hotel gripe

[deza]

I've been doing a lot of traveling lately. Every time I rented a hotel room, I asked for a handicap room. I know I have mobility issues, and it would be nice to have little amenities like shower bars and extra space.

Every time I've asked for a handicap room, I've been told the same thing--all handicap rooms have a single king bed, not a pair of doubles. One hotel also added their handicap rooms were on the second floor, and the didn't have an elevator.

Are gimps like me not allowed to travel with children? I feel like I must have missed something in the handbook.

Comments

[oneonthefence.livejournal.com]

One hotel also added their handicap rooms were on the second floor, and the didn't have an elevator.

Umm... wow. Not only is that ignorant, but I'm sure the ADA would LOVE to hear about that.

[magickcat.livejournal.com]

Seriously. ADA on that one. I was having massive issues, having fallen down stairs in a hotel the week before, so wasn't getting around great the following week at a different hotel- they had a shuttle to get my friend (with more mobility issues than I) and I and other guests to and from the public transportation station, and we found out the hard way that there is NO handicap accessible portion of this service. I had to pull myself up with the handle in the front seat (with a wrist brace on, mind you, if I had the knee immobilizer on like I was supposed to I'da been straight screwed) and then crawl into the back so that my friend could pull herself up and stay in the front. This was in front of the driver and other guests. It was SO humiliating. The driver was really as helpful as he could be, and sincerely apologetic, but WTF?!?
They could have at the VERY least informed us of this in advance. We could have seen if there were other options available.
Oh, also- the single bed? Umm... do they not realize that some people have PCAs and whatnot? Shoot, when I worked for Cirque du Soleil, a handicapped seat order brought up an automatic next-seat-over block for a "handler" or what have you.

[oneonthefence.livejournal.com]

WOW. That is totally a WTF kind of experience.

The more I hear these stories, and experience these things myself (I myself am disabled), the more and more I'm stunned by the sheer ignorance of most people. If it doesn't make THEIR life easier, it's not worth doing. Taking an extra minute to help someone out who needs it? God forbid, right?

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

Second floor and no elevator? WTH?????

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

Echoes.

[grail76.livejournal.com]

I'd shift away from the hotel with a 2nd floor h/c room and no elevator.
If they've set the H/C rooms up with a double bed, that's fine-- if they can supply you two cots. Dealing with the larger chains may work, better on this.

Feel free to name names of any hotels that you think don't take care of the disabled. I'm sure their head office would love the extra notoriety.

[tfcocs.livejournal.com]

/me shakes her head. Idiots!

[tfcocs.livejournal.com]

PS: You might consider publicly identifying the chain in a letter to The Consumerist (http://consumerist.com). That site is connected to Consumer Reports, and the folks over there are committed to righting wrongs like this. Seriously! And they get results!

[dorei.livejournal.com]

that is if you don't mind the wank from the commenters.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

consumer reports RULES

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

also usdoj has an ada division, not only for the insane people who put their h/c rooms on the 2nd floor w/o elevator (the fsck?) but probably as well for the only a king bed people.

double doubles started phasing out when hotels realized that folk on business were often sharing rooms as long as there were two beds. My grandmother was a travel agent and noticed this perhaps 15 years or so ago.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Two queen sized beds won't leave room to move around in a wheelchair, and the hotels use a normal sized room for their h/c rooms. If you need more beds, you can book the adjacent interconnected room.

[magickcat.livejournal.com]

Umm, I was just in a hotel, in a handicapped room with 2 beds and while I don't have a wheelchair, there definitely was room for one. It wouldn't have been super-spacious, but definitely enough room... and the bathroom was about 4x the size of my bathroom at home. I kind of wanted to sing and check out the acoustics. ;)

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

We were in a handicapped room over the weekend, and it was a standard sized hotel room (the footprint of the room was identical to every other room) that sacrificed the closet (it had a free standing wardrobe instead) and part of the living space to enlarge the bathroom, and only had a single king in it. Two queens would have made the room difficult to navigate for normal ambulatory people, much less those in a wheelchair. I didn't like the room much compared to the rooms we normally stay in (this is near my wife's parents and is the hotel we use when traveling there), and I suspect we were in it because all the other non H/C rooms with a single king were already filled. Generally I can't complain with Marriott's rooms, and I understand why that room is laid out like that, but we'll make a point to request non H/C rooms in the future.

[magickcat.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that sucks. It was actually a Marriott that I was in a couple of weeks ago~ hopefully you can get better accommodations next time!

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

The room would have been phenomenally easy for a wheelchair bound person to access every part of though. Like I said, I didn't like the layout because I prefer the common space and the closets. I'm sure I'd have a very different perspective if I were non-ambulatory.

[magickcat.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.

[tempie.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind, some hotels are not required to follow ADA guidelines if they are a small, non franchised business, and it depends with local and state guidelines.

Many small, private owned hotels do offer something by means of handicap access, though it may not have the full 'wheel in' bathroom and bars, There should atleast be a room on the ground floor accessible by a wheel chair.


I'm a general manager of one of these hotels. We offer our guests a ground floor room, and strive to keep a ground floor room available at all times and keep it the last to be rented out if we are getting booked. They are, however, kitchenettes, with two beds and extra space.

Keep in mind that most non smoking handicap rooms are no pets.


If you are in the NC area, fayetteville in particular, stay at the Days Inn in Raeford, room 111. It's handicap, two beds, adjoining with extra bathroom space and 'wheel in' shower.

[shesingsnow.livejournal.com]

Hmm -- at Disney, there are several types of disability-adapted rooms. Some have walk-in showers, some have handle-bar-only showers. All can have special commode-bars put in upon request, as well as bed-rails. The room is always on the first floor. The rooms always have a king-size bed, though, which has something to do with fire regulations and the space needed for a wheelchair. But, whenever a guest comes and has family members with them, Disney blocks out the room next door and guarantees it to the family. The computers are programmed to book the "rooms next door" last if at all possible and the disability rooms are booked by hand, never by the computer.

I think that the hotels where the disability rooms are on the second floor ought to be reported to the ADA or OSHA or whatever governing body controls that -- that's just *wrong*.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

anyone who says their Handicapped rooms on are a second floor with no elevator shoudl be reported IMMEDIATELY to the local law.

the king bed thing? yes, common, sadly

[zianuray.livejournal.com]

I would be worried about handicapped rooms on any floor about ground level even with an elevator -- b/c if there is a fire or a bomb threat, the elevators are shut off.