Hilltop Hideaway at Coolum Beach

Hilltop Hideaway sits on Hilltop Crescent in Coolum Beach, a quiet residential pocket set back from the beach strip where the houses climb the coastal ridge and the neighbourhood stays asleep before nine. This is an Airbnb style holiday home rather than a motel or park: the whole place books out to one party at a time, which makes it the kind of stay families with a dog pick when they want a kitchen, a laundry and a yard instead of a single room with a kettle. Coolum itself is the relaxed northern end of the Sunshine Coast beach run, and the hilltop address means coastal breeze rather than esplanade noise.

Dogs at the house

Per the host's listing rules, dogs are permitted with prior application and pre-approval before booking, maximum 2 dogs, with a 50 dollar per pet fee per host guidelines; some aggregator listings show pets staying free so confirm the fee with the host directly. Cats are not accepted. The pre-approval step is the part that trips people up: message the host before you pay, state the breed and number of dogs, get the approval in writing through the platform, and complete the pre-check-in form the listing requires before access is granted.

This is a two storey house on a hillside block, so the honest questions for the host are about containment and access: whether stair gates can go up, whether the garden fences close the gaps a determined dog would find, and whether the pool deck is off limits, which it usually is for dogs on a property with a filtration system to protect. Quiet residential neighbourhood rules apply after 9pm; this is a place where the neighbours will notice a barking dog and the host will hear about it.

While you're out there

Coolum's beach end is the payoff for staying here: the Coolum Beach off leash dog beach gives dogs a legal stretch of sand, and locals with dogs time their runs to the falling tide, when the hard wet sand opens up into a proper flat gallop. The Stumers Creek Dog Offleash Area covers the grass and creek side of the run. The climb back up the hill is the trap: the ridge streets hold the afternoon heat, so carry water and stick to the grassy verges on the way up.

The coastal scrub around Mount Coolum means ticks are a live local reality, so run a check around the ears and jowls after any bush-adjacent walk. If the hideaway is booked out, Coolum Beach Holiday Park is the alternate pet friendly base in the same suburb, and more pet friendly stays sit in the Queensland dog friendly stays listing.