We do not list everything.
The Burrow is the pet-traveler's research site. We rank, review, and explain. We are not a directory.
Why this site exists
Most "pet-friendly" hotel sites are directories. They list every property that allows a dog and call it a day. Cats get an afterthought, every property reads the same, and the reader is left to do the actual research themselves.
We do the research. We read the published pet policy on every candidate hotel. We identify the properties that say "pet-friendly" but quietly mean dogs-only. We find the ones that name cats by name, accept them at no fee, and let you leave the room when you need to. Then we rank three per city.
Three is the number because three is honest. A list of fifteen hotels is a list. A list of three is a recommendation.
Who runs it
The Burrow is written and maintained by Lior Meshullam, a product manager based in Israel who has been bringing cats into hotels for the better part of a decade. The editorial voice — light, direct, opinionated, no padding — is his. The research process, the ranking framework, and the calls to the front desk are also his.
We make money the same way every editorial travel site makes money: affiliate links to the booking sites you would have used anyway. Booking, Expedia, Hotels.com. We never let an affiliate relationship change a recommendation. If a hotel pays us nothing and is the right pick, we recommend it; if a hotel pays us well and is dog-only or expensive or run badly, we say so.
The full affiliate disclosure lives on every page that has a booking link.
How we verify
Two paths. The default is by phone — front desk, four questions, named verifier, dated record. The phone call is the moat: every directory copies the website, but only humans on the line can tell you that a hotel's policy says yes to cats but the staff has never actually hosted one.
The web-verified path is the second route. When we publish a guide on web evidence alone, we say so on the page, and we schedule a phone re-verification. Every claim cites a source URL. You can click through to the policy text yourself.
Last verified dates appear on every city page. If the date is older than 120 days, we re-check. If it's older than 180, we unpublish until refreshed.
What we're not
- A directory. We rank, we don't list.
- A booking platform. We send you to the booking sites that actually have inventory.
- Comprehensive. We pick three per city. Some cities will never ship a guide because they don't clear the bar.
- Dog-first. We started with cats because cats are the underserved segment. Dogs come later.