Hotel Accessibility a Requirement, Not a Request

Consolidators must now change the way they handle reservations for disabled guests

It should not have taken a lawsuit to require hotel consolidators to accommodate disabled travelers who ask for accessible rooms. But it did. Candy Harrington, author of several books on handicap travel, calls this settlement agreed to by those third-party reservations services that book discounted hotel rooms and other travel components "a huge victory for disabled travelers."

She posted an informative report on her Barrier Free Travel blog applauding the settlement in the case of Smith v. Hotels.com L.P, in which the consolidator "has agreed to alter their way of doing business." By September of this year, details about accessible rooms are supposed to appear on the searchable websites of Hotels.com and Expedia.com.

Harrington continued that "travelers will actually be able to search for an accessible room with specific access features. So, for example, you'll be able to search for a room at a three-star hotel with a roll-in shower in Cleveland. That's a huge improvement in the whole system, as currently you can't determine a room's accessibility features when you search their database....And, in many cases you will actually be able to reserve that specific accessible room. It won't exactly be a point, click and book option, but a trained customer service representative will work with each disabled customer to make sure an accessible room that meets their needs is reserved. The representative will have to contact the property directly to make these arrangements, as hotels.com buys blocks of rooms, not specific rooms."

Harrington speculated that "this settlement may very well influence the Department of Justice as they revise the ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) for hotels (also called transient lodging). Revisions under consideration include making hotels responsible for third party reservation systems that don't adequately reserve accessible rooms; and requiring properties to block accessible rooms upon reservation."

Harrington also noted that the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) such those proposed revisions, though it is mysterious to me why they would not want to do everything possible to encourage hotel and motel occupancy by a large and growing segment of the traveling public. Boomers with wanderlust in their aging bones are beginning to have mobility issues, and I would the hotel trade association have applauded not opposed the settlement.