Review / Should staycations include pets? We review the W Hong Kong’s new animal-friendly and totally Instagrammable hotel package, Pets Are Welcome
Next time you take a staycation, bring your dog or cat along to W Hotel’s fur-friendly Pets Are Welcome programme, which offers complimentary pet toys, gourmet pet food, and a guide to nearby pet-friendly experiences – but what about the hotel gym, spa, and restaurants?
And so Brooke trots through the W’s doors like she owns the place, and the staff take us through the hotel’s urban, quirky interior as my country mutt wonders why anyone would put a TV on the floor of a lift.
At the moment, the 28th floor is the only level with furry residents, with the aim of protecting allergic or animal-averse guests. Up we go to the Fantastic Suite, where we see a Pet In Room hanger on the door, a yellow teepee set up in the living room with Brooke’s name on it, a brand new banana chew toy for keeps, a WOOF! feeding mat laid out with food and water bowls, and even a litter tray for dogs who are clearly more gifted in the bathroom department than my bemused hound.
It’s a stroke of genius on the hotel’s part. The bright colours and tongue-in-cheek humour are completely in line with the W’s DNA, while the entire set-up is just so ridiculously Instagrammable that guests are literally paying to do the hotel’s marketing for them.
I am clearly no different, as I ignore the poor lady who’s trying to check me in to my room and start snapping pics of everything. Brooke, having done a circuit of the 700-square-foot (65-square-metre) suite that flows from the living room to the bedroom, the bathroom and back out to the entrance hall again, is already fixated on her new stuffed banana. Her own stuffed toy, which I packed in case she got homesick, lies forgotten.
A quarter of an hour later, there’s a knock on the door – it’s a delivery of sweet treats for the humans and dog ice cream for Brooke, all arranged artfully on a clapper board customised with our pictures.