Longcroft Luxury Cat Hotel

We all love our pets but how far would you go to pamper your pet?

Plans are underway for a new cat hotel in Haywards Heath, England. This English feline hotel is named the Longcroft Luxury Cat Hotel would feature seven custom-built cat suites …. already featured in two other locations in Welwyn Garden City and St Albans.

The company launched in 2010 when founder and owner Abi Purser could not find a suitable place to keep her cat – Norman while on a cruise. The Longcroft luxury cat hotel was his creation.

Luxury suites would feature wrought iron designer beds, plush pillows and a wholesome gourmet “A La Cat” menu consisting of fresh cod steak, steamed salmon and king prawns, among other yummy selections. Meals for your pampered cat will be served on bone china. Relaxing mood music and personal grooming sessions are also offered.

The existing Longcroft hotels pamper kitties with scratching posts, personal gardens and kitty climbing equipment in each room. Pet owners can indulge in personal grooming sessions, splurge for a photo shoot package, or sign up to receive electronic postcards from their cat.

Suites range in price from $25 for a single cat staying in a large suite to $96 for five felines sharing a super-sized suite. Only cats from the same family are allowed to stay in the same room. The hotel works on an appointment only basis so there are not a lot of cars coming and going at all hours.

If plans are approved, the hotel could potentially open by early 2013. Abi added that she was ‘excited’ about the prospect of coming to the town, and thinks it is ‘fabulous’. Local people would be invited to an open day to view the facility and see what is offered.

Read full article: Business Insider

Mary Ann Guarino-Schlau, of Joplin, has two living rooms: one for her and one for her 14 dogs. Guarino-Schlau’s furry “babies” have their own couch, love seat, chair, television set, radio and pillows. They are her life. Each dog has its own collar, identification tag and clothing that fits its personality. Four baskets of dog toys are spread across her house, and Guarino-Schlau said she is willing to sacrifice a large part of her life for their happiness.

“They are most certainly my kids; we call them our babies,” Guarino-Schlau said. “They mean everything to us. We don’t go places because we have to take care of them, and we don’t mind. This is our luxury: to sit and watch them play instead of watching television.”

Guarino-Schlau is part of the growing population of pet owners who look at their animals as friends and family rather than property, and prove it with their checkbooks. The American Pet Product Manufacturers Association estimated that in 2007, people spent more than $40 billion on their pets nationwide. Those costs include boarding, grooming, animal purchases, medical care and food.

And pet ownership is becoming more universal. The association’s survey found that 63 percent of U.S. households, or 71.1 million homes have at least one pet. (Update: According to the latest research and data of 2023-2024, 86.9 Million US Households Owns a Pet, Which Accounts for 66%)

More people own dogs than cats, the second most popular pet, but cat owners tend to have more animals, so the total of pet cats in the U.S. outnumbers dogs 88 million to 75 million.

Bow Wow Business:

New businesses have sprung up to meet the demand, and existing businesses are falling in line to get a piece of the market.

Kendal Kantola, manager of the Bow Wow Boutique in Joplin, said her business grows every year. She has clients who bring their pets in for weekly grooming and others who schedule their pets’ monthly appointments to correspond with their days at the salon.

Even as a pet owner herself, Kantola said she is amazed at how far people will go to pamper their pets. Weekly clients could spend more than $1,000 a year on just bathing one pet. She has puppy parents who celebrate their animals’ birthdays with parties and cake, feed their dogs macaroni and cheese, and buy them more Christmas presents than they buy for their human children.

“Even back when I was a kid, we used to give the dog a bath in the back yard, but it’s not like that anymore,” Kantola said.

The trend is strong enough to gain the attention of national retail chains. Wal-Mart is cashing in on the pet-pampering craze with an expanded stock of dog apparel including rhinestone-studded collars, sequined bows, and puppy T-shirts bearing phrases like “Dog-a-licious,” “Born Fabulous” and “Love at First Bark.”

Why?

So, why are people willing to go so far to ensure their pets’ happiness? Pets do have some benefits when it comes to their owners’ health. Studies from a number of health institutes and universities have shown that owning a pet helps lower blood pressure, reduces stress, helps reduce heart disease, provides greater psychological stability, lowers health-care costs and fights depression.

But the most likely reason that Americans spent $40 billion on their pets last year goes back to the unexplainable connection between people and their pets.

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