Traveling is the cat’s meow, unless you’re actually a cat.
Liebchen, a rescue tabby from the Netherlands who travels with an E.U. pet passport, learned this hard truth at the Max Brown Hotel in Amsterdam. A few days before Christmas, the property refused to honor his family’s reservation because he was a cat, not a canine.
“Hotels will say they’re pet-friendly, but they really mean dogs,” said Erin Geldermans, who adopted “Liebs” in Colorado. “So we’ll show up with our cat, and they’re like, ‘Oh, sorry, cats aren’t allowed.’”
Cast into the night without a room, Geldermans and Liebs landed on their feet, finding more inclusive accommodations at the Jan Luyken Amsterdam next door. The hotel didn’t even charge them a pet fee. However, the experience was a stark reminder that, for jet-setting cats, it’s a dog’s world.
Travelers who vacation with their feline companions say they have encountered an anti-cat bias around the world. They come across it in airports and on planes, at hotels and vacation rentals. The owners say they must often overcome hurdles to earn the same trust and acceptance granted to dogs.
“This is discrimination,” said Anna Karsten, a France-based travel blogger who has faced a double standard when traveling with her Ragdoll, Poofy. “It’s a higher risk, apparently, which, if you think about it, is outrageous. The cat is literally going to sleep, but the dog might destroy the entire room if it’s stressed.”
During check-in at a rental in the Dutch city of Leiden, Karsten had to provide references that Poofy was a model guest. Stung by a previous incident involving cat pee, the apartment’s owner said the family would have to keep Poofy in a “cage.”
After several minutes of negotiations, the two sides agreed to sequester the cat in the bathroom whenever the family was out. Karsten abided by the rule the first day but eventually left the door ajar. By the end of the week-long stay, the host had experienced a change of heart.
“She loved the cat,” Karsten said triumphantly.
Cons include cat pee, clawed-up furniture
Dogs, which were domesticated thousands of years before felines, have better optics.
Cats are often stereotyped as homebodies, territorial in familiar settings and timid in new ones. A productive day may involve 16 hours of sleep and shredding the sofa. A cat that feels wronged may express its indignation by intentionally missing the litter box.
Many cat owners dispute these tropes, describing their pets as outgoing, curious and sociable, but the generalizations still shape the travel industry’s policies.
To boost bookings at his New York City rental properties, Andrew McCauley mulled the idea of allowing cats. (But never dogs, because of the barking.) He queried a Facebook group of vacation rental hosts about loosening his pet restrictions and received nearly 175 replies.
The majority of respondents vehemently opposed feline guests, citing their claws, urine and dander, which could trigger allergic reactions in future travelers. According to the Cleveland Clinic, up to 3 out of 10 people in the United States are allergic to cats and dogs, with the likelihood of being sensitive to cats twice as high.
“If they pee in there one single time, you’re going to have a ridiculously hard time trying to get the smell out, and probably never will,” wrote Sara Van Valkenburgh, who owns six cats. “And one cat can murder your couch in one weekend.”
The replies spooked McCauley, who makes his living off the properties, and he quashed the idea.
“For a person to be separated from their cats for an extended period of time — that would be a painful thing,” McCauley said. “Maybe 9 out of 10 will be well-behaved, but if that 1 in 10 causes damage, that’s a problem.”
The boys had a wonderful time exploring 5 beautiful Central and Eastern European countries in just over 3 weeks
These cities were all incredibly pet friendly, especially Istanbul where you will often find cats jumping into your lap while you dine at restaurants. We will be sharing a lot more content from our Europe trip in the coming weeks
#cats #travel #catsoftiktok #europe #catlover
& Todd 
Cats that break stereotypes
A new generation of cat experts and owners is attempting to recast the descendant of the wildcat as an adventurous globe-trotter with tidy habits. With committed training and the proper gear, they say, cats with the right disposition (curious and itching to go outside) can start racking up the miles in their carrier and naps in international time zones. Frequent European travelers will carry an E.U. pet passport, which contains health information and streamlines border crossings.
When Louie and Todd were kittens, Lazar Joksimovic taught the British shorthair cats to use a leashed harness and to not scratch the furniture. They are now adult cats, though Joksimovic still packs a toddler’s worth of supplies for their trips, including a stroller, scratch pads and Tractive GPS tracker. He carries a collapsible travel litter box and pouch of litter that he can quickly assemble for brief bathroom breaks, such as in an airport family restroom or airplane lavatory.
The Chicago-based trio — plus Joksimovic’s wife, when she gets a break from medical school — have visited 13 national parks and 14 countries in Europe and North America. This year, they plan to backpack ski in the Austrian and Italian alps and traipse around Japan and South Korea.
Joksimovic, a biomedical researcher, has struggled to find cat-fancying accommodations in a handful of destinations, such as Arizona, Utah and Nevada. In Paris, he said, the host of the “pet-friendly” Airbnb canceled their reservation after he disclosed that Louie and Todd were cats.
“I guess they were worried about scratches,” Joksimovic said, “but I always mention that they’re very well-behaved and well-trained.”
For their upcoming trip to Japan, Joksimovic said, the Kimpton and Four Seasons, two of the hospitality industry’s most pet-pampering brands, were too rich for his budget. In Tokyo, he settled for a rental a distance from the main tourist attractions, requiring him to navigate the public transportation system and its pet regulations.
“A lot of buses in Japanese cities don’t allow pets,” Joksimovic said, “and on a lot of trains, you’re not allowed to open the carrier so that your cat or dog can poke its head out and you can give it treats or water.”
Mansum Yau, a veterinarian from Vancouver, has faced a similar anti-cat attitude on her first trip with Boo. The hotel in Calgary had touted its pet-friendly policy, but a sign at the front desk stated that cats were not allowed. An employee suggested that Yau put her cat in the car for the night, despite it being winter. Yau found alternate accommodations for Boo and checked out the next morning, bolting earlier than planned.
“That was a rude introduction to traveling with a cat,” Yau said.
Adventure cats trail behind dogs
The adventure cat movement has been picking up momentum over the past decade, but it still lags behind that of dogs.
“We’re beginning to see a change, but people are traveling more often with dogs,” said Laura Moss, who founded Adventure Cats in 2015. “You’ll go to a pet-friendly hotel that may take both cats and dogs, but they’re more prepared for dogs. They will have dog beds or treats, but they won’t necessarily have litter boxes.”
In its most recent pet trend report, the American Pet Products Association noted an increase in the use of outdoor training aids for cats, from 34 percent of cat owners in 2018 to 48 percent in 2024. During the same period, it also saw a rise in the number of people owning leashes (32 percent) and harnesses (22 percent) for their cats.
A lot of cats traveled in 2024, too, according to an earlier report — by car (90 percent of cat owners) and plane (80 percent). And the percentage of owners who took their cats on three or more trips reached 30 percent (car) and 22 percent (plane).
Aliza Bodzin, whose company, Bodzin Pet Travel Solutions, plans trips for pet owners, said the cat travel scene is five to 10 years behind that of dogs in North America. The gap is twice as big in Europe.
When traveling by air, cats have a few advantages over dogs. Because of their size, all but the chunkiest of cats can accompany their owners in the cabin. Depending on a cat’s comfort level and the airline’s rules, the four-legged passenger can use the airplane’s lavatory, in a portable and foldable litter box.
“I put the litter box on the floor, and Liebs did his business over the Atlantic Ocean,” Geldermans said of the successful potty break.
Pet relief areas in airports overwhelmingly favor dogs with artificial grass, poop bags, treats and a fake fire hydrant. But a few airports have started catering to cats’ needs. Ottawa International added a public litter box. Istanbul has several, plus a cat tree, scratching post and kibble dispensers.
Airlines require all non-service pets to stay inside their carriers during the flight. Though their cats are out of sight, tucked under the seat by their feet, owners say some passengers will still vocalize their concerns or complaints.
Samantha Bell, a cat expert at Best Friends Animal Society, was transporting two kittens from Los Angeles to Columbus, Ohio, when her tiny travelers started mewling. Irritated by their cries, the “grumpy” passenger next to Bell demanded a new seat. The flight attendant complied and even threw in a $100 credit for the inconvenience.
“She got rewarded for not liking cats,” Bell said.
The post Hotels have an anti-cat bias appeared first on Washington Post.
