Dogs must be allowed to accompany guests in at least one indoor shared guest area that is ordinarily used by guests for purposes other than transit, such as a lounge, bar, restaurant, or cafe. Corridors, lifts, and stairwells do not satisfy this requirement. Where access to shared indoor areas is prohibited by law or regulation, this requirement is satisfied as long as the legal restriction is publicly disclosed and all other requirements are met.
RDFS-02 · Certification Requirement R3
Shared Indoor Guest Area Access
Dogs must be allowed in at least one indoor shared guest area used for purposes other than transit, such as a lounge, bar, restaurant, or cafe.
Standard Requirement
Dogs must be allowed in at least one indoor shared guest area used for purposes other than transit, such as a lounge, bar, restaurant, or cafe.
RDFS-02 R3 · Pass/fail. Fail this requirement and the outcome is Not Certified.
R3. Shared Indoor Guest Area Access
Assessed via
Q38 (legal prohibition) OR Q6 (lounge) OR Q3 (bar)
Roch Interpretation
One qualifying indoor space is enough. A residents' lounge, a hotel bar, a ground floor sitting room. Any of these works as long as it is genuinely usable and not a corridor with a chair in it.
Examples
Compliant
A city centre hotel permits dogs in its ground floor residents' lounge seven days a week, as stated in the pet policy, giving guests a practical space to sit with their dog beyond the bedroom.
Not compliant
A hotel tells guests with dogs they can sit in the entrance hall if they want but that the lounge, bar, and restaurant are all off limits to dogs.
Published by Roch Dog
RDFS-02 · Last updated 17 March 2026