Dream Pet Hotel is a connect-style tile-matching game. A bellhop named Baxter needs the player's help with renovating a hotel and assisting guests. The player must match tiles across levels to earn stars, points, coins and pet snacks and unlock rooms. They must also clean and renovate the rooms and claim specific pets as guests.
Each level displays a playfield covered in a layer of tiles marked with animal icons that include bats, bears, bees, birds, butterflies, cats, dogs, elephants, fish, foxes, frogs, ladybugs, octopuses and seahorses. The player matches pairs of these tiles to clear the field.
The player can select tiles along an edge or across a gap that connect with no more than three connecting lines that appear when they make tile selections. They can also select adjacent ones. They must clear the field before an upper-center digital timer counts down to zero.
When the player struggles to find a match, they can eventually use three tools in the upper-right area. They receive free access initially and then must pay with their coins.
Unlike similar games, Dream Pet Hotel doesn't require the player to use in-game currency to perform cleaning and renovation tasks. That said, they must use their coins to claim pet guests.