This is a paid partnership with Red Roof Inn. I only partner with companies I believe in, trust, and whose products or services I use for my own dogs.

Finding pet-friendly hotel accommodations on the road isn’t always easy. There are always restrictions and added fees. Traveling with our dogs shouldn’t cost us $200 extra dollars. That’s why my husband and I were so excited to learn that pets stay FREE at any Red Roof Inn. Another thing we need to consider when planning a road trip with our dogs is making sure there are a refrigerator and microwave in the room. We require a refrigerator and microwave when we road trip with raw fed dogs, and Mylah’s homecooked food, because we need to keep the food cold and store Mylah’s insulin. We also have to heat Mylah’s food in a microwave before she eats it. Luckily for us, there are Red Roof Inns all over the US that allow pets for free and have premium rooms with these amenities! So, we planned a mini-road trip with the pups and all their raw food in tow.

During the month of May and June pet travelers get an extra 15% off their accommodations!

We checked in at the Red Roof Inn Plus in Naperville and got everything settled into the room before we headed out for some exploring with the dogs. There are a lot of nature preserves in the area and we wanted to get the pups outside before settling into the room for the night. We took them to Herrick Lake Preserve which they loved!!

We grabbed some food for the humans before heading back to the Red Roof Inn to feed the dogs. Once back at the room we fed everyone their meals and gave Mylah insulin.

Here are my tips for traveling with raw fed or homecooked food for the dogs:

• Make sure the room you are staying in has a refrigerator and microwave like Red Roof Inn premium rooms do
• Make it easy on yourself – if your dog requires supplements or medications include those but if your dog can go one night without a supplement, leave it at home.
• Travel with ice packs in a cooler. Ditch the ice in the cooler routine and use ice packs while in transit from home to hotel so you don’t wind up with watery ice everywhere. Ice packs will keep your dog’s food cooler for longer and you can refreeze them in the hotel freezer.
• For raw feeders – if you can travel with premade raw food, that is the way to go! If you have one dog you can easily get away with DIY raw but we have three raw fed dogs. We made it easy on ourselves and used premade raw food for their evening and morning meals while staying at Red Roof Inn.
• Travel with only a few stainless steel dog bowls. We traveled with two for four dogs and made sure that when we weren’t feeding the dogs that both were filled with water. To heat Mylah’s food at night and in the morning we had her food in glass containers.
• Bring some dish soap to clean the bowls out in between feedings. Most hotels don’t have dish soap so travel with some to clean out the bowls after feeding raw.
• Bring your own towel as a placemat to place the dog bowels on for feeding and for water. This means your dog won’t potentially ruin the hotel’s towels!

Once feeding was over we settled in for the night with a movie – of course, all dogs have to be on one bed even though there were two beds! 😉

Hudson did not want to get out of bed the next morning. Do you think he was comfortable? Red Roof Inn gives you multiple pillows to choose from that are labeled firm or soft, I think he liked both, ha!

A few more things to note about staying at a Red Roof Inn with your pets:

• Not every Red Roof Inn allows multiple dogs so check with the hotel before you walk in with four dogs. We made sure this one allowed all our dogs before heading there.
• The Red Roof Inn website has a great checklist of supplies to bring when traveling with your pet, check out that info by clicking here.
• Red Roof Inn has an entire Facebook page dedicated to their love for people traveling with their pets. Check it out here. They also do amazing things like donate to pets or animal welfare organizations in need.

The next morning after feeding the dogs and taking a stroll around the area we headed back home after our successful mini road trip. Jayne was pretty tired after her adventure as you can tell! We are really happy with the stay we had at the Red Roof Inn and are excited to plan more road trips knowing Red Roof Inn can accommodate our needs of traveling with raw fed dogs and a diabetic dog with special needs! Too book your pet-friendly room at a Red Roof Inn, click here! Remember it’s an extra 15% off for pet travelers and pets stay free!

Xox,
Alicia