Cardiff Bute Terrace Hotel by Belvilla

Cardiff Bute Terrace Hotel is about as central as a dog-friendly stay in Cardiff gets. It sits on Bute Terrace a few minutes from the Principality Stadium, St David's and the castle, it allows dogs, and, unusually for the city centre, there is parking right outside the door. It earns a 4.2/5 paw rating.

Dogs are specifically listed as allowed. A pet charge applies, but the amount is not published on the property's booking listing, so confirm it directly before you arrive. Beyond that the property publishes very little in the way of pet house rules, which means the practical questions, such as which floors take dogs, whether they can be left in the room and where they can go in the building, are all worth asking at the point of booking rather than assuming.

Staff are the consistent bright spot. Guests describe them as friendly and genuinely helpful, and the location does the rest: almost everything in central Cardiff is walkable from the door, and the riverside paths through Bute Park give you somewhere proper to exercise a dog without getting back in the car.

The caveat here is significant, and it matters more with a dog than without one. The building is a converted office block, the windows are sealed and do not open, and the rooms have no air conditioning, only a table fan. Guests report rooms becoming extremely hot, to the point that some have cut stays short in warm weather. A room you cannot ventilate is a poor place to leave a dog on a hot day, so if you are travelling between late spring and early autumn, ask specifically about cooling and the room's aspect before booking, and take a fan of your own.

Rooms are dated and basic, and overnight service can be thin. Outside the warm months, though, for an owner who wants a cheap, walkable, park-adjacent base in the middle of Cardiff with parking on the doorstep, it is a reasonable choice. In summer, think hard.