South Africa dog hotel offers 'six star' canine luxury

Five stars is usually the most a luxury hotel can get, but one in Cape Town gives its canine guests such a pampering its owners say it deserves six.

The city's Superwoof Dog Hotel provides the pooches of well-to-do South Africans with the kind of treatment many humans in poverty-stricken South Africa could only dream of.

"We've really tried to make sure that we offer a six star service," said Watson Mpala, a dog handler at Superwoof.

"With 24 hour supervision and the luxuries of our splash pool, the giant lounges, all of that jazz, we really want to provide a luxury experience for the doggos," said Mpala.

The experience includes long walks in the sumptuous countryside of the nearby Franschhoek valley, in the country's Western Cape wine-growing region.

Nearly three decades since the end of white minority rule, South Africa remains one of the world's most unequal countries, with half the country living below the official poverty line -- a group that includes the residents of the homeless shelter just opposite the 1-1/2-year-old dog care centre.

Among the hotel's highlights is dog champagne -- "champaws" -- basically water with herbs in a champagne bottle.

It was unclear if the furry guests really appreciated that particular status symbol, whether their long ears were attuned to the fine jazz, or, for that matter, what they made of the Sky Deck's touted view of Table Mountain -- dogs have notoriously poor long-distance vision when it comes to stationary objects.