Family's Airbnb Came With An Unlikely Host — A Blind & Deaf Dog Who Guides Guests To The Beach
The very good boy, named Soldier, took their vacation to the next level and has become an internet sensation in the process.
@Notalabamahannah / TikTok An Airbnb can make or break a vacation, and for one TikToker and her family, an unlikely amenity made their Airbnb one of the best parts of their trip to Turks and Caicos.
The family's Airbnb came with a dog named Soldier who leads guests to the beach every day despite being both deaf and blind.
TikToker Hannah Brown, known as @notalabamahannah on the app, posted a video from her and her parents' stay at the Lighthouse Cottages in Turks and Caicos showing the very cute and furry canine concierge that came with their room.
The video begins with Hannah opening the front door of their Airbnb to find a dog named Soldier patiently waiting to lead her over a boardwalk and down a sandy road to a beautiful turquoise ocean with a sugar-sand beach. Truly a pet lover's paradise, if you will.
"We get so scared that Soldier is going to fall off the front walkway every single time," Hannah joked in her video's caption, but Soldier is a professional! He gets the trip off without a hitch every time, likely due to the way that dogs rely more on their sense of smell than any other sense. Soldier's lack of sight and hearing likely means his sense of smell is even more acute. There's no way this very good boy is leading anyone astray!
Unsurprisingly, Soldier has become an overnight internet sensation and has everyone wishing every Airbnb came with a dog concierge.
In a follow-up TikTok, Hannah gave a closer glimpse of Soldier and a bit more information about him, saying that he spends time with guests at several of the Airbnbs on the property. "He just walks over to the rental properties to play with the guests," she said.
"Do you see the camera? You're famous!" Hannah says to Soldier in her follow-up video, and while the answer is of course no, he does not (on account of that whole blindness thing), he definitely seemed to love the affection he was getting from Hannah.
If he only knew the half of it —the internet has gone wild for this pupper, which some TikTok commenters saying they were even brought to tears by the dog's sweet dedication to his job. "I would follow that dog anywhere it wanted to take me," one TikToker wrote, while another quipped, "I wasn't prepared to cry today."
Soldier has even made the feed of long-running dog-centric social media account WeRateDogs, which posts humorous ratings of internet dogs on an often absurdly determined 10-point scale. Soldier scored a 13 out of 10, obviously.
And if the response to Soldier online is any indication, he is going to be a very busy boy for the foreseeable future. TikTokers and Instagrammers alike were ready to book Soldier's Airbnb immediately. "The second u leave this place I'm booking it ARE U KIDDDDDDDING ME," one TikToker wrote, while a woman on Instagram joked that she was "cancelling my plans to be with Soldier permanently."
Several others who've also stayed at Soldier's magical Airbnb chimed in to report that he is, in fact, the absolute best good boy in the business, with one person even saying they cried when their vacation came to an end because they missed him so much.
So, if you're a dog lover, you know what to do — start saving up for a vacation to Turks and Caicos. And be sure to set aside some money for a hefty dog biscuit budget, because Soldier's owner reports that "he accepts treats as tour guide tips." Hook this doggo up!
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.