Can Hotels Charge Pet Fees in Indiana? What the Law Actually Allows

Can hotels charge pet fees in Indiana? For an everyday dog or cat, the answer is yes — Indiana hotels are largely free to set their own pet fees, deposits, and weight limits however they see fit. That answer flips the moment a guest arrives with a trained service animal, since federal disability law strips hotels of the right to charge for one at all.

This guide walks through exactly where Indiana law draws that line: what a hotel can legally bill you for a family pet, why service animals are exempt, how emotional support animals get treated differently, and what to do if a front desk clerk charges you a fee they have no legal right to collect.

Can Hotels Charge Regular Pet Fees in Indiana

For a standard companion animal — a family dog, a cat, or any pet that doesn’t meet the legal definition of a service animal — Indiana hotels have wide latitude to charge whatever fee they choose. No state statute caps the amount or bans the practice outright, so pricing varies significantly from property to property.

Indiana’s own state park lodging system shows how these charges typically work. According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, dogs and cats up to 75 lbs. shall be permitted in designated pet friendly rooms/cabins at all Indiana State Park Inns, and a $25 per night, non-refundable deposit shall be applied for each night’s stay. On top of that flat charge, the pet owner(s) shall be responsible for the cost of any damages, or extra cleaning fees that are caused by the pet(s).

Private hotel chains around Indianapolis show even wider swings in pricing. Listings compiled by PetsWelcome show one property charging a straightforward nightly pet fee $50 + tax, while another structures its charge around length of stay at 1 – 4 nights stay $75, 5+ night stay $125. A few budget-friendly options list far lower rates, such as pet accommodation at $15.00 USD per night, per pet, with a limit of 1 pet per room, maximum 50 pounds. Because Indiana leaves these figures entirely up to each business, always confirm the exact policy before booking.

Indiana law doesn’t specifically define which species qualify as a “pet” for hotel purposes, but most properties limit their pet-friendly policies to conventional cats and dogs. If you’re considering traveling with something more unusual, it helps to know whether the animal is even legal to own in the first place — owning a squirrel in Indiana comes with its own set of state wildlife restrictions that exist separately from any hotel’s pet policy.

Pro Tip: Call the hotel directly and ask for its pet policy in writing before you book, since fee amounts and weight limits often differ from what’s listed on third-party booking sites.

Service Animals: Why Hotels Cannot Charge a Fee

The moment a guest travels with a legitimate service animal, the fee conversation changes entirely. According to ADA.gov, if a business requires a deposit or fee to be paid by patrons with pets, it must waive the charge for service animals. That rule applies to hotels just as it applies to restaurants, retail stores, and any other place of public accommodation.

Federal regulation also limits which animals actually qualify for this protection. Beginning on March 15, 2011, only dogs are recognized as service animals under titles II and III of the ADA. A service animal is a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability. Because the ADA definition covers only dogs — and in limited cases, miniature horses — more exotic companions never qualify no matter how well trained they are, and certainly not something covered in a guide to venomous animals in Indiana or the various types of snakes found in Indiana.

Indiana civil rights law reinforces the federal standard rather than weakening it. The Indiana Civil Rights Commission confirms that under federal and Indiana civil rights laws, service animals are permitted in many public places, including businesses that serve the public, and service animals are considered working animals and are not treated as pets under the law. Indiana also extends protection further than many states by covering animals still in training. Under the USA Service Dogs Indiana guide, a trainer — including a person with a disability who is owner-training their own dog — may take a service dog in training into places of public accommodation for training purposes.

A real enforcement case out of Indianapolis shows this rule has teeth. The Indiana Civil Rights Commission found probable cause after an employee of a gas station, which has a no pet policy, denied access to the complainant because of his service animal, arguing that he was not disabled so was not entitled to have a service animal. The finding rested on Indiana Code 16-32-3-2(d), which states that a service animal trainer, while engaged in training, shall be entitled to the same access to places of public accommodation as those with disabilities.

Hotels aren’t left entirely without recourse, though. If a business such as a hotel normally charges guests for damage that they cause, a customer with a disability may also be charged for damage caused by himself or the service animal. What a hotel can’t do is charge upfront simply because the guest has a dog.

Animal Type	Pet Fee Allowed	Deposit Allowed	Legal Basis
Regular pet (dog, cat, etc.)	Yes, hotel’s discretion	Yes, hotel’s discretion	No Indiana statute restricts hotel pet pricing
Service animal (ADA-qualifying dog)	No	No	ADA Title III; Indiana Civil Rights Law
Emotional support animal	Yes, treated as a pet	Yes, treated as a pet	FHA covers housing, not hotels; ADA doesn’t cover ESAs

Emotional Support Animals: Do Indiana’s Laws Offer Extra Protection

Emotional support animals occupy a very different legal category than service dogs, and that gap directly affects your wallet at check-in. Under the ADA, ESAs in Indiana do not have public access rights in stores, restaurants, hotels, and similar businesses. Hotels are legally free to treat an ESA exactly the way they’d treat any other pet.

According to ESA Pet, the Fair Housing Act covers ESAs in housing, not typical hotel stays, so it does not require hotels to waive fees or no-pet rules for ESAs — hotels may treat ESAs as pets. That means the nightly or per-stay charges described earlier in this guide can legally apply to an emotional support dog or cat the same way they’d apply to any pet with no special designation at all.

Charges can include pet fees, deposits, or cleaning costs, and there is no federal law that prevents this in the hotel setting. Some properties choose to waive these charges as a courtesy, but as one service dog resource notes, many properties choose to waive fees for ESAs as a business practice, but federal law doesn’t require it.

Indiana does have its own ESA statute, but it’s aimed at housing and documentation fraud rather than hotel stays. Per Indiana law, IC 22-9-7 — enacted in 2018 — sets clear documentation rules and strong fraud penalties, requiring ESA letters to come from a provider with an established therapeutic relationship, with Indiana specifically defining “fraudulent documentation” as letters from providers without genuine clinical assessments. As the Indiana Civil Rights Commission notes, its enforcement authority covers complaints involving discrimination in housing, employment, education, credit, and public accommodations — but a hotel refusing to waive an ESA fee generally isn’t a violation of that authority, since ESAs simply lack the same public accommodation protections service dogs have.

Important Note: Indiana’s ESA statute mainly governs housing accommodations and documentation fraud. It does not create hotel-specific fee protections the way ADA rules do for trained service dogs.

If you’re road-tripping across the state with an ESA or a standard pet, remember that Indiana’s rules on leaving pets in hot cars apply regardless of your animal’s legal status — a quick errand while checking in can still violate state law during warm months.

Pet Fee vs. Pet Deposit: What’s Legal in Indiana

Hotels often use “fee” and “deposit” interchangeably, but the two terms carry different financial implications. A pet fee is typically non-refundable — you pay it regardless of whether your animal causes any damage. A pet deposit, by contrast, is supposed to be refunded if the room comes back in good condition.

Indiana’s own state park lodging system actually blends both concepts into a single charge. It’s labeled a deposit, but a $25 per night, non-refundable deposit shall be applied for each night’s stay — which functions as a straightforward fee since it isn’t returned regardless of the room’s condition afterward.

This distinction also matters for how Indiana taxes lodging charges. According to LegalClarity’s breakdown of Indiana hotel taxes, pet clean-up fees are not taxable, because these are flat charges unrelated to the length of your stay, so they fall outside the lodging tax base. Meanwhile, refundable damage deposits are also not taxable, since you get the money back. Either way, guests generally shouldn’t see state lodging tax applied to a genuine pet fee or a refundable deposit line item.

Pet owners in Indiana already navigate a patchwork of animal-related rules outside of hotels, too. If a wandering animal ever becomes a dispute closer to home, it’s worth knowing how the state handles issues like a neighbor’s cat showing up in your yard, since ownership and liability questions come up in more places than just lodging.

Are There Limits on How Much Hotels Can Charge in Indiana

Indiana has no statute that caps pet fees for regular pets at hotels, motels, or short-term rentals. Unlike some consumer protections that limit deposit amounts on rental housing, pet fee pricing at hotels is left entirely to the property.

Real-world pricing across the state reflects that freedom. Indiana State Park Inns charge a flat $25 per night, non-refundable deposit for pet-friendly stays, while private Indianapolis hotels range far more widely, from budget listings around $15.00 USD per night, per pet up to 1 – 4 nights stay $75, 5+ night stay $125 at higher-end properties.

Other states have gone further by writing specific caps or fee restrictions into law for a narrow slice of working animals. Texas, for example, prohibits fees for a specific category of working dog: according to the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association, Texas state law prohibits a lodging property from requiring the payment of an extra fee or security deposit for a “service canine” accompanying a peace officer, firefighter, or a search and rescue operator to a hotel or restaurant. Violating that rule carries teeth, too — a lodging property may be subject to a civil penalty of up to $200 per violation for failure to comply with this provision. Indiana hasn’t adopted a comparable civil-penalty structure specific to pet fee amounts, so pricing disputes over regular pets run through ordinary consumer channels rather than a dedicated statute.

Key Insight: Because no state law caps regular pet fees in Indiana, the amount you’re charged is essentially a business decision. Comparing two or three hotels before booking is often your only real leverage on price.

What to Do If a Hotel Charges You Illegally in Indiana

If a front desk employee tries to charge you a pet fee for a legitimate service animal, you’re dealing with a clear-cut legal violation rather than a gray area. Start by staying calm and documenting the interaction before escalating to a formal complaint.

1. Write down the name of the employee who quoted you the fee, along with the date, time, and exactly what was said.
2. Take a photo of any written pet policy you were shown or that’s posted in the lobby.
3. Ask the hotel manager for a copy of their official written policy that supposedly justifies the charge.
4. Show the manager the ADA’s official guidance on service animals before escalating any further.

In many cases, this alone resolves the issue. Once management is asked for written justification, staff often realize the rule isn’t supported by law and drop the charge. If the property still refuses to comply, you have two main paths for a formal complaint.

You can pursue either a federal or a state route, or both. A federal ADA complaint goes to the U.S. Department of Justice, while a state-level complaint goes to the Indiana Civil Rights Commission, which investigates complaints involving discrimination in housing, employment, education, credit, and public accommodations. Keep the filing window in mind — under Indiana’s civil rights process, you can file a complaint within one year of the alleged discriminatory act.

• Save your booking confirmation and any receipts showing the disputed charge.
• Request a refund in writing from the hotel’s corporate customer service line, not just the front desk.
• Keep copies of every email, text, or photo related to the dispute in one folder.

Understanding where Indiana law protects you — and where it leaves pricing up to the hotel — puts you in a much stronger position at check-in. For more on how the state treats animals outside the hotel lobby, see related guides on Indiana’s hunting laws and roadkill laws in Indiana, both of which show how differently the state regulates wildlife compared to companion and service animals.