Dougal's Dog Blog. Entry 5: What does a dog do when there's no caravan?
This story happened on: 11/04/2012
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Hello my doggy friends,
It's been while since I last posted. My introduction to touring in a tin can was wonderful, but then the human that I own mumbled something about 'servicing' and being without the tin can for a few weeks.
His particular brand of tin can had to go Gloucestershire to be serviced... and what's a dog to do when tincanless?
Slum it in hotels.
Yes, I've had to suffer the indignity of hotels.
While surfing the net, I was astounded to see the likes of Travelodge charge £20 for a dog. £20! For what, exactly. But then I saw that Premier Inn don't allow dogs at all. How very, very dare they.
Luckily for me, I stumbled across the Accor group of hotels, encompassing brands such as Ibis, Etap, Mercure, and Novotel.
I ended up booking the Human a room at the Ibis in Gloucester, and when he phoned to check, the nice man on the phone said that there would be no charge for me. That's more like it!
So while it might seem odd to read about a hotel in a Caravan Club blog, I did want to highlight general doggy issues to other canine members. After all, tin cans need servicing (apparently), and I guess that there are times when you just need one night away like on a long car journey visiting relatives, and it's not worth dusting off the caravan.
Our stay at the Ibis in Gloucester was a comfortable one. But, of course, the human found cause to complain. Not about the hotel or the staff... we loved the staff! The ladies on reception made a total fuss of me.
No, the human had a good old whinge about having to take all his stuff, and my stuff, and all the valuable stuff out of the car and put it in the room for safekeeping. Clothes on hangers, camera bags, electronics that weren't to get too cold, boxes of stuff... as we made the tenth trip between the car and the hotel, the Human cried:
'Ugh! Caravanning is so much simpler than all this!'
It's a shame that so many other Humans owned by dogs don't realise that. But their loss is our pitch availability, eh?
brue
Motorhomer