Mississippi hotel will let you adopt a dog on site – and it can move right into your room

Jayme Deerwester | USA TODAY

"Can I adopt that dog at the hotel concierge desk?" has replaced "How much is that doggie in the window?" at the Home 2 Suites in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Since October 2018, the hotel – which caters to extended-stay guests – has hosted adoptable shelter dogs from the Humane Society of South Mississippi in Gulfport. And so far, 33 guests have gone home with one of the Home 2 Suites “Fostering Hope” dogs, who occupy a large kennel in the lobby.

"They have a lot of transient guests who stay for months at a time near our army and navy bases and that's just enough time to fall in love with a dog," explains Bianca Janik, the shelter's relations manager, who says a few of the new fur parents have been military.

The program was the brainchild of Teresa Johnston, the hotel's sales director. Once Janik researched the hotel, she concluded it was an "ideal set-up" for a longterm foster program.

"Teresa thought they needed to set their hotel apart and this was it. She wanted to have the business more involved with the community. It was a very out-of-the-box way to find our animals new homes so we were on board," Janik says.

Guests who are interested in adopting a dog from the program fill out an application and pay the $50 adoption fee at the hotel.

"We have a very open adoption program," Janik says. "People are trying to do the right thing by adopting. We reserve the right to deny. (We) may tell them we don’t feel comfortable, come visit our shelter tomorrow and we’ll find one that is right."

If there's no reason to turn down an application, the dog can move right into their new owner's hotel room, allowing the Humane Society to move a new dog into the kennel. That frees up space at the shelter, which takes in about 8,000 dogs a year and adopts out close to 80% of them.

As is standard in rescue and shelter adoptions, each dog has been neutered or spayed, microchipped and is up to date on vaccinations and preventative heartworm medication.

Janik says the program has succeeded thanks to a careful selection process on the part of the shelter – reactive dogs aren't good candidates for living in a hotel lobby – and good judgment on the part of the hotel staff. That's one reason why they haven't expanded it to other hotels yet, even though they're open to the idea.

"Because there are live animals are in the mix, we have to be able to trust that their health and well-being are taken care of first and foremost," she says.