#Ad – Products gifted in exchange for our honest review
Both of the girls (and I!) are huge fans of Playmobil. Having been a fan since my own childhood back in the 80s, it is so lovely to now be able to share the experience and imagination of Playmobil with two children of my own. When we heard about some of the new additions to the Playmobil City Life range, and in particular the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel, I knew that it was right up the girls’ street. With a new found obsession with all things dog thanks to their Aunt and Uncle’s new puppy, the ability to act out little scenes with a whole hotel full of puppies was enough to get them both pretty excited!
As with all larger Playmobil sets, the Playmobil Tiny Paws Pet Hotel comes in a fairly large box, and does require a fair amount of assembly before play. The set comes in lots of small individual bags, and part of the challenge is locating the right items (based on the very clear visual based instructions) and clicking them all together. Whilst not in any way complicated (even for a flat pack furniture phobe like me!) it does take a little time. The Tiny Paws Pet Hotel took around 15 minutes in total, and is therefore easier to do alone without excited little fingers trying to “help” or take important pieces away whilst your head is turned!
This particular set also involves some application of stickers which again are clearly numbered to advise of their location. Whilst you may want to give the children free rein to apply the stickers to the side of the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel itself, there are some way you may prefer an adult to do the application, particularly the areas where you need to apply them fairly straight (as they are not particularly easy to peel off and reapply).
Once assembled, the Playmobil Tiny Paws Pet Hotel is pretty impressive at first sight, with its bright colours, large front doors and beautifully decorated exterior. Like many Playmobil sets, the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel offers two sided play, making it great for siblings to share (in theory at least!)
To the one side of the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel is a large fence (which can be made bigger or smaller by simply removing or adding panels). This area becomes the outdoor play area for the dogs, with agility exercises and kennels to make both playtime and rest time fun.
Erin really enjoyed popping the puppies in and out of their little kennels – with one large and one smaller kennel to suit the variety of different size dogs included in the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel. There is also a little food tray with removeable bowls for when its time for their treat!
To the side of the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel there is a large dog flap which actually opens, allowing dogs to move from the inside space to the outdoor play area as they wish, and again the girls absolutely love poking the dogs through from one side to the other.
Not only does the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel come with a huge amount of pets including dogs in a variety of breeds and sizes, and two colourful parrots, but also a family who are in charge of running the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel. With his wheelbarrow in regular use, the Hotel manager spends a lot of time bringing in new food for the pups which come in large bags, as well as transporting fresh fruit and veg, tins and even a rope full of sausages if the dogs have been on their best behaviour!
When its raining outside or simply time to have a rest from their busy day, the dogs can be bought indoors into a smaller gated off area, which again can simply be clicked into place or removed as required.
As with all the previous Playmobil sets we have had, the attention to detail with the Playmobil Tiny Paws Pet Hotel is pretty impressive, but one thing to bear in mind if you have younger siblings is that many of the pieces are very small.
No busy pet hotel would be complete without a busy reception and kitchen area; fully equipped with a hob, washing machine and large drawer for pots and pans. With an in house computer system for checking in guests, Erin spent a lot of time acting out scenes where new pets were delivered as their families went on holiday, bringing in extra characters from our other sets to create quite a busy drop off.
From the beautiful flowers in the hedgerow on the exterior of the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel, to the fully stocked pantry with tins, medicines, leads for walks and cleaning products, there is everything in stock to ensure that the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel stays clean and tidy for its guests!
Some of the girls favourite features of the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel included the miniature leads which allowed the pups to be taken for a little walk around the hotel. There are 3 leads included in the set, made from stretchy material that can easily be slotted over the dogs heads.
Although a bit fiddly to clip them into place, Erin also loved the little bird stand on which the two parrots were nesting.
Overall the Playmobil Tiny Paws Pet Hotel has been unsurprisingly a huge hit with the girls. With the hotel becoming the foundation for a whole heap of creative and imaginative play, it has been just lovely watching the girls act out scenes, make up stories and generally play nicely together with this set (with just the odd squabble over who gets to hold the smallest of the dogs!)
You can learn more about The Playmobil Tiny Paws Pet Hotel and purchase (as well as order missing parts should any go astray) purchase from Playmobil.com. The Tiny Paws Pet Hotel has an RRP of £59.99.
You may also be interested in our Playmobil Summer Villa and the Playmobil Children’s Playground reviews.
*This is a collaborative post. We were sent the Tiny Paws Pet Hotel in exchange for our honest review. As always all thoughts and opinions are my own*
