Should dogs be allowed in hotels?

The French take their dogs on trains, planes, in the metro and into hotel rooms, since liberte, egalite, fraternite applies to four legs as well as two.

According to the website of France's Accor hotels, there are 394 pet-friendly Accor hotels in Paris alone. In London the figure is 39.

Three Accor properties in Los Angeles allow pets, four in New York, including the swanky Plaza. Turn to Melbourne and Sydney, however, and there is not one pet-friendly hotel on the Accor website.

Here in Australia we generally pooh-pooh the idea of pets in hotels. Go roving with rover and you'll probably find yourself banished to the less-nice type of o'nite caravan park. Another option is to go upscale – as long as you're prepared to cop the cost.

The posh Langham Sydney allows pets, up to two a room, at a price of $120 a pet a night. Pier One Sydney harbour does the same, at a similar price. According to Peter Hook, principal of Hook Communications, the demand for dog-friendly hotels in Australia is enormous but rules make it difficult. One of the most passionate crusaders for the cause is surgeon and hotelier Dr Jerry Schwartz.

"For some travellers, bringing a pet can be as important as bringing a child, it is a crucial ingredient of the holiday," says Schwartz. "I've managed to make the Fairmont in the Blue Mountains and the Mercure Canberra pet friendly, and ideally we would extend that to some of our hotels in Sydney, Melbourne and the Hunter Valley, but it is a very complicated process."