Extended-Stay Hotel Lets Guests Foster Dogs During Their Stay

Traveling solo has its perks. You can starfish in a giant hotel bed, you can see all the things you want to see, eat at new restaurants that you want to try, plan trips according to your schedule – it’s great! But being a solo traveler can also get a little lonely at night, especially if you’re in a new city and don’t really know anyone there. But what if you could foster a dog while you’re traveling?

Now, there is one hotel down in Mississippi that is letting their guests “foster” dogs throughout their stay.

The Home 2 Suites in Biloxi, Mississippi has teamed up with the Humane Society of South Mississippi for its “Fostering Hope” program. The hotel – who typically allows extended-stays for travelers – has dog kennels in the lobby for a selection of four-legged friends for guests.

The program just isn’t about guests being able to enjoy dogs while they stay at the hotel. There is a much bigger aim, which is to find these dogs forever homes. If the guest should decide they’d like to adopt a dog, they can fill out an application and pay a $50 fee to the hotel concierge. And if the guests adopt the dog while they are still staying at the hotel, the dog is welcomed to stay in their new owner’s hotel room.

But just because the hotel lets you adopt on the spot, doesn’t mean they will – the hotel does hold the right to refuse an adoption if they see fit.

Bianca Janik, the relations manager for the shelter, said to USA Today, “(We) may tell them we don’t feel comfortable, come visit our shelter tomorrow and we’ll find one that is right.”

Now as for how they decide which dogs will be best for housing at the Home 2 Suites, the shelter tends to select dogs who are calm, less reactive, and more suited for life in a busy hotel.

And the program has been successful, since the hotel has a picture on their Facebook of Chauvo, the very first “adoption baby” who was adopted out to his forever home back in October 2018.

Like all of the adopted dogs that have followed since, Chauvo went to his new home with up-to-date vaccinations, microchip, updated medical evaluations and procedures – including spay/neutering, and preventative heartworm medication.

Since setting up “Fostering Hope” back in October 2018, Homes 2 Suites has paired 33 guests with adopted dogs.

“[The hotel has] a lot of transient guests who stay for months at a time near our army and navy bases and that’s just enough time to fall in love with a dog. It was a very out-of-the-box way to find our animals new homes so we were on board,” Janik said.

Another adopted dog, Spot, also known as Fergus, went back in November to visit the hotel.

As the hotel wrote on their Facebook page, “This sweet little Dachshund mix was adopted back in January by Laura and Greg from Tennessee. Fergus is happy, healthy and very loved. Thanks for bringing back a sweet memory for our team.”

Who else whats this type of program rolled out across the country?