Sure, it might seem like there’s a new ultra-luxury hotel popping up daily in New York City – but there’s only one with name recognition like The Plaza.
There is a frenetic energy to Fifth Avenue no matter the time of year, but a quiet reverence always arrives to those lucky few checking into the New York City icon perched at Central Park South. The Plaza, a Fairmont Managed Hotel, somehow manages to be a quiet respite from the moment you roll up to the highly photographed front steps, even when your plus-one is a four-legged family member very elated to be included in the journey.
We were entering one of the most storied lobbies in the world, a place where the ghosts of Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball mingle with very real, very current dignitaries (plus the children’s book icon of “Eloise at the Plaza”). It is a property that trades on formality. One expects the crystal chandeliers and the gold-leaf molding; one might even expect a certain stiffness. What you might not expect is for a bellman to offer a warm welcome to the real VIP of the party: our Australian Shepherd, Pimm.
(Cameron Sperance )
I’d like to imagine it’s the same level of warmth reserved for an arriving head of state in town for the U.N. General Assembly. It certainly felt like it.
In the luxury travel sector, “pet-friendly” is often a hollow marketing term, a box ticked on a hotel listing that translates, in practice, to a designated room on a low floor with questionable carpeting and a lingering scent of industrial cleaner. But The Plaza is doing something different. They aren’t just tolerating pets; they are courting them with the same ferocity they apply to their human guests.
After a seamless check-in where the front desk team seemed just as thrilled to meet Pimm as he was to meet them (he had been to the puppy salon back in Boston just for this occasion, after all!), we were off to our home away from home upstairs. We opened the door to our Junior Suite to find a space so generous by Manhattan standards it felt like a pied-à-terre.
The king bed was in a separate sleeping area that could be closed off from the living area, which also included a half-bathroom for visiting guests (of which we had several New York friends stop by to meet the four-legged visiting dignitary on his first venture to New York).
(The Plaza, a Fairmont Managed Hotel)
My husband and I weren’t the only ones getting spoiled. The living area was Pimm’s newfound canine sanctuary. There was a plush bed waiting along with a tiered tray of macarons (oat and honey for him, ganache for us). The Plaza also provided bowls and bottles of Fiji water for the pup. Plaza pooches wouldn’t dare think about sipping Dasani.
Of course, there was the pièce de résistance: a Terry cloth robe, embroidered with The Plaza crest, sized perfectly for Pimm (and accompanied by a welcome note from Weenie, the pug belonging to Eloise, the Plaza’s most famous resident). It allowed me to be the ultimate stage mom for an in-suite photo shoot (thank goodness for friends-turned-photographer-assistants and those oat macarons to cajole him into a pose). The robe is the centerpiece of The Plaza’s “Pampered Pup Package,” available year-round with bathrobes ranging from XS to XXXL. Custom sizing is available with 30 days’ notice.
It is easy to look at a dog in a bathrobe and see it as a gimmick, a made-for-Instagram moment designed to generate engagement. But to dismiss Pimm’s stay as mere social media fodder would be a fundamental misunderstanding of the current luxury landscape.
We are witnessing the rise of what some label the “Pawprint Economy.” The global pet industry is poised to swell to $500 billion by 2030, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
“For many of our guests, their dog isn’t just a companion — they’re family,” said Sam Ioannidis, managing director of The Plaza Hotel New York. “The Plaza has been welcoming pets since 1907 and today we don’t just allow them— we embrace them. Pampered Pup goes beyond being pet-friendly; it’s an extension of how we think about hospitality today.”
(Cameron Sperance)
The pet-friendly hotel market is projected to hit nearly $8.2 billion by 2030, growing at more than 12 percent each year. That should be a barking wake-up call for hotel owners. The old industry logic was that luxury travelers left the dog with the au pair or at the high-priced pup hotel back home. The new data suggests the opposite. A 2024 GlobalVetLink survey found that 78 percent of American pet owners now travel with their pets each year. Crucially, this is being driven by the demographic every luxury brand is chasing: the “High-Earning, Not Rich Yet” (HENRYs) and the DINKWADs (Double Income, No Kids, With A Dog).
Virtuoso’s own 2025 Luxe Report identified pet-friendly travel as a top trend, noting that affluent travelers are “happily splurging” to ensure their companions travel in the same comfort they do. We are seeing this across the board, from the launch of BARK Air (offering white-glove private jet service for dogs at $6,000 a ticket) to hotel groups like AKA introducing dedicated canine loyalty programs.
For a historic property like The Plaza, the math is simple. If a guest is willing to pay a premium for a flight, they are certainly willing to book a Junior Suite over a Standard King to accommodate a crate. By rolling out the red carpet for pooches like Pimm, The Plaza is unlocking repeat business from those who increasingly find it out of the question to head out of town without their four-legged child.
(The Plaza, a Fairmont Managed Hotel)
And for those who might equate “pet friendly” with “pet overload,” let’s put those fears at ease. While you might spot the occasional well-heeled pup walking with their human into the guests-only section, this is The Plaza: Everyone is on their best behavior — even when the scent of bacon is wafting from The Champagne Bar’s breakfast buffet.
As we packed up the robe and headed for the revolving doors, Pimm trotted through the lobby with a noticeable new swagger. We had arrived as nervous tourists with a dog, but we were leaving feeling like Plaza regulars.
Eloise may be the Queen of The Plaza, but for one snowy night in December, Pimm was certainly the Prince.
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