What Constitutes "Accessible"?

What do all of you think constitutes an accessible cabin or hotel room? Just putting in grab bars? A tub with a plastic shower bench? Or does it mean a fully done bathroom with a roll in shower, a raised toilet seat, a roll up sink? The reason I'm asking is, I'm currently in a hotel of a major chain, and when I checked in, I asked if the room was fully accessible and I was told it was, but when I got into the room I discovered that their idea of accessible was a tub with grab bars. When I booked the room, I made it clear that I absolutely needed a roll in shower as I can't climb into a tub-shower and can't stand up in a tub/shower. The manager insisted that this room WAS compliant with the ADA and in a hotel of more than 180 rooms, they had only two with roll in showers, which is all they legally needed. I asked if there was any way to find out if both of those rooms were booked by those who truly needed it (yes I know they're not supposed to, but I threw that out anyway). Anyway, it turned out neither room was book by a disabled person, and one very kindly offered to switch with me, so it turned out OK. But I don't know what I would have done for 4 days in that other room.

Have any of you experienced something similar?

What do all of you think constitutes an accessible cabin or hotel room? Just putting in grab bars? A tub with a plastic shower bench? Or does it mean a fully done bathroom with a roll in shower, a raised toilet seat, a roll up sink? The reason I'm asking is, I'm currently in a hotel of a major chain, and when I checked in, I asked if the room was fully accessible and I was told it was, but when I got into the room I discovered that their idea of accessible was a tub with grab bars. When I booked the room, I made it clear that I absolutely needed a roll in shower as I can't climb into a tub-shower and can't stand up in a tub/shower. The manager insisted that this room WAS compliant with the ADA and in a hotel of more than 180 rooms, they had only two with roll in showers, which is all they legally needed. I asked if there was any way to find out if both of those rooms were booked by those who truly needed it (yes I know they're not supposed to, but I threw that out anyway). Anyway, it turned out neither room was book by a disabled person, and one very kindly offered to switch with me, so it turned out OK. But I don't know what I would have done for 4 days in that other room.

 

Have any of you experienced something similar?

Yes, having a tub with grab bars does make the hotel compliant with the ADA. Happens all the time to me. I went through a similar experience last fall:

called the hotel in advance to book a room, asked repeatedly for a room with a roll-in shower, was told I would be booked in one...and when I arrived, the "accessible room" had a tub with grab bars, a tub bench that didn't extend over the tub (so I could not transfer on to it), a "fixed" shower head. We stayed there that night, then found a more accessible room in another hotel (and it was $20 cheaper a night!) in the same city.

But basically yes..they are in compliance. Not helpful to those of us who cannot stand or climb over tubs, but they are in compliance. Sorry.

The only time I have found a truely accessible room was at Walt Disney Worlds Coronado Springs. The room had a lower king size bed, plenty of roll-around room, lower switches and vanities, roll in shower and h/c toilet, and huge bathroom. It also had a connecting "companion" room with 2 doubles. We really only need the grab bars and a bench is nice. I almost always ask for a H/C room and have never been asked if a member of our party is handicapped. Disney seems to do better than most hotels.

I can only speak for the handicap rooms I saw on the NCL Jewel but they had very wide cabin doors, the rooms (even interior) were quite large and the bathroom was truly roll right in and right into the shower, raised toilet, roll up sink.

Precruise last year we went down to Ft lauderdale a day early.We requested a rollin shower and was assured by reservations we would get one. We didn't arrive at the hotel til 10pm. When we got to the room to our surprise there was a tub. Not only a tub, but the tallest tub I have ever seen!!! Not only was this not accessible, at 5'3" and ablebodied I could barely get into this tub. After explaining to them that this was not HP accessible, they scrambled to find us another room. We ended up in a regular room, because it had what they called a "rollin shower". This was a skinny glassed in shower with about 3 feet wide section to get in and a 5" lip!! Again we called the front desk. By this time it was midnight and we were exhausted. After another 1/2 hour it was decided that they had NO HP accessible rooms. We were shocked. We ended up staying in the room with the shower cuz it was late and there wasn't really another room to stay in. It was a miserable night and my fiance was not even able to shower in the morning. I was furious and ready for a fight as we went to check out. Much to my surprise they did not charge us for thr room, we weren't going to pay anyway. This was a MAJOR hotel chain, which had just gone through a multi million dollar renovation. Very sad.

Excellent question Darcy!

In hotels, I've found that the newest of the Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inns and Suites and such usually are 100% walk in showers with wide shower doors. If you go higher up in price of hotel chain rooms, you are back to bathtubs which are very hard to use.

The high status big city hotels seldom have walk in showers.

In England and Scotland the only way to actually guaranty you will get a walk in shower is to book 'down market' with the Holiday Inn Express motels and similar chains.

HI

Travelodge have wet rooms, there are 2 near Southampton.

this time we are staying at Potters in Romsey, it looks good but on phoning up to book transfers I found out there was a bath, but they are moving us to aroom with a wet room

THe bath room ADelphi Hotel in Liverpool (associated in 60s with Beatles) is huge with wet room with a bath as well

I have had very poor success with Holiday Inn Express. They do have roll in showers BUT when you use the fold down seat you cannot reach the controls. Also the shower head is on a very short cord and you cannot rinse off holding it yourself. I rather prefer to shower by myself but at Holiday Inn I have to have help. In general I find cruise staterooms to be better designed. We have also recently stayed at several comfort inns. Most had tubs in the accessible rooms and the placement of the towels was quite strange also. Why are they across the room from the shower? I really think that someone who uses a wheelchair or scooter should advise these big companies on what would work.

As others stated, there are two types of accessible rooms -- those with roll-in showers and those with tubs/grab bars. I have a quad friend who can't do a roll-in shower -- she has to have a tub -- so it all really depends on your access need. I think the law was written to take all needs into account.

It should also be noted that properties with fewer than 50 rooms are not required to have any accessible rooms with roll-in showers, so be aware of that if you opt for a smaller property.

Basically you have to call the hotel and make sure they block an accessible rooms with a roll-in shower for you, if you need one. Use that terminology. Blocking means they take the a specific room (in this case the one with a roll-in shower) out of inventory and save it for a specific guest. Blocking will become the law of the land on 3-15-12 thanks to the new ADAAG, so hopefully things will improve then. And late arrivals -- they pretty much get pot luck, so if someone messed up and gave your room to someone else, well, you're kind of stuck.

Candy

It should be further noted that when ADA Law was first implemented, any building built prior to ADA Law was enacted was/is "grandfathered" until such time that the property is remodeled. Meaning the building owners do not have to have roll in showers and that placement of grab bars in the bathroom make the facility compliant under ADA Law until the time comes that any remodeling is done. Any Hotel with more than 50 rooms that was built after the implementation of ADA Law is more likely to have rollin showers.

Glad to hear about the new requirement for blocking. Thanks for sharing your helpful info here.

We have also had to learn the hard way about telling the hotel exactly what accessible features we need, particularly in the bathroom. And we have also had the "pleasure" of arriving after a long day of travel only to learn that the roll-in room I confirmed on the phone was not available.

In those cases, my DH just went without showering one night, and we moved the next day. But now I call the hotel's front desk on the day of arrival to make absolutely sure that we have a roll-in shower room. I used to just kind of sweet-talk the person at the desk so they want to help us out. Now I will call the day before and ask them to "block" as Queenie suggests.

Like others said, when you call the hotel to get the room set aside for you, tell them what accommodations you need, not just "an accessible room". They can't read your mind and so don't know what your needs are.

Like others said, when you call the hotel to get the room set aside for you, tell them what accommodations you need, not just "an accessible room". They can't read your mind and so don't know what your needs are.

Here's the problem I encountered. When I called the 800 number to book this room, I was told they would put it in the record, but they would not guarantee ANY accessible room. The booking person said that they NEVER guarantee accessible cabins, and if I showed up Kate, too bad. I then called this hotel directly, asked that they hold the room with the roll in shower, and again I was told they don't do that, and if others came in early, they would get the room. So, it doesn't matter if you request they set aside these rooms, they will not do it.

BTW, there's a discussion about able bodied booking accessible cabins, over on the Celebrity board.

Here's the problem I encountered. When I called the 800 number to book this room, I was told they would put it in the record, but they would not guarantee ANY accessible room. The booking person said that they NEVER guarantee accessible cabins, and if I showed up Kate, too bad. I then called this hotel directly, asked that they hold the room with the roll in shower, and again I was told they don't do that, and if others came in early, they would get the room. So, it doesn't matter if you request they set aside these rooms, they will not do it.

 

BTW, there's a discussion about able bodied booking accessible cabins, over on the Celebrity board.

Calling the 800 number will not ever get you an accessible room, I've discovered. I always have to call the hotel directly.

And yes, even though you did call the hotel directly, some will indeed hold the accessible room, some won't. I've always had luck with that when I offer to provide (and sometimes do provide) my credit card information.

But yes, even then, I have arrived to find that either the room I booked is gone, or didn't have a roll-in shower as promised, or didn't have other features as promised.

Sometimes I make do, other times I move. If I can provide a paper trail (like for my last booking when this happened..a series of calls to the hotel to verify what turned out to be a non-existent roll-in shower)

I demand..and get..my money back, even if I stay in the room the first night.

We have always been told that asking for an accessible room is a "request". My hubby has argued time and time again about this. Explaining it is not a request but a need. If you go to book a cabin on the HAL website, the box says "I would prefer an accessible room" not "need". Thats ridiculous in my opinion.

Here's the problem I encountered. When I called the 800 number to book this room, I was told they would put it in the record, but they would not guarantee ANY accessible room. The booking person said that they NEVER guarantee accessible cabins, and if I showed up Kate, too bad. I then called this hotel directly, asked that they hold the room with the roll in shower, and again I was told they don't do that, and if others came in early, they would get the room. So, it doesn't matter if you request they set aside these rooms, they will not do it.

 

BTW, there's a discussion about able bodied booking accessible cabins, over on the Celebrity board.

Ah, well that stinks. Did you ask to speak to the manager or as high up as possible?

Is there any way you could have booked a different hotel (not sure if you were at a convention/meeting at that particular hotel or not) when they told you this? And made a complaint with a disability group about that hotel, I mean, not just letting it go.

I've had problems with the Holiday Inn not honoring a reservation for an HC room. I booked through the 800 # then called the hotel. Both times was told the room was reserved for us. When we arrived around 6 PM, the room had been given to someone else. We were told then that we should never have been told that they would hold an HC room - it's always been first come, first served. I asked if they would check to see if the person given the room needed it, but the clerk wouldn't do that. I even spoke with the manager and she wouldn't check either. We called several other hotels but none had an HC room available. We ended up staying there for the night, but my mom couldn't get into the bathroom in the room because the door was too narrow. She had to use the lobby bathroom. I filed a complaint with the corporate office and ended up getting a letter with an apology and our money back. However, the letter stated that their corporate policy is to not guarantee HC rooms and we should not have been told that they would. I haven't booked any rooms with Holiday Inn since, even when I'm not travelling with my mom.

We've stayed at Hilton, Embassy Suites, La Quinta, Sheraton, and Radisson. So far, I've booked either online or through the 800 # and been able to request an HC room. I've followed up with phone calls directly to the hotels and re-iterated the need for an HC room. We've received HC rooms as requested.

Hotels are not required under law at this time to take an accessible room out of inventory if a person has only placed a "RESERVATION". All Accessible Hotel Rooms are on a first come first served basis ....not a first reserved basis. Meaning if someone else has made the same request for the same day and arrives before you do they than get the room. In general Accessible Rooms are not gauranteed unless that person has prepaid 100% for the room in advance. That's why I always prepay for my room and make certain that I get an emailed written confirmation that fully states that an ACCESSIBLE ROOM has been blocked..... not just requested.

It's hard for me to believe that 4 other people booked HC rooms at that exact same Holiday Inn more than 363 days in advance. Both the reservations office and the hotel misinformed me about their policy when I booked that room. I was told twice that the room type was guaranteed. It was only when we tried to check in that they told us that it wasn't. By then it was too late to do anything else. I even had an emailed confirmation that stated "accessible room" and said nothing about the room type not being guaranteed, not even in the "fine print". It doesn't matter to me that they were allowed to take the room because someone else who wanted the room checked in before us. As far as I'm concerned, Holiday Inn lied to me and I'm holding a grudge. I don't stay in any Holiday Inn affiliated hotel.

I've never been told that I had to prepay for an HC room to get one. I'll have to remember that next time I travel with my mom.

I've never been told that I had to prepay for an HC room to get one. I'll have to remember that next time I travel with my mom.

I was once told by someone in the Hotel Industy that money talks. That if a person prepays for the room they ususally get what they want/need. It doesn't apply solely to HC rooms. Anyone prepaying for the room generally ends up with what they wanted.

I too would be very upset if the hotel misled me to beleive that I would get the room I needed/wanted. You have every right to boycott any hotel of your choice.

I was once told by someone in the Hotel Industy that money talks. That if a person prepays for the room they ususally get what they want/need. It doesn't apply solely to HC rooms. Anyone prepaying for the room generally ends up with what they wanted.

 

I too would be very upset if the hotel misled me to beleive that I would get the room I needed/wanted. You have every right to boycott any hotel of your choice.

We pre-paid for our room on this trip and it didn't help. We were still told that they would note the need for an accessible room with a roll in shower, but that they will not guarantee anything.

Sounds like the law definitely needs to be changed!!! This many ppl having issues with getting accessible rooms is outrageous, not to mention sad (how horrible that nobody has the heart to set aside the only room some ppl can use!!).

I have had very good luck with Holiday Inn Express in several cities. The rooms and bathrooms have plenty of wheelchair space and I found that the roll in shower was manageable by accessing the hand held shower befor I transferred to the shower seat and rolled the wheelchair out.

However, we all have different abilities and needs and what works for some may not work for all. Travelling alone, I always carry disposable washing cloths just in case.