Lodging
Things to Remember:
- Always make reservations and guarantee them. Make them as soon as you can.
- Be certain to ask specifically for a handicap room if you require one. Don't, however, have any expectations; you may be disappointed.
- When making reservations, notify the agent of your special needs.
- Housekeeping can usually provide solutions for any need, including a shower chair.
- Call for a late checkout if you need one but respect the establishment's rules.
- Make arrangements for an easy checkout. Most hotels provide them automatically.
Margie's Personal Experience
I cannot overstate the importance I place on notifying the reservation agent of my special needs when making room arrangements. However, when I ask for a handicap room, I must be prepared for another’s interpretation of the word. Many so-called "handicap" rooms are truly handicapped and often woefully inadequate for me. I don’t think my requirements are so extraordinary, but they are different from those of, say, the hearing impaired. Kent and I stay in hotels a great deal, and I always ask for a handicap room when I make reservations. Although the hotels we choose are usually midrange or better, requesting a handicap room does not guarantee a workable environment.
Actually, a standard room, if large enough (and with doorways wide enough) for the chair to get in, will do in a pinch, as I am almost always accompanied by my husband. Handicap rooms usually are better, as I often stay there alone for six to eight hours.
It seems to me that those who outfit rooms often interpret the term "handicapped" (or "challenged"), without regard to the many different disabilities that fall into that category. For example, to a wheelchair-bound guest, a sound amplifier is of no help in a tub without a shower hose, even if the phone is in the john!
Handicap rooms come in all forms. I’ve seen well-appointed suites with large doors, easily handled door springs, two handicap phones with volume controls, elevated commodes, shower chairs or benches, support bars and grab rails and good, overhanging sinks -- the works! Then they’ll have closet bars too high for me and a shower-head I could never reach! I’ve seen a shower chair added to a regular room as a conversion with maybe one ill-placed grab bar somewhere near the too-low toilet. I’ve seen rooms with strategically placed hooks on the ceilings. I’ve seen rooms so small that maneuvering a wheelchair to the side of the bed was impossible. And, of course, I’ve seen the room with only a voice magnifier on the phone, nothing more.
In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a motel owner corralled me and asked if our room was adequate. He, himself, had planned and furnished his motel’s one handicap room, talking to patrons to make sure the special arrangements met their needs. The result was a great room! In such a needy matter, he was like a breath of fresh air. We who need properly outfitted handicap facilities definitely crave more caring people like him.
The lengthy list of needed modifications to any room only demonstrates the needs of the disabled, regardless of handicap. None of us may need everything, but in order to be able to accommodate every handicapped person, each feature is necessary. Those of us who need them would love to see a room like this. At least I know I would.
Lodging establishments are not routinely difficult for me. I’ve always found that hotel employees will go out of their way to make my stay comfortable – from providing extra pillows and shower chairs, offering wonderful service, late checkouts and even bag storage.
Hotels and motels in this country are usually equipped with legal ramps, elevators, handicap parking, handicap rooms, and accessible doors. However, although hotels on foreign soil try to be accommodating, accessibility is not as handy. In Mexico City we gave up on our first-choice hotel -- the highly recommended historic building didn't have a single room with a door wide enough for me to get through! I was taken to a more-suitable hotel yet I could only enter the lobby by means of a ramp at a delivery door, around the block from the grand marble staircase at the hotel’s main entrance. In England, sleeping rooms were always on the first floor, but their first floor is one flight above the ground floor. Hong Kong hotel escalators to a second level lobby were always a challenge.
In bed and breakfasts, inns, boardinghouses, hostels - in this country or another - I am prepared to deal with whatever they offer including being carried up steps or stairs. Again, it’s a good idea for me to let the front desk know my special needs; not being mind readers, the clerk's interpretation is often not entirely accurate. No matter where I happen to be, people want to help make my stay with them a pleasant one.
