Jet-Set Pets

Travel these days is not about creating memories for just humans, but also for their animal friends. Mei Anne Foo sniffs out the bells and whistles for pedigree pets on vacation with their wealthy owners

- Mei Anne Foo

Gunny, a loyal guest of The Peninsula Beverly Hills, often stays in one of the hotel’s luxury suites. He is greeted with a specially monogrammed towel beside his bed, and always enjoys his room service meal of a grilled New York sirloin and scrambled eggs with aged Tillamook cheddar on bone china crockery. The hotel’s Rolls-Royce shuttles him to the salon when he’s in need of some styling.

All is commonplace for a five-star hotel, except that Gunny is a golden retriever. “Like their owners, pets should have a chance to get away from their normal routine,” says James Little, the hotel’s chief concierge.

Gunny’s owner is just one of many who lavish luxuries on their beloved pets. According to the American Pet Products Association, in the us alone, households spent in excess of a whopping us$72 billion on pets last year, with almost 5 percent going into grooming and boarding. And Asia, the fastest-growing economic region, is quick to catch that trend. China’s pet economy was estimated to be worth 170.8 billion yuan (some S$233.5 billion) last year, rising steadily by 27 percent each year, according to a 2018 paper jointly published by Lingdang Pet and Pet Asia Fair. Having a high-maintenance pet has become as much of a status symbol as owning a luxury car.