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

A hotel can legally bill you $75 at check-in for traveling with your Labrador, yet the guest in the next room with a trained guide dog can’t be charged a dime for the exact same room. That contradiction sits at the center of most questions about whether hotels charge pet fees in Michigan, and the answer changes completely depending on what kind of animal is walking through the lobby. Federal disability law, Michigan’s civil rights statutes, and ordinary hotel business policy each apply to a different category of animal.

Below is a breakdown of what Michigan hotels can legally charge for an everyday pet, why service animals sit in a completely separate legal bucket, and what to do if a front desk clerk tries to bill you illegally anyway.

Can Hotels Charge Regular Pet Fees in Michigan

For an ordinary dog, cat, or other non-assistance animal, the answer is yes. Michigan has no statute capping what a hotel can charge a guest who books a room with a pet, so the amount, whether it’s labeled a “pet fee,” a “cleaning charge,” or a “non-refundable deposit,” is set entirely by the property’s own policy.

That’s a different legal world from Michigan’s rental-housing rules, which sometimes get confused with hotel policy. Under the state’s landlord-tenant law, a landlord’s total security deposit, including any pet-related portion, can’t exceed one-and-a-half times the monthly rent. That cap comes from the Michigan Security Deposit Act, a statute written for long-term residential leases, not overnight hotel stays.

If you’re traveling with something other than a typical dog or cat, one of the exotic pets that are legal in Michigan, expect even more variation between properties, since most hotel pet policies are written with dogs specifically in mind and may not address other species at all.

Important Note: Rules you may have read about online for renters, including deposit caps and required accommodations from landlords, generally apply to leases, not nightly hotel stays. Michigan pet owners weighing a move rather than a trip should check our guide on whether landlords can ban pets in Michigan, since that’s a separate legal question entirely.

Service Animals: Why Hotels Cannot Charge a Fee

Once an animal meets the legal definition of a service animal, the fee question disappears. Hotels and motels qualify as places of public accommodation under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and covered businesses must let service animals go wherever the public is allowed to go.

The ADA is explicit about money. If a business normally charges pet owners a deposit or fee, it has to waive that charge for a service animal, and that rule doesn’t bend for chain hotels, independent motels, or extended-stay properties. The ADA’s access rules apply even to a small, six-room roadside motel.

Michigan added its own layer of protection back in 2015. The state’s 2015 four-bill package, known as the Service Animals for Persons with Disabilities law, aligned Michigan’s terminology with the ADA and was signed into law by Governor Snyder that October. More recently, Public Act 75 of 2022 extended similar access requirements to service animals still in training, as long as a trainer or raiser accompanies them, closing a gap for dogs not yet fully certified.

Michigan’s civil rights guidance spells out what this means at the front desk. Hotels can’t tack on a cleaning charge just because a service animal sheds hair or dander, and they can’t funnel guests into one designated room, since a disabled guest must have the same access to any available room as anyone else. The one exception involves real property damage: a hotel that already charges guests for damage can still bill a disabled guest for damage the service animal actually causes.

Front desk staff have narrow limits on what they can even ask. Staff are limited to two questions: whether the dog is needed because of a disability, and what task it has been trained to perform. Beyond that, hotels can’t demand certification papers, registration, or proof of the dog’s status.

• Staff can ask if the animal is required because of a disability
• Staff can ask what specific task the animal performs
• Staff can charge for provable, actual property damage

What staff cannot legally do:

• Charge a pet fee, cleaning fee, or security deposit
• Demand certification, registration, or a doctor’s note
• Restrict the guest to designated “pet-friendly” rooms or floors

Pro Tip: If a front-desk employee doesn’t know the ADA fee-waiver rule, ask for a shift supervisor rather than arguing. Larger chains tend to train staff more consistently on this than small independent motels, which sometimes wrongly assume their size exempts them.

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

Emotional support animals occupy a very different legal position than trained service dogs, and Michigan’s statutes don’t close that gap for hotel stays. Only dogs trained under the ADA’s service-animal definition get guaranteed hotel access, while emotional support animals are protected in housing under the Fair Housing Act but have no such access guarantee at hotels.

That housing-only protection matters in practice. The Fair Housing Act’s coverage stops at residential housing, not typical hotel stays, so properties are free to treat an ESA like any other pet. Michigan doesn’t fill that gap with a hotel-specific exemption of its own. The state has no standalone ESA statute; whatever protection exists flows from the federal Fair Housing Act and, at the state level, from Michigan’s Persons With Disabilities Civil Rights Act — and that accommodation duty has been applied to landlords and housing providers, not overnight lodging.

Practically, a hotel in Traverse City or Grand Rapids can require an ESA letter, apply its standard pet fee, or decline to waive charges altogether, and it’s operating within the law either way.

Animal Type	Can a Michigan Hotel Charge a Fee?	Legal Basis
Ordinary pet (dog, cat, etc.)	Yes, at the hotel’s discretion	No state or federal fee cap for hotel stays
ADA service animal	No	ADA Title III; Michigan’s service-animal statutes
Emotional support animal	Usually yes, unless voluntarily waived	Fair Housing Act covers housing only; no Michigan hotel exemption

Important Note: A stay of 30 or more consecutive nights can change the analysis. Guests planning a long-term stay should ask upfront whether the property treats that booking as housing, since an ESA letter could then apply under the FHA. Get any such waiver confirmed in writing before you rely on it.

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

Hotels and landlords both use two different words for pet-related charges, and the distinction still matters even though hotel guests aren’t covered by the same statute as renters. A pet fee is meant to be a one-time, non-refundable charge, which is exactly why it falls outside the Security Deposit Act’s refund rules. A pet deposit works differently, since it’s refundable and subject to the same itemized-deduction and 30-day return rules as a standard security deposit — though again, that return-requirement language comes from Michigan’s residential landlord-tenant statute, not hotel regulation.

The same fee-versus-deposit split shows up on hotel booking confirmations, even without a dedicated hotel statute behind it. A non-refundable “pet fee” line covers the cost of accepting animals as a matter of policy, while a refundable “pet deposit” is meant to come back if the room shows no damage. Monthly pet rent and a one-time pet fee are technically two different charges under Michigan’s rental terminology, and hotels often reuse that same loose vocabulary in their own pet policies.

Because no Michigan statute defines these terms specifically for hotels, read the cancellation and refund language on your booking confirmation itself rather than assuming a line item called “deposit” will automatically return to your card.

Are There Limits on How Much Hotels Can Charge in Michigan

For ordinary pets, no. Nothing in Michigan’s civil rights statutes or its landlord-tenant law extends a dollar cap to hotel pet fees, so a property is free to set its own charge. That’s different from long-term rentals, where the security deposit math above applies — a hotel booking simply isn’t covered by it.

The one place a specific dollar figure does become illegal is when it’s applied to a service animal. Picture a family budgeting $50 a night for lodging; if three stops along a road trip each tack on a $75 fee for a service dog, that’s $225 billed illegally. There’s no legal minimum or maximum in play for a service animal — the correct number is always zero.

Because ordinary pet fees are unregulated, it’s worth comparing policies before you book, especially on multi-night or multi-stop trips where several properties might each add a charge. Reading the fine print on the reservation confirmation, rather than assuming a fee will be waived, avoids an unpleasant surprise at checkout.

What to Do If a Hotel Charges You Illegally in Michigan

If a front desk clerk tries to bill you a pet fee for a genuine service animal, you have real leverage under both federal law and Michigan’s own civil rights framework. Michigan’s civil rights law names hotels specifically as a covered public accommodation, alongside restaurants and theaters, and the Michigan Department of Civil Rights treats an illegal pet fee charged against a service animal as a form of disability discrimination.

1. Ask for a manager. Front-line staff sometimes don’t know the ADA fee-waiver rule; a shift supervisor is more likely to reverse the charge on the spot.
2. Cite the rule directly. Point out that federal law bars hotels from charging any extra fee or deposit for a guest’s service animal, and that Michigan’s own statutes reinforce the same standard.
3. Document everything. Photograph the folio showing the charge, and note the date, time, and the staff member’s name.
4. Request a refund in writing. Email the property directly so there’s a paper trail if the dispute continues after checkout.
5. File a complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights if the hotel refuses to correct the charge. That complaint can go directly to MDCR by phone or email, or through the department’s online portal.

MDCR doesn’t treat these complaints as empty paperwork. In one 2025 case, an MDCR investigation found that a Michigan restaurant illegally denied service to a customer over a service animal, a violation of the state’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act that led the department to file a formal discrimination charge that August. The same enforcement path applies to hotels that refuse to waive an illegal pet fee.

Michigan takes animal-related legal violations seriously across the board, a pattern also visible in the state’s animal cruelty laws in Michigan, which similarly carry real enforcement teeth rather than existing only on paper.

If your pet is a regular, non-assistance animal, the fee itself usually isn’t a legal violation, since hotels are allowed to charge it. But if you were billed more than the hotel’s posted policy states, or charged twice for the same stay, that’s a billing dispute worth escalating through the property’s corporate customer service line or, for a repeated pattern, the Michigan Attorney General’s consumer protection division.

Whether you’re booking a weekend in Mackinaw City or a week-long stay downstate, knowing which category your animal falls into, ordinary pet, ADA service animal, or emotional support animal, tells you exactly what a hotel can and cannot bill you before you ever reach the front desk.