates the overwhelming guilt that is commonly experienced by having to leave them behind in a kennel,” Simpson said.
The soon-to-launch Cape Town Radisson RED hotel opted for a liberal pet policy which allowed friendly dogs and cats that weigh under 8kg – no more than two per room – to join their owners on holiday if they’ve booked a pet-friendly room, and pets are kept on a leash or in a carrier outside the room.
Their pet programme includes a bandanna, bed, food and water dish.