Hotel policy: People with disabilities should travel alone

[elf]

I'm at Escapade, which is being held in the LAX Four Points Sheraton, which has a fascinating arrangement for ADA-compliant rooms: they only have them in single-king rooms, not rooms with 2 queen beds. I'm rooming with one person who's currently stuck in a room with two beds; I drove down with another who opted for the single king bed version--and was told she'd have to pay extra for a rollout bed.

Both of these people reserved rooms with two queens, and checked the box on the website requesting a room with disability access. Both of them have mobility problems that mean it's very unsafe to bathe without bars in the tub to hold on to... and this hotel, unlike many of them, has no safety bars in the standard bathrooms.

After asking around, it seems this has become a common hotel policy: they apparently don't want to "waste" the more valuable double-queen rooms by making them accessible and pulling them out of the general-use pool of rooms. People with disabilities are not offered the option of rooms with two beds--AND they're no told this when they reserve the room. They are informed when they reach the front desk that they have a choice between sleep and bathing; they don't get to have comfortable and safe arrangements for both.

Anyone know a good ADA lawyer?

Comments

[sasha_feather]

The convention committee can liaise with the hotel to let them know that their guests are unhappy. Conventions bring business to a hotel, and as such have some power: they can say, hey, if you don't fix this, we could bring our business elsewhere. So, the chairs of the convention, and/or the hotel liaison, should bring this up with the hotel, in my opinion.

[lilacsigil]

Gee, that links up well with the airlines that only allow disabled people to fly *with* a carer!

[davidgillon]

*Headdesk* How to transform access into disablism, and all in pursuit of squeezing the most money out of the people likely least able to afford it.