In the luxury dog house

At first glance, the lobby of the Grand Dogaroo might be mistaken for that of a boutique hotel, decorated with quilted silver wall panels and an ornate gold and crystal chandelier.

In fact, it's a fancy pied-à-terre for pets, with a heated swimming pool and services ranging from grooming treatments to canine cupcake selections. The 8,000 sq ft facility on Waterloo Road is a pet hotel with accommodation for up to 50 dogs and cats.

But there's more to the facility than good looks; it's the first pet hotel in Hong Kong to earn ISO 9001: 2008 certification - a measure of quality management.

While the Dogaroo Group opened the hotel in 2010, staff spent more than a year working on protocols to secure ISO certification, including those for emergencies such as quarantine procedures when an animal gets sick on the premises.

The team developed a work flow that would make pets as comfortable as they were at home, says group executive director Eric Ko Yiu-chung. "We also had inspectors coming at random to test out any loopholes of the system," he adds.

Pet boarding facilities have multiplied in recent years in response to an explosion in pet ownership. Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department figures show that the number of licensed dogs has jumped from 67,098 in 2000 to 317,024 at the end of 2009 - a 372 per cent increase. Licensed hostels for dogs and cats grew over the same period from five to 25.

Animal lovers who regard their pets as family may be taken with pet boarding facilities offering fancy trappings, which can help assuage guilt and anxiety when they have to leave pets behind on trips.