How We Review

Every property we personally stay at or dine at receives a Cheerio Paw Rating — our proprietary four-paw scale, developed for luxury small-dog travelers. Hotels and dining venues are judged against different criteria (see What We Assess below), but a rating means the same thing across both: a single, comparable signal of how genuinely a place welcomes a small dog. Four Paws is rare. It is meant to be.

We treat first-hand experience and unverified research as fundamentally different things, and we never blur them.

Every property has a single page. That page always opens with a standardized Policy Summary — the verified facts a small-dog traveler needs to plan: where dogs are welcome, fees, weight limits, restrictions, and access notes, each with its source and date.

Cheerio Paw Ratings are reserved exclusively for places we have personally experienced with Cheerio. When we've stayed or dined somewhere, the full review and its Paw Rating appear beneath that Policy Summary on the same page. When we've researched and confirmed a property but not visited it, the page shows the Policy Summary alone — clearly labeled as research, never carrying a Paw Rating.

This is a deliberate, higher-trust standard: if you see Cheerio Paws, Cheerio was there.

A property's page grows with our knowledge of it. A place we've only researched today may become a verified review after a future stay — at the same address on our site, so nothing you've bookmarked ever breaks. And when a personal visit reveals an earlier policy detail was wrong, we correct it in the open, with a dated note explaining what changed. We would rather show our work than pretend we were never mistaken.

Hotels and resorts. Pet policy clarity and fairness; the arrival and check-in experience; room comfort and safety for a small dog; relief and outdoor access, including how quickly you can get a small dog outside at any hour; the safety of the property's environment at a very small dog's scale — wildlife, terrain, open water, extreme heat, and whether hazards are actively managed; dining and on-property access, mapped area by area — including what you do with your dog during the parts of a stay that exclude it; staff warmth and service; dog services and resources; and whether having a dog meaningfully compromises the human luxury experience.

Restaurants and dining. Where dogs are genuinely welcome — patio, indoors, or both; physical comfort for a small dog; staff warmth and accommodation; the quality of the human dining experience; and whether the outing is genuinely relaxed for a very small dog. We judge each venue by where dogs are actually welcome in its setting, so a beautiful indoor dining room abroad is never marked down for lacking a patio, and a sunny terrace at home is judged on its own terms.

Each property is scored against an internal rubric with defined anchors for every criterion, so a rating means the same thing in one city as it does in another, and in one year as it does in the next.

Every property carries a review status that tells you exactly how we know what we know. We use five:

• Verified Stay / Visit — Cheerio was personally there, with notes taken on-site. (Eligible for a Paw Rating.)
• Retrospective — Based on a personal stay or visit prior to the founding of this guide, with current policy verified separately. We note which details are from confident first-hand memory. (Eligible for a Paw Rating, clearly labeled.)
• Policy Verified — Policy confirmed directly with the property by phone or in writing, but not personally visited. (Shown as a Policy Summary, not a Paw Rating.)
• Reader Report — Submitted by a reader; not personally verified by us. (Policy Summary only.)
• On the Inspection List — On our radar and researched, but not yet personally visited or directly confirmed. (Policy Summary only.)

We never invent policies, and we never assume one is current without confirmation. For dining venues abroad, we distinguish a venue's explicit policy from local law or custom — "dogs are welcome inside" means something different when it's the restaurant's stated policy versus simply the way things are commonly done in that city, and we tell you which.

Hotels and venues change owners, managers, and policies. Every rating carries a visible "Reviewed: [Month Year]" date so you always know how current it is. We re-verify Paw Ratings on a rolling 36-month basis, and aim to re-confirm core policy facts — fees, weight limits, and whether dogs can be left alone — more often where we can. If a reader reports a policy change, we flag the listing "Under Review" immediately, regardless of its date. The date stamp is the honest signal: it tells you exactly how fresh our assessment is.

A rating is never read in a vacuum. Two notes shape how we score.

Property type. Urban city-center hotels are structurally more constrained than resorts on outdoor relief access and patio dining — not because they care less, but because of where they sit. We note property type alongside every rating, and we score criteria that don't apply to a property's format as Not Applicable rather than penalizing it. A 3-Paw urban hotel and a 4-Paw resort are not a quality ranking of one against the other.

Property scale. A ten-room boutique inn isn't expected to run a formal dog-sitting program the way a four-hundred-room hotel might. We score dog-services criteria relative to a property's size and category. Sometimes a single owner who knows your dog's name delivers more genuine welcome than any amenities menu.

We also flag seasonal and weather considerations that matter especially to very small dogs — cold sensitivity, late-night relief in winter, patios that close for the season — within the review itself.

Beyond the Paw Rating, badges give small-dog travelers specific, at-a-glance information about what a property offers. Badges describe earned attributes only — verification status is shown separately (see How We Verify). They are assigned only when verified:

• Small Dog ApprovedVerified by Cheerio, 5.5 lbs
• Truly Dog-Welcoming
• Worth Planning Around
• Dog-Friendly With Caveats
• Pet-Tolerant Only
• Patio Approved
• Indoor Dining Welcome
• Easy Relief Access
• Room-Service Friendly
• Dog Sitting Available

Four of these track the Paw Rating tier directly — Pet-Tolerant Only (1 Paw), Dog-Friendly With Caveats (2 Paws), Truly Dog-Welcoming (3 Paws), and Worth Planning Around (4 Paws) — while the rest flag specific, practical strengths.

Where a property's weight limit may affect larger small dogs, we say so plainly — for example, "Cheerio at 5.5 lbs had no issues; dogs in the 8–10 lb range should confirm directly." A badge cannot be purchased. Neither can a Paw Rating.

Trust is the entire point of this guide. Commercial relationships — affiliate links, discounted or complimentary stays, sponsored content, or partnerships — are always disclosed. They never determine our ratings. A complimentary stay does not earn a better score. A paid partnership does not protect a property from an honest review. The Cheerio Paw Rating reflects our genuine assessment. Nothing else.

Read our full Disclosure Policy →