Sludges are invisible and they are everywhere.

A sludge is really bad for business.

Any type of friction that slows the consumer down when searching for or buying what your brand is selling, that's a sludge.

Sometimes a sludge might even exist without the "sludger" knowing it exists.

Most businesses don't even realize, but they're leaving money on the table because of sludge. 
 
Sludge can exist in four forms leading to four types of costs (Shahab & Lades, 2020):

A couple of years ago me and my girlfriend traveled to Sardinia 🇮🇹 for our Summer vacations.

Sardinia was lovely but we ended not enjoying it 100%.

The reason? We missed our dog, a Corgi named Ginja.

The truth is, we had to leave Ginja at a dog hotel near Lisbon 🇵🇹 (where we lived at the time).

Because our connection flights to Sardinia weren't pet-friendly.

We knew Ginja was fine. After all, we didn't leave her at any Dog Hotel.

Camila, Ginja's breeder, runs this dog Hotel. And we trust Camila and her team 100%.

Also, this was the place where Ginja was born and raised until she was almost 3 months old.

So this was a cool opportunity for Ginja to hang out with Yankee and Nana (her sister and mom)... And make a bunch of new friends.

But while we were in Sardinia guess what? All we could think about was Ginja. Every. Single. Day.

Two months later we decided to travel to Spain 🇪🇸 for a mini Summer break.

This time we decided, "Let's do a road trip and bring Ginja with us."

But first, we had to pick our vacation destination. After all, Spain is a BIG country.

So our search criteria was, "5h drive from Lisbon max. Somewhere hot. Good food. Dog-friendly hotel. Nice small 4 or 5 star Hotel. Hotel must have a swimming pool."

So the first logical step was to Google "Dog-friendly Hotels Spain".

And then use Google search filters to find what we wanted.

But it turns out our search experience was a nightmare.

You see, most Spanish hotels that Google tagged as dog-friendly weren't dog friendly at all.

So whenever I found a nice hotel via Google I'd visit their website to confirm if they were dog-friendly. Most websites didn't mention a thing.

So I'd visit their booking.com page to confirm if they were listed as pet-friendly OR if they had a pet-policy section.

Some had. Other hotels that Google tagged as dog-friendly, booking.com said the exact opposite. This was confusing.

I wasted endless hours researching.

Long story short, I was a victim of sludge.

It took me over 14h of research until I finally found the perfect hotel and destination (Hint: Seville, a 4h12 drive away from Lisbon).

What ended influencing our decision? The hotel checked all the boxes. Even better, their website explicitly said they are a dog-friendly hotel.

There's a lesson here for Hotels (If you think about it...for any other industry, really):

Reducing friction provokes sales.

Fun fact: Those mini Summer vacations in Seville ended up turning into the best summer vacations we’ve had in a long time. Bringing Ginja with us made everything 10x more fun. 

Since then I've slowly started building a private little database (just for myself) of... small hotels, farmhouses, log cabins, B&B guest houses or country inns that are dog-friendly.

So whenever I'd find a new dog-friendly spot, I'd add it to my database. And I'd include as well any info I could find about their pet policies. I would include basic stuff like:

• Pet fee;
• Size, weight, age or breed restrictions;
• Pet deposit;
• Are dogs allowed in any of the common areas? In the bar? In the restaurant? Near the swimming pool area?

I started it as a personal and private side-project, but now I’m sharing it with the World. Because I realized that this is actually something that bothers and impacts many dog owners all over the World.

You see, owning a dog means vacations have to be planned with them in consideration.

The problem is, traveling with dogs isn't that easy.

Sure, there are 10x more dog-friendly hotels in 2025 than in 2005.

Now, the other side of the coin.

Many hotels claim they're dog-friendly. But their pet-policies aren't always clear.

Not knowing about rules and restrictions until you check-in makes booking dog-friendly hotels feel a bit like playing Russian Roulette with your vacations. You never really know what to expect.

And that's why I created Goob Hotels.

Every hotel you see here listed we vet its pet policy. So you can turn the anxiety of "Are they really dog-friendly? into the certainty of "Oh Ginja is going to love this place."

So my job with Goob Hotels is simple.

For starters, I want to help other dog owners make their next vacation with their dogs a smoother experience.

And I want to help smaller, independent dog-friendly hotels level the playing field by giving them the same visibility as big chains and by boosting bookings (from dog owners) for a fraction of the cost.

Sludge is bad for their business. Good Hotels is good.

Miguel Ferreira
@_miguelferreira 
Founder 🐶 goobhotels.com

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