CareTags: How Starwood Pet Travel Keeps You Connected to Your Pet, Every Step of the Way

Moving a pet internationally is a lot to manage. Between USDA paperwork, import requirements, flight logistics, and veterinary timing, it's easy to feel like your pet's journey is happening somewhere you can't see. That's the anxiety Starwood Pet Travel built CareTags to solve.

As the only U.S. pet travel provider offering CareTags technology, Starwood gives pet parents something most relocation companies can't: real, continuous visibility into where their pet is and how they're doing, from the moment their move begins to long after they've landed.

Stay in the Loop, Not in the Dark

International pet relocation involves a lot of moving parts, and historically, a lot of those parts have lived in scattered email threads and one-off phone updates. Starwood replaced that with something better: the first all-inclusive Pet Travel Portal, a single secure dashboard that gives you real-time visibility into your pet's entire move.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

• Drivers, handlers, and team members scan and record real-time status updates at every stage of your pet's trip
• You and your Starwood coordinator receive automated email and text updates — including photos and GPS location — as your pet moves through each leg of their journey
• You get an extra layer of visibility into your pet's progress, so you're never left wondering where they are or how they're doing

Instead of guessing, you get a clear, organized view of everything that matters, updated as it happens.

More Than a Tag: Your Pet's Digital Identity

Where the Pet Travel Portal covers the logistics of the move itself, CareTags cover something just as important: your pet's identity.

Each CareTag gives your pet a unique, scannable ID. If your pet is ever separated from you — during travel or well beyond it — anyone who finds them can scan the tag and immediately access their profile, making for faster, safer reunions. No specialized scanners or database searches required. Anyone can scan the QR code with a smartphone, no app needed, and it will:

• Display your pet's up-to-date profile and contact information in seconds
• Send you the finder's GPS location and contact details right away

Peace of Mind That Outlasts the Move

What makes CareTags different from a standard ID tag is that the protection doesn't expire when the relocation does. Your pet's digital profile becomes a lifetime tool — useful at the dog park, on a hike, at a new home in a new country, anywhere life takes you and your pet next.

That's the real idea behind CareTags: peace of mind shouldn't be temporary, and it shouldn't depend on how far your pet has traveled. Whether your pet is mid-move or years into their new life abroad, CareTags keep that same layer of protection in place.

Why It Matters for Global Movers

Pet relocation is a growing part of global mobility, and the families going through it are dealing with enough uncertainty already — new countries, new homes, new routines. CareTags won't remove that uncertainty entirely, but they remove one major source of it: not knowing where your pet is or whether they're safe.

It's a small piece of technology solving a problem every pet owner moving internationally understands instinctively — the not knowing is often harder than the logistics themselves.

Ready to move your pet with real-time visibility every step of the way? Talk to our experts to learn more about CareTags and the Starwood Pet Travel Portal.