Traveling with pets: designing hospitality services for pet owners/parents and hotel guests

Purpose: Pet-friendly hotels are growing rapidly. The prevalence of pet adoption has largely resulted from the loneliness due to social distancing that happened during the Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Many hotels around the world aim to become pet-friendly to satisfy the growing demand. Hoteliers believe that the popularity of pet-friendly hotels will continue, as pet owners often treat pets as their kids. This study aims to investigate how pet-friendly hotels need to design and manage pet-friendly services and policies. Design/methodology/approach: Using grounded theory methodology, this research conducts interviews with 25 pet-friendly hotel managers from Hong Kong (HK). The study includes hotels from different hotel categories and classifications. It examines the conceptualization of pet-friendly service design, drawing on a service blueprint. Findings: Building on the service marketing and service blueprint literature, this research provides a synthesis that reflects how pet-friendly hotels can serve both guests with and without pets. The findings reveal that pet-owner's service expectations are formed on anthropomorphism, that is, an inclination of attributing human features to nonhuman entity. Hotel managers, and particular those who have pets personally understand better how pet-friendly service can be adapted to meet the expectations and requirements of pet owners while accommodating guests without pets. The market of pet-friendly hospitality is growing, with high profit potential from pet owners who are willing to spend generously. Research limitations/implications: Data were collected from selected pet-friendly hotels in HK through interviews with pet-friendly service providers. The research is qualitative and exploratory in nature. It aims to explore and examine the multilevel pet-friendly hospitality service design from a managerial perspective. This research enriches the literature on anthropomorphism theory, the design of pet-friendly services and the application of service blueprint. Practical implications: The research offers explicit suggestions for the design of pet-friendly hospitality services. A pet-friendly hotel service blueprint is developed. This can help managers to develop essential pet-friendly policies and service collaborations between internal departments and with external specialist organizations, maximizing the value for all stakeholders. Originality/value: The study explores a rapidly emerging market and scrutinizes its specific design requirements. It extends theoretical insights by enriching the anthropomorphism theory and broadening the conceptualizations of service blueprint based on anthropomorphism theory. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

TerraVet: A Mobile and Web Application Framework for Pet Owners and Veterinary Clinic

The lives of pet animals are equally essential as how a human life. Pet owners and the veterinarian are responsible for providing good welfare for pets despite the problems. However, the rise of COVID-19 temporarily disturbs the veterinary services where some of them limit or stop their operations, resulting in the absence and difficulties for the pet owners to locate the available veterinarian, especially when there is an immediate need for treatment, vaccination, or consultation. Aside from that, setting an appointment and buying the pet's needs are seen to be a problem with regards to the situation since most of the pet owners are afraid to go outside because they might be infected with the virus. In line with this, TerraVet: A Mobile and Web Application Framework for Veterinary Clinics and Pet Owners is proposed to resolve the underlying dilemmas in administering and facilitating veterinary care. The main objective of this suggested project is to develop and design a platform where pet owners may locate their nearby veterinarian using the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. In addition, the application enables the pet owner to arrange an appointment, product reservation, and online consultation. The veterinary clinic may post details regarding their offered services, products, and medicines. TerraVet will also design an electronic pet card to monitor their health status. © 2022 ACM.

Molecular screening of SARS-CoV-2 in dogs and cats from households with infected owners diagnosed with COVID-19 during Delta and Omicron variant waves in Iran.

OBJECTIVE: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in dogs and cats in different countries worldwide raises concerns that pets are at a higher risk for spreading or transmitting of SARS-CoV-2 to humans and other pets and increased the research works about the zoonotic aspects and natural routes of infection in companion animals. The current study aimed to detect the SARS-CoV-2 in household dogs and cats living with COVID-19 positive owners. METHODS: Deep oropharyngeal and rectal swabs were collected from 30 household pets (20 cats and 10 dogs) living with COVID-19 positive owners from April 2021 to 2022 in Kerman, Iran. All dogs' and cats' samples were tested by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction for detection of SARS-CoV-2. RESULTS: Two household cats out of 20 examined (10%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2, whereas none of the examined dogs were positive for SARS-CoV-2. The two cats positive for SARS-CoV-2 were symptomatic and suffered from severe anorexia with maximum contact with their infected owners. CONCLUSION: This study reported the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in household cats in close contact with COVID-19 positive owners during the circulation of new SARS-CoV-2 variants (Delta and Omicron) in Iran and suggested that the transmission may have occurred from owners to their cats. Therefore, infected owners should eagerly limit close contact with their pets during COVID-19 illness.

An Examination of the Pet Food Buying Behavior Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

At the global level, an interest in pet food market is rising. The paper analyzes the buying behavior of pet owners during three periods: before the pandemic, during the pandemic in 2020, including lockdown, and after the relaxing of COVID-19 pandemic measures in 2021. This study investigates the changes that occurred during the pandemic regarding the purchasing behavior of pet food products and the differences between purchasers of pet food products based on socio-demographic and geographical factors. For this purpose, an online interview based on a questionnaire with a sample of 1.525 people was conducted on pet-related Facebook groups. Looking at the buying behavior of the pet owners, the research found out several changes caused by restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though there were a few relaxation measures after the period of the lockdown, many pet owners have not returned to their old behavior before the pandemic. It is therefore interested to note the new trends in the pet food market, a market that has been growing for a long time. The study provides insights for pet food producers, retailers, vets, but also for those interested in the evolution of the pet food market. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Health and economic consequences: How COVID-19 affected households with pet and their pets. A systematic review

Households with pets had a unique experience with the COVID-19 since the lock-down protocols did not affect only the relationship they had with people but also with their pets. This paper analysed the evidence on the effect of COVID-19 on pets and pets owners. Employing the systematic review guidelines, the PubMed and the Google scholar database were utilised to select empirical studies published in English that focused on: (1) the COVID-19 effects on pets and (2) the COVID-19 effects on pet owners. We identified 24 articles conducted across 7 countries that met the eligibility criteria of the review. Few other studies used participants from multiple countries. Most of the studies utilised the cross-sectional survey and collected data from pet owners. Also, about 44.0% of the studies were published in only one journal (animal). COVID-19 affected the health status of both pets and pet owners. Despite the several negative health implications, there was some evidence of positive health implications. Surprisingly, several pet owners were not affected by the negative economic consequences of the pandemic. Recommendations for future studies were made in line with where attention is needed.

Community Veterinary Medicine Programs: Pet Owners' Perceptions and Experiences.

Many American pet owners struggle financially, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this problem. Yet, the positive effects that companion animals have in people's lives create the need for supportive systems to ensure that financial limitations, and other barriers, do not preclude pet ownership. To help address these barriers, and reach underserved communities, various forms of community-based veterinary medicine programs have been developed across the country. This study assesses two community-based veterinary programs in North Carolina, USA. In addition to perceptions surrounding veterinary services, this study paid specific attention to communication and respect; two additional elements needed for successful community-based veterinary programs. Surveys were given to clients accessing Asheville Humane Society (AHS) mobile veterinary care clinic and Asheville Humane Society (AHS) Affordable Pet Care Clinic. Results of the anonymous survey indicate that the majority of clients had positive veterinary care experiences in terms of both veterinary services and client communication. In conclusion, low-cost or free community veterinary programs-with effective communication, empathy, and cultural competence-can help open the door to future positive veterinary experiences for disadvantaged pet owners.

The Concerns, Difficulties, and Stressors of Caring for Pets during COVID-19: Results from a Large Survey of U.S. Pet Owners.

Pets may be a positive presence for their owners during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, it is pertinent to identify the hardships associated with pet ownership. We conducted a large-scale survey of U.S. pet owners (n = 2254) in spring and summer 2020 to assess the ways that relationships with pets impacted life during COVID-19. We used thematic analysis to analyze 3671 open-ended responses to three prompts. Reported concerns fell into three major categories: (1) pet-focused (meeting needs of pets; procuring supplies; accessing veterinary care; new and emerging behavioral issues; fate of the pet if owner becomes ill; general safety and well-being), (2) human-focused (issues with working from home; well-being and mental health; balancing responsibilities), and (3) household-focused (disease spread; economic issues). Quantitative analyses showed that the owner's strength of attachment to their pet, economic resources, and relationship status were associated with the types of concerns expressed. Results from this study indicate that pet owners experienced unique hardships related to changes in everyday life from the COVID-19 pandemic. These hardships should be considered alongside the potential benefits found in other studies in order to manage pet owner expectations, prevent pet relinquishment, and more fully understand multifaceted human-companion animal relationships.