Pet luxury has moved well beyond plush beds. Interior designers in the US are now building dedicated pet spaces into high-end homes from the ground up, and the results look nothing like a trip to the vet.
Take designer Erin Cantu's current project: a 15,000-square-foot new build in Delray Beach, Florida, intended as her clients' forever home. The four-dog household is getting its own grooming station and sanctuary, finished with the same materials used elsewhere in the house. Fabricators Amuneal are handling the millwork and metal details so the space reads as an elevated spa rather than a kennel. The features are genuinely clever: a walk-in shower with a pull-out ramp so smaller dogs can walk up to the bathing area, and kennels recessed beneath stone counters behind elegant metal mesh screens instead of clunky cages.
Other owners go even further. In Pound Ridge, New York, a couple relocated from Florida partly for the milder weather, and their dog Buster came along. Listing agent Sally Slater of Douglas Elliman recalls the couple refusing to bid until they confirmed Buster could handle the flight. They then spent $2 million renovating the midcentury modern home, now nicknamed Buster's Retreat, adding a sun shelf to the pool so he could float without swimming, a shaded pergola for lounging, and even swapping their SUVs for low-slung sports cars because Buster struggled to climb in.
Cats get architectural treatment too. Designer Regan Baker built a climbing and lounging system into the living room millwork of a Menlo Park home near San Francisco, replacing an ugly freestanding cat tree for her clients' two cats, Apollo and Zack. The integrated design includes ledges, cubbies and built-in scratch pads by the fireplace. Baker's advice: fold pet needs into the design as early as possible so the solution becomes part of the architecture rather than clutter added later.
If renovating sounds like too much, some new buildings arrive pet-ready. Bentley's first residential tower, in Sunny Isles, Florida, includes a dedicated pet spa with washing and drying stations, towels and non-slip surfaces to protect dogs from injury, all finished with the brand's diamond motif. Fittingly, roughly one in three Bentley customers already travels with their pets, and the company sees pet amenities as a growing expectation among luxury buyers.
For the less ambitious, designer Ken Fulk offers a middle path: his wicker dog beds look like actual furniture, and his own Provincetown home has a dedicated dog room he calls one of the house's favourite spaces.
The takeaway for travellers is less about hiring a designer and more about how seriously the hospitality world now takes four-legged guests. If owners expect spa-grade grooming rooms at home, hotels, rentals and residential towers are racing to match. Pet-friendly amenities are becoming a filter worth applying when booking — whether that's a washing station at a condo, shaded outdoor space at a rental, or simply ground-floor rooms for older dogs.