How much are you willing to pay when you travel with a pet? Evidence from a choice experiment

As pets are increasingly perceived as family members, the global pet market is growing rapidly. However, there are still insufficient facilities for travelling with pets. In this study, we focus on hotel accommodation, an important factor considered when travelling with pets. This research aims to investigate pet owners’ preferences and willingness to pay for various attributes of pet-friendly accommodations with 491 respondents by using a choice experiment. Also, we conducted latent class analysis to determine respondents’ preference heterogeneity on the levels of the various attributes. The results of the study indicate that pet owners prefer pet managers and pet lounges among hotel services and do not prefer amenities related to keeping pets in their rooms. We further discuss the implications and limitations of our results.