How to Find an Accessible Hotel - from New Mobility Magazine

Ashley Lyn Olson is passionate about traveling. As CEO and founder of Wheelchair Travel-ing, the T12 para from San Ra-

mone, Calif., documents every place she visits, both in the U.S. and abroad. She’s seen the proverbial good, bad and ugly in her travels, and is upbeat even in the face of marginal accessibility.

“There have been so many times where hotels are supposed to be acces-sible, and they generally are, but maybe they have an older building,” says Olson, 30. “Like one in San Francisco. There was an elevator and a roll-in shower that was pretty tight, but I could back in. And to me, it comes down to sleeping and bath-ing when you travel.”

But she does have her pet peeves. Among them are bathrooms. “Some ho-tels say ‘you can roll into the bathroom, totally,’ but I need a roll-in shower. Of course I can roll into the bathroom. And they don’t know the difference.” And why do hotel chains make sure that each room looks just like all the other rooms, down to matching bedspreads, but then have unique bathroom layouts? “Some-times the bench is on one wall and the hand-held shower head on the other, so it becomes more challenging,” she says.

And then there’s, oh yes, bed height.

“Sometimes I’ll use the bed sheets as a rope and climb up the bed. Definitely a pet peeve of mine,” says Olson. “There’s

no requirement for bed height by the ADA, which blows my mind.”

Once, while staying at a chic hotel in

TRAVEL LODGING

How to Get an Accessible Hotel RoomB Y J O S I E B Y Z E K

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY ACCESSIBLE?

To gauge what respondents mean by accessi-ble, we asked you to tell us about what’s most

important, and gave the following six options: • Accessible toilets with plenty of space for

easy transfers, 165• Proper bed height, 143• Roll-in showers, 138• Accessible parking spaces close to the

entrance, 124• Accessible room close to the elevator or on

first floor, 93• Proper counter height, 60• Accessible exercise areas, including the

pool, 41

We left a space for “other,” and many of you wrote in that you need room to maneuver as well as space under the bed for Hoyer lifts. Our favorite answer under ‘other’ was a person with post-polio who wants to see “staff that can solve problems.”

But then, in order to get at what is absolutely the most crucial accessible feature, we asked you to choose just one. From this we learned that be-ing able to comfortably use the bathroom in a hotel room (75) is more important than using a roll-in shower (61), but proper bed height is a big deal (39). All other features garnered less than 10 responses each.

Ashley Lyn Olson stayed at one hotel with a perfect bathroom, but

the bed was on an inaccessible platform (right).

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NM asked, “Which hotels are best and

why?” 210 of you responded with the

wisdom of experience.

downtown Los Angeles, she made a big deal about her bathroom needs. “They guaranteed me it would be fine. And it was fantastic,” she says. “Then I go to the bed and there’s a 2-inch-high, 2-foot-wide platform all the way around it. So that means there’s a huge gap between me and the mattress! All of their rooms are like this, it’s their general standard.”

She has learned a trick that usu-ally works when reserving an accessible room. “If you need something really spe-cific, when you make a reservation, talk to someone in housekeeping or main-tenance, since they know the hotel inti-mately,” she suggests.

Be very specific, recommends Olson. It’s not good enough to just ask if a hotel has a shower bench — you have to find out if it’s big enough, and even if it has a back.

This is Not What I Asked For Olson, a para since she was 14, is a savvy traveler who knows how to ask the right questions to get the access she needs — and whom to ask. But sometimes people who aren’t as savvy can run into major aggravation, says Kleo King, senior vice

president of Accessibility Services for United Spinal. King is also a member of the U.S. Access Board.

“People who have a new injury or on-set of disease who are now using a wheel-chair or scooter may not know they have to specify, ‘I need an accessible room with a roll-in shower,’ or ‘I need a tub,’ and even those who do specify that on their reserva-tion can have it get messed up,” says King.

And yet, even when people know ex-

actly what they need, they still might not get it. “Since the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, hotel reservations are supposed to be better. They’re supposed to take your request offline, if you use an Internet portal, and have that roll-in shower for you,” says King. “So if some-one comes in and demands it, they’re not supposed to get that room. You re-served it, you need it. If all the rooms are booked, then they can call other hotels

International travel and inclusion design consultant Scott Rains says it’s time for people with disabilities to stop insisting we’re a market niche. “We cross-cut all

niches and all demographics,” says Rains. “We cover all economic brackets and we’re traveling for the same reasons everyone else does. We date, we marry, we have families.”

Our survey on hotel and motel accessibility proves Rains’ point. When we asked why respondents travel, 92 of 210 said for family vacations, followed by 68 for couple getaways and 39 for work-related trips. That’s a lot of family members, lovers and coworkers all benefiting from access technically needed by only one person.

We also asked what price range respondents typically aim for when booking a room: 72 said $50-$100, 95 said $100-$150, and 22 said $150-$200.

So much for the stereotype that everyone who uses a wheelchair is impover-ished and alone.

We asked which hotel chains are the most reliable when it comes to honor-ing a reservation for an accessible room and asked respondents to name

as many as they wanted. Five percent answered, “none!” but most report having luck with the following chains:

• Hilton Hotels & Resorts. Fifty-five of you responded that the Hilton chain will have your room ready when you check in. Of this 55, Hampton Inn, owned by Hilton, received 21 responses. The Hilton Garden Inn, Embassy Suites, DoubleTree and Homewood Suites each received less than 5 responses.

• Marriott received 42 responses; 35 for the Marriott itself, followed by less than five each for Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield Inn and Suites, and Springhill Suites.

• Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts did well by 33 of you; 17 for Holiday Inn, another 15 for Holiday Inn Express and one for the Staybridge Extended Stay.

• Choice Hotels brought up the rear with a low 17 responses. Its Sleep Inn, Com-fort Suits and Rodeway Inn each garnered less than five. Comfort Inn received 6 responses.

So what does this mean? First, it’s not a scientific poll. There are other factors to take into consideration, like which chains have the most brands. But some conclu-sions can be drawn, such as large chains do a better job at honoring reservations. Also, it may mean nothing that some of the smaller brands in a larger chain didn’t get as many responses, since most people book via the Internet, and if you look on the website for, say, Hilton, you’ll see its brands that are near your destination are also pulled up.

WHERE’S MY ROOM?

WE’RE THE MARKET, NOT A NICHE

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in the area to get a room, maybe send the customer to the other Marriott, that kind of thing.” But your room that you reserved, with all the specific accommo-dations you requested, ought to be there when you arrive.

“The bigger chains do better with this,” says King. “Most hotel chains, es-pecially newer ones, do renovations every 10 to 15 years just to upgrade so the prop-erty doesn’t look dingy. So most do have what the ADA requires.”

It boils down to customer service, says King. “If there’s a glitch and they’re nice and take care of it, it goes unnoticed. But if the staff is rude, then the glitch be-comes worse, which is true whether it’s accessibility-related or if the heat doesn’t work. If the staff isn’t responsive, it ruins your stay.”

What Does the ADA Not Say? There are some accessibility features the ADA is very specific about: Hotels with over 50 rooms need to have at least three accessible rooms without a roll-in shower and at least one room with a roll-in shower. There are supposed to be

We asked which chains have proven to be the most accessible for you and your family during your travels, and not surprisingly, the answers reflect-

ed the same pattern as our question about reliable reservations. But there were some differences.

• Hilton Hotels & Resorts, at 67 responses, smoked the competition, and 27 of these were for the Hampton Inn alone. Hilton Garden Inn, Embassy Suites, DoubleTree and Homewood Suites each received less than 5 responses. Interest-

ingly, those of you who took the survey find Hilton’s accessibility to be more reliable than Hilton’s honor-ing of room reservations. But keep in mind the survey allowed multiple responses, and some of you chose Hilton and Hampton Inn, thus giving the chain two responses from one person.

• Marriott received 44 responses, and its brands, Courtyard by Marriott, Fairfield Inn and Suites, and Springfield Suites, each received less than five re-sponses.

• Holiday Inn scored 32, with roughly half going to the actual Holiday Inn, and half to the Holiday Inn Express.

• Choice brings up the rear with 17 responses di-vided pretty evenly between Comfort Inn and Com-fort Suites, and a smattering of responses for the Sleep Inn and Rodeway Inn.

WHAT’S IT LIKE WHEN I GET THERE?

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unobstructed areas with enough space for a wheelchair user to turn around in a guest room’s bathroom. Regs say how high sinks ought to be, and even address the structural strength of grab bars. And in 2010 the standards were strengthened to assure room reserva-tions are honored. And yet, despite this level of specificity, and despite overall satisfaction with hotel accessibility, there are some glaring areas that need improvement.

Take toilets, for example. “Ya gotta use the bathroom,” says

King. “You can’t be on vacation or even

have an overnight stay and not use the bathroom. And you want to get up and shower in the morning.”

The lack of consistency from hotel to hotel in how bathrooms are laid out can be odd, says Scott Rains, an inter-national consultant on travel and uni-versal design. “Some of the bathrooms are so tiny or made so weirdly you can’t get in past the door, sinks or toilets. In an accessible bathroom that meets the standards, the height range may not be good for some people. In some people’s opinions, even ADA-standard toilets are not sufficient.” Rains, a C3-4 in-

Hotels are supposed to have room underneath beds to ac-commodate Hoyer lifts, but David Smart, a C4-5 quad,

says many hotels don’t seem to know this. That’s OK. He’s fig-ured out a solution. “There is no Hyatt in the country that has a bed frame that allows for a Hoyer lift transfer,” he says. “At a Hyatt in Santa Rosa, Calif., the manager of the hotel had the frame switched and the bathroom counter skirt ripped out so we could stay there.” Smart says there’s simply no reason for

a hotel to balk at swapping out frames. “Frames cost hardly anything — you can pick one up for $40 at Wal-Mart.”

Mattress density is another factor Smart must deal with, due to past troubles with pressure wounds. “At home I sleep on an air bed that’s perfect for me,” says Smart. But I also find memory foam works just fine.” He packs a memory foam mat-tress topper and brings it with him wherever he and his fiancé go. “The toppers collapse pretty darn well,” he says.

A NOTE ABOUT HOYER LIFTS AND MATTRESSES

Ashley Lyn Olson is passionate about travel.

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complete quad, lives in San Jose, Calif., and has travelled exten-sively throughout the world.

To keep accessibility in the U.S. in perspective, Rains talks about how the burning issue in Asia is to get hotels to stop putting in a 3-inch-tall, 1-inch-wide curb be-tween the guestroom’s bedroom and bathroom.

And the list goes on and on.Yet it’s worth it, says Olson. She

keeps accessibility snafus in per-spective by reminding herself that, after all, a hotel room is not a des-tination. It’s a place to stay while she’s exploring the world. “I feel the most connected to the world and alive when I travel — every sound, smell, taste is heightened. I am truly living in the moment and see how truly beautiful and full of love this world really is.”

Resources• Able to Travel, 888/211-

3635; www.abletotravel.org. This travel agency works primarily with people who have disabilities.

• Accessibility Services, www. accessibility-services.com. This team of professional consultants guide businesses such as hotels toward complete accessibility. Like New Mobility and Able to Travel, Accessibility Services is under Unit-ed Spinal Association’s umbrella.

• Americans with Disabilities Act Checklist for New Lodging Fa-cilities; www.ada.gov/hsurvey.htm

• Rolling Rains Report, www.rollingrains.com. This site is a good source for the latest info on inclusive travel and the hospitality industry.

• Wheelchair Traveling, Wheelchairtraveling.com. Wheelchair Traveling’s Ashley Lyn Olson travels domestically and internationally, takes lots of notes, and guides fellow wheel-chair users interested in similar trips. Also, take a few minutes to view The World of Wheel-chair Travel, www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xg8-9tK-y_4#t=595.

When I recently attempted a week-end getaway to Atlantic City, N.J., I

found hotel personnel were shockingly uninformed about the very people ac-cessible rooms were designed to service. Some didn’t see the beds as high at all. Others thought we all travel with motor-ized hoists or musclemen health aides to toss us in at night. One even asked why I couldn’t stand (true!). But most just couldn’t wrap their heads around the concept of someone in a wheelchair needing to transfer laterally onto a bed without assistance.

To make matters worse, the runaround I got trying to find someone to even measure the bed height in an accessible room was a Herculean feat requiring numerous emails and dozens of phone calls. After speaking to everyone from reservation takers to the head of house-keeping, I landed in the voicemail of the executive director of the front office. The gentleman was well aware of the bed-height issue because his elderly mother complained about the very same thing all the time. The solution was one that I had proposed in my very first email to the ho-tel — if possible, simply remove the box spring and place the mattress directly onto the bed frame.

Of course there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all-disabled hotel room, but it’s per-fectly reasonable to expect lodgings with accessible rooms to have some kind of pro-vision in place that would allow their staff to quickly lower a bed’s height upon request by a wheelchair user. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the ADA that addresses the bed height issue, so each of us are pretty much on our own in this little battle, but I do have some tips that work for me.

1. Call the hotel directly. Ask for a front desk manager and tell them about your ac-cess concerns. For example, if the bathroom has a bath seat, but you need a bath trans-fer bench, chances are the hotel will know where you can rent one that will deliver to

the hotel, often on short notice. Most hotels are happy to work with you, but it may take a few calls to get the right person on the phone. If you get attitude from staff, take your business elsewhere — you will find other places that aim to please.

2. If the bed height is a problem, speak up immediately! Hotel mainte-nance staff deal with all kinds of prob-

lems, including this one. If they seem baffled, try to give them as much infor-mation as you can on what you need so they can fig-ure out what to do.

3. Don’t be shy — offer suggestions such as the one I previously mentioned. Re-moving the box spring and having the mattress sit di-rectly on the bed frame of-ten solves the height prob-

lem quickly and with a minimum of hassle. 4. Be a gracious guest. If modifications

are made to your bed by maintenance, thank them for their help with a smile (I offer a tip). Showing your appreciation for their time and effort helps pave the way for the next disabled person who needs it done. If you like to write reviews, YELP! is a great online outlet for sharing info — both pro or con.

5. Consider writing letters to hotel big-wigs and associations to let them know that bed heights are a major problem that needs addressing. Government agencies and corporate personnel are often listed online, so finding them isn’t hard.

Being disabled means we deal with life’s inconveniences daily and can adapt better than our nondisabled counterparts in odd or difficult situations. By planning ahead and telling people what you need in advance, you not only help yourself, but you help others and create more aware-ness for all.

New Yorker Jacquie Tellalian’s blog, Norma Desperate: Crippled Spinster in Cy-berspace, can be found at normadesperate.wordpress.com. This article first appeared at www.spinalcord.org/hotel-accessibility.

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