Customer Service - sponsored by W.C. Duke Associates, Inc.
Some Tips for Serving Guests With Disabilities
By Marc Dubin, Esq.
Published June 18th, 2008 by
ADA Expertise Listserv
I recently stayed at a hotel that had a lot of people with disabilities as guests. It was wonderful to see hotel guests with a wide variety of disabilities, accompanied by friends and family members. Far too often, hotels fail to recognize that people with disabilities travel spend money, and develop attitudes about how disability-friendly, or disability-unfriendly, a hotel, can be.
When hotel staff and management ensure that the hotel is ADA-compliant, and endeavor to serve their guests with disabilities as a matter of course, the benefits are extraordinary. The hotel chain develops a reputation, and people with disabilities, and their allies, spread the word. When a hotel fails its guests with disabilities, the failures are noticed, and its reputation suffers.
What are some of the ways that a hotel can obtain and keep a sterling reputation among people with disabilities? Let's examine some of the ways a hotel can best serve people with disabilities:
Publicize the number and features of accessible rooms. When a person with a disability travels, it is essential that they are able to be guaranteed that the room they are reserving has the accessible features they need, and that they can count on the hotel to accurately inform them of the features of the room. Does the room have a queen size bed or twin beds? Is the preference of the guest honored? Some people with vision impairments, for example, prefer a room to have a queen size mattress rather than twin beds, so that they won't bump into the second bed. Other people, with a spinal cord injury or other mobility disability, prefer a room with twin beds. The guest should be asked, at the time the reservation is made, and the preference should be honored, as a reasonable modification of policy, even if the preferences of non-disabled guests are not guaranteed. Does the room have a roll-in shower? If the guest needs a room with a roll-in shower, the request should be honored, and the room with the roll-in shower should be guaranteed. Posting the number and features of accessible beds on the web should be commonplace, preferably with a picture of the room and identification of the accessible features.
Train those taking reservations about the ADA, and make sure that the guest is asked about what accessible features they are seeking, and that the room with the specific features sought is guaranteed. Train reservation staff to describe the features of the accessible room, with specificity. Is there a roll-in shower? How wide are the bathroom doors? How high is the bed? How high is the sink in the bathroom? What are all of the accessible features of the room? What is the price? What floor is it on? Is the hotel guaranteeing that specific room, or just a room type? Is there information about that specific room available on the web? Is there a specific person to contact if you have questions or problems? Who is the General Manager of the hotel, and how do you contact them? Can they email you the confirmation immediately, with a description of the accessible features, and with a guarantee that you will receive that specific room, not just a room type?
Identify staff who are specifically trained to address concerns related to problems experienced by people with disabilities and those accompanying them. Establish and publicize a phone number to reach these specially-trained staff, and let other staff know about them. Distinguish disability-related complaints/concerns from others.
Review the hotel's compliance with the ADA at least once a year, and retrain staff as often as possible. Have alterations been undertaken within the past year? Have policies been adopted that need to be reviewed? Are all staff trained about service animals, for example?
Test your reservation system. Try to reserve an accessible room and see what happens.
Does your hotel have other businesses on its property? Do the other businesses comply with the ADA? What training do they receive? What record is kept of complaints? What role does your hotel play in addressing and resolving problems?
Do you have literature about your activities? Is written material available in alternative formats for people who are blind or who have low vision? Is it available at the same locations as your other literature?
How are calls from guests who are deaf or hard of hearing addressed? Is your staff trained on how to use a TTY, and are TTYs available? How are emergency calls handled? Is staff trained to answer a TTY call or a Relay call?
What is the hotel's evacuation plan for people with disabilities? Are you prepared to evacuate people in wheelchairs from higher floors? How? What training of staff occurs? Do you coordinate the evacuation of guests with disabilities with emergency responders? Do you test the system? Do you involve people with disabilities in the development and testing of evacuations?
Are television programs available on sets that provide captioning?
Do you provide pre-taped videos for guests to watch? Are they captioned?
A hotel's good reputation can be lost overnight, when a guest feels that the hotel does not care or the hotel fails to properly address the guest's concerns. Being proactive, anticipating concerns, and addressing the concerns in a prompt and forthright manner, distinguishes great hotels from others. Such actions also generate repeat customers, and increased revenue. People with disabilities and their friends and families are anxious to spend their money in hotels that treat them right, and increasingly anxious to share information with one another. What are they saying about your hotel?