Find a dog in the hotel lobby and adopt it

• Aloft is one of few hotels that let guests have dogs in their room at no extra charge
• House dog will live in Aloft’s lobby until someone adopts it
• Ashwaubenon hotel copied idea from sister operation in North Carolina

The Aloft hotel in Ashwaubenon isn’t going to the dogs, the dogs are coming to Aloft.

Ever since it opened in April 2009, the hotel at 465 Pilgrim Way has been dog-friendly, welcoming human guests who are traveling with their canine pals for no extra charge.

Now, Aloft is taking its dog-friendly ways a step further: It’ll have a house dog. Starting today, there’ll be a dog hanging out in the lobby, licking hands, accepting treats and making sad puppy eyes at every hotel guest or employee in hopes of maybe going home with one of them.

It’s for the benefit of dog-loving travelers, hotel staff and the dog itself, who otherwise would be staying at the Bay Area Humane Society & Animal Shelter.

“We have a program called the ‘Almost Home Foster Program,’ and this will work the same way,” said Lori Nachtwey, the Humane Society’s marketing and events manager.

Under the program, the Humane Society places dogs with foster “parents,” who show them off to friends and family in hopes that someone falls in love with the critter and takes out adoption papers.

Now, in this case, the hotel will be the foster parent. The dog, which was to be selected this weekend and placed today, will live at the hotel, staying mostly in a pen in the lobby, said Stacie Christel, director of sales for the hotel.

Visitors and staff members will be welcome to pet the dog, spoil it rotten, walk it, feed it, and, if someone takes a particular shine to it, he or she can adopt the animal.

It’s a win-win-win situation. It’ll improve the homelike atmosphere that the hotel is striving for, it’ll be good for employee morale and it gives the dog a unique shot at attracting a potential new owner.

Christel got the idea from an article in People magazine about another Aloft hotel doing it. That hotel in Ashville, N.C., started the program about a year ago, Christel said.

“They were going to try it for just three months, but there was such a strong following, they launched it for a year,” she said.

The hotel has staff members on duty all hours of the day, so there’ll always be someone there to take care of their little ward.

“For staff, it’s something different and exciting that they can’t do anywhere else,” Christel said.

For the Humane Society, it’s a chance to showcase a good potential pet in a place that gets a lot of traffic.

“Hopefully, it’ll get adopted faster,” Nachtwey said.

It’s all well and good, but what about cats? Shouldn’t there be equal time for cats?

Aloft doesn’t include cats in its welcome sign, just dogs and humans, but the Humane Society does loan out “corporate cats” to places that want to keep employees and visitors amused. Those animals are also available for adoption, and loaning them out provides a way of advertising them, Nachtwey said.

If you want to host an animal through either program, call Humane Society staff member Tania Huycke-Phillips at (920) 469-3110, ext. 104.

— psrubas@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter @PGpaulsrubas.