A couple who were caravanning along the west coast of Australia say they were left scrambling to find alternative accommodation during the Easter holidays after a caravan park enforced a no pets policy at the last minute.
Sarah and Rhett had no choice but to pack up and leave halfway through their holiday because of their two dogs, Jill and Indie. The pet-friendly Bremer Bay Caravan Park enforces a no pets rule over Easter and Christmas, but not at any other time of the year. However, the couple claims they were never informed when they extended their week-long stay at the caravan park in the popular tourist town of Bremer Bay in the southwest of the country.
Yahoo News spoke to Sarah while she was packing up to leave the caravan park on Good Friday. She said: “We’ve been here for eight or nine days, and it wasn’t an issue at all; no one said anything. They knew we had dogs.”
“We were there for over a week and were just out and got a phone call saying that we’re really sorry you’re going to have to go as we don’t have dogs over Easter. Caravan parks are booked out over Easter and school holiday so we were stressed about where we were going to stay.”
Luckily, another nearby caravan park had a cancellation and was able to accommodate the family. Bremer Bay Caravan Park declined to comment on the matter. On its website, the business states: “We do not accept pets from the 20th of December through till the 1st of February Or the 4-day Easter break.”
Family say dogs are ‘like our children’
Sarah and Rhett, originally from Airlie Beach in Queensland, said they’ve spent the past 10 months travelling the country, predominantly in WA, in their caravan. “It’s not as if we can just pop home,” she said.
Despite the fact that the couple said it can be “difficult” to get into places and “do the things you want” with the dogs, they’ve never run into issues with their two dogs before now. “We’ve never been kicked out,” she said, describing the dogs as “like her children”.
“We want people to travel with their dogs and not do things wrong and be respectful.”
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