Pet-Friendly Hotels

In Search of Hope – by Sam Gannon

Seconded to the parish of Tililngdon, the Reverend Dolores has been presented with a challenge.

She’s living in an antiquated house and she’s cold. Furthermore, her new Bishop, Bishop Alice does not approve of ‘showgirls in dog collars.’

Determined to prove the Bishop wrong, she sets about warming her house – who cares if it smells of horse! There is the crochet club, jumble sale, and soup run to organise. And this year, the church bells will ring, no matter what threats are made. Even more so, the newly formed choir will spread a little joy this Christmas, even though they can’t sing – yet! And with a little help from Phil, her bassist, this year could be full of magic.

However, she has a fight on her hands as the townies out in Knob Hill – she must stop calling it that, are trying to stop her from ringing her bells. When Krystal with a K decides to do some volunteer work, Dolores sets out to see just how committed she really is.

Up to her ears in granny squares and squawking choristers, Dolores is revving up for Christmas, yet a deeper darker secret is beginning to emerge!

A secret that could blow the whole parish apart and put Dolores in danger.

(available from Amazon)

Only one in ten hotels in Funchal accepts pets, according to a ranking compiled by revenue-management platform PriceLabs using listings on Booking.com.

The study considered Portuguese destinations with more than 50,000 inhabitants and at least 100 hotel listings. Funchal was found to have a substantially smaller proportion of pet-friendly hotels than the destinations at the top of the ranking.

Alcobaça led the table, with 51.28% of its hotels accepting pets, followed by Santarém at 50.66%. Viseu ranked third with 34.09%, followed by Loulé at 27.99% and Figueira da Foz at 27.96%.

According to PriceLabs, Portugal has the second-highest number of dogs per inhabitant in the European Union, while more than half of Portuguese households have at least one pet. This is contributing to growing demand for accommodation that welcomes guests travelling with animals.

However, the availability of pet-friendly hotels continues to vary considerably between destinations.

The ranking was calculated by comparing the number of hotels accepting pets with the total number of hotel listings in each destination. The Booking.com data were collected on 29 July 2026.

Samantha Gannon

info at madeira-weekly.com

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