When new civil rights rules goes into effect, travelers who are disabled will find it easier to travel with greater access to accessible rooms. The ADA rules in effect will mean that hotels will need to first keep their accessible rooms for those who need them.
I have occasionally been provided an accessible room in a hotel and certainly appreciate what it has to offer with wider doors, flat entries into showers, grab bars ( or what I would rather say: balance bars ) and quite frankly... just more open floor space. It's too bad all rooms don't have such features. And it's too bad that hotel property owners have not marketed their ADA-compliant rooms to such a targeted audience giving the hotel something special to offer their guests who require such features.
Prior to this ruling, hotels were required to have accessible rooms, but they weren’t required to block them for people that need them. The new regulations close that loophole – and that’s something that should have been done many years ago. Now, it is not likely that I will get assigned to bunk in those very special places.
I have occasionally been provided an accessible room in a hotel and certainly appreciate what it has to offer with wider doors, flat entries into showers, grab bars ( or what I would rather say: balance bars ) and quite frankly... just more open floor space. It's too bad all rooms don't have such features. And it's too bad that hotel property owners have not marketed their ADA-compliant rooms to such a targeted audience giving the hotel something special to offer their guests who require such features.
Prior to this ruling, hotels were required to have accessible rooms, but they weren’t required to block them for people that need them. The new regulations close that loophole – and that’s something that should have been done many years ago. Now, it is not likely that I will get assigned to bunk in those very special places.
Under the ADAAG rulings and starting on March 15, some long awaited access regulations will go into effect – The new regulations require US hotel properties to:
- Identify and describe the accessible features in their guest rooms and public areas.
- Ensure that guests can reserve accessible rooms in the same manner as non-accessible rooms.
- Hold the accessible guest rooms for use by disabled guests, until all the other guest rooms of that type have been rented.
- Block accessible rooms at the time of booking.
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