The Reserve Hotel

The Reserve Hotel on the Princes Highway in Sale is a pub-stay with spacious, well-reviewed rooms, and its rooms are dog friendly across the board, handled as a simple add-on to your booking. For a Gippsland trip it is a solid mid-range base: a proper room, food and drinks downstairs, and a $20-per-dog charge rather than a battery of restrictions.

Dogs at the Reserve

The hotel's own pet page sets out the deal plainly. Rooms are dog friendly and a $20 per dog, per stay cleaning fee applies, along with a $50 refundable pet deposit at check-in. The hotel allocates a room that suits dogs where it can, so flag your dog when you book rather than at arrival. The rules are the standard sensible set: bring your own dog bedding and feeding bowls, keep the dog on a leash whenever it is outside the room, pick up after it, and never leave it unattended in the room. The pet rooms open onto grassy garden areas through sliding doors, which makes early-morning and late-night toilet breaks easy without walking the dog through the car park.

Pepsi: $20 a night for me, $50 back at the end, and a sliding door straight onto the garden. I rate this highly on the pub-stay scale.

The place itself

Guest reviews call out spacious, quiet rooms, comfortable beds and new bathrooms, and the venue runs well beyond a standard motel: pool tables, an arcade, complimentary snacks and a full bar and bistro. For a dog owner that adds up to an easy evening, since you can eat and drink on site without leaving a dog alone in the room for long stretches. The supervision rule means plan your day around the dog or skip the pub dinner.

Getting there and nearby

The Reserve sits on the Princes Highway at the Sale end of town, an easy base for Gippsland. Central Sale and the Raymond Street cafes are minutes away, and Sale The Dog Park is the local off-lead yard for a proper run. redd catt and Shirley's Cafe and Bar cover breakfast and coffee.

Other Sale stays include Siesta Central Apartments and the Sale Showgrounds Caravan and Motorhome Park. More options are on the Victoria pet friendly stays guide and the Sale destination page.