The unexpected highlight of a hotel can sometimes be a four-legged resident

World events have been pretty gloomy lately, so I’m going to turn my mind to more pleasant things: Cute animals in hotels.

It seems a frivolous subject, but I think resident pets have a hugely positive effect on guests and hotel staff, too. A cat purring away on the reception desk, or a friendly pooch pottering up for a pat, is a genuine welcome that can’t be faked. It always brightens my stay to be greeted this way. And sometimes the interaction goes further. Ask nicely and the resident pet might be available for a rendezvous in your room. Those with pet allergies may not be so keen, so it’s best to check ahead.

A few years ago I stayed at the stately Ashford Castle in County Mayo, Ireland. Apart from its baronial splendour – it was once the Guinness family holiday home – one of the most memorable things were the friendly resident wolfhounds, Garvan and Cronan, who loped around the property, but mostly enjoyed lying by the hearth in the Oak Hall, as wolfhounds do. They’re no longer with us, but Ashford now has three younger wolfhounds, Molly, Dougal and Mulligan, that guests can accompany on daily walks through the woodlands.

The enduring bond between dogs and humans dates back more than 15,000 years and often forms instantaneously when you meet an unfamiliar canine. It’s not always that instantaneous when you meet a new human. As for cats – well, you always know where you stand with them.

Hotel personnel often form their own strong bonds with the animals they work with every day (or maybe work for), grooming them, making vet’s appointments and essentially deferring to their every whim. But there’s also another big advantage for the hotel to have a cute mascot to greet guests – they often turn into social media stars.

Before Instagram, there was Hamlet, the lobby cat at New York’s legendary Algonquin, a stray ginger tom that first took up residence in the 1920s. Named by a famous guest, the great Shakespearean actor and movie star John Barrymore, the original “Hammy” is long gone, but there have been 12 generations of Algonquin lobby cats since, all rescue animals. The males are always known as Hamlet and the females Matilda. The last resident, Hamlet VIII, recently retired, had his own personal assistant, the Chief Cat Officer, who handled all his social media and daily requests. The lobby was redesigned to make bookshelves and niches for him to relax in. Hamlet’s @thealgonquincat Instagram account has over 40,000 followers.

Just as famous is Socrate, the fluffy white Birman cat that is resident glamourpuss at Le Bristol Hotel in Paris. For 11 years, Socrate’s father Fa-raon presided over the hotel as sole house cat. Socrate was born in 2021 in a Paris suburb, allowing Fa-raon to eventually abdicate. (He now lives with one of Le Bristol’s receptionists.) Socrate has his own room behind the concierge desk with a wall of portraits of Socrate drawn by guests, as well as a majestic scratching pole.

I met Socrate last year, but he turned up his tail and ran off. He’s shy, apparently, and tends to wander the lobby late at night when there are fewer people about. But he is quite gorgeous, and I think he knows it. He has bonded with the desk manager, who makes all his appointments. It can all get quite catty. Kléopatre, a female Birman who didn’t click with Fa-raon when she came to Le Bristol as his companion, was relocated to another of the Oetker family hotels, Brenners Park in Baden-Baden, where she now lives happily.

The Lanesborough Hotel in London is home to Lilibet, named after the late Queen Elizabeth II, a fluffy Siberian Forest cat, who has a committee fussing over her care, and a constant stream of treats and gifts from smitten guests. No Fancy Feast for Lilibet. The pampered pet dines on caviar, wears gold jewellery and can get 28,000 likes when she features on the hotel’s socials.

Other cute lobby pets to check out include Kimchi (@kimchi_n1) the resident rescue dog at The Stamba Hotel in Tbilisi, Georgia, and Panchita, the white alpaca that’s the mascot of JW Marriott’s El Convento Cusco, Peru.

I don’t apologise for being fluffy. I think it’s wonderful. The world’s a bit of a human zoo right now, and we need all the adorable we can get.

The writer was a guest of Ashford Castle and Le Bristol.