Hotels

When planning a vacation, choosing a good hotel is more important than almost anything else you will do. Especially for someone with a disability, a hotel can make or break your trip. A hotel is much more than somewhere to sleep – it is your home base, the one restroom you can count on, your planning headquarters, your sanctuary, and sometimes even your laundromat or dining room. Generally, a hotel is the biggest single price tag, with the exception perhaps of the flight, depending on how long the trip is. The decisions that go into choosing a hotel are very personal and will depend on your travel philosophy, your budget and your particular disability. Here are some considerations:

1. How long to stay? I try to stay in each city a minimum of three nights – fewer than this and I end up feeling rushed. Plus, if I’ve done my homework and chosen the *right* city to visit, I will need some time there (and in the surrounding area) to feel like I’ve really seen it. This has the added advantage of requiring me to identify fewer accessible/central/reasonably priced hotels – if I had to find 6 or more hotels for a two-week trip it would take forever! This means that I go to fewer places but see them more in-depth, which is fine by me. I looooove me some Rick Steves, but hopping on and off trains and moving around Europe at a fast clip does not work for me – or for many people with disabilities. It takes time to become familiar with a city and what she has to offer – also, I like to move around via foot/wheels or public transportation as much as possible, which is a time consuming and research-heavy way to move. The alternative of course would be to make more use of taxis, but I prefer not to. You will never see it all – as Rick Steves says, assume you will return.

But I digress. Figure out what works for you and decide where you want to go and for how long. I like to map out my trip on a calendar where I can visualize it and move things around if needed (“uh-oh, I can’t see five museums in one day – better cut some or add another day” or “it’s going to work out better to do things in reverse order – what would that look like?”).

2. Once I have a rough plan, I figure out about how much I can spend – this is usually about $100/night. Sometimes in Europe it’s a little more. Unfortunately, the cheap, cute places full of character are often the size of a broom closet and anything but accessible.  While they are fantastic for an able-bodied person they are unrealistic for me.

Note: Most youth hostels are advertised as accessible, and although I haven’t yet stayed in one, they seem to be excellent, affordable options.

3. I often start my search on the website tripadvisor.com  – I type “wheelchair San Diego” or “wheelchair hotel Paris” into the search bar and start reading! Occasionally, I will get lucky enough to find a review actually written by a wheelchair-user, but rarely. I often find other tips about the destination in general by searching this way. If I come up empty, I search plain “hotel Puerto Vallarta” and start a Word file of hotels that seem to have good reviews and be in my price range. This can be narrowed down further by looking directly at the hotel website to verify rates and see if there is any mention of accessibility. If they don’t refer to access, I don’t count them out, but if they do (even if they point out that none of their rooms will accommodate a wheelchair), it’s a bonus.

I supplement my fact-finding mission with websites specific to accessible travel in a given area – see my Resources page for some helpful links. Most major cities have these resources, which I usually find through a simple Google search. I usually also cast a wide net by Googling “wheelchair Rome” to see what pops up. I have a ton of links that I have accumulated this way, which I will put under Resources. This is also the way to find non-hotel accommodations – for example, in Rome we ended up staying in a semi-private residence in which the owner had turned two rooms into accessible rentals with a shared bathroom. The owner has a son who is a wheelchair-user and he wanted to create a place for tourists with disabilities to stay. Nifty!

4. Once I have a good list, I start sending e-mails. I use the information I have gathered as a guideline, but I never consider it to be fact until I communicate directly with the hotel/rental/bed and breakfast. If I am looking out of the country, I try to begin with a salutation in their own language and then ask if they speak English. This is a formality – I have never found a hotel where no one speaks at least some English  – but I think it only polite to greet them in their own language and not to assume they speak English. Also, please remember that in most countries  1/2/2009 means the first of February, not January 2. Spelling out the month is safer.

I include my travel dates, what I am looking for, and ask about rates and accessibility. For example:

Bonjour! Perdon – Je ne parle pas francais – parlez-vous l’anglais?

I would like to book a wheelchair-accessible room for five nights in October – arriving Oct 3 and departing Oct 8. Do you have such a room available? 2 adults, double bed preferable. Also, what are your rates?

Merci beaucoup,
Inga ____

Remember that many places consider “wheelchair accessible” to mean simply that a wheelchair will fit in the door, not that there are grab bars, wide bathroom doors, a roll-in shower, or whatever else you might need. And accessible is in the eye of the beholder, so ask for what you need.

Also, do not assume that U.S.-brand hotels in foreign countries have the same standards of accessibility as they would here – they do not.

5. A note on hotels in the U.S. – the term “ADA” is helpful in that it includes certain features, usually grab bars, wide-enough doorways and some sort of adapted bathtub/shower. But it is still important to ask for what you need if that is not enough. For example, do you need a roll-in shower or a detachable showerhead? Are you traveling alone and need lowered closet hooks and peephole? The current trend is to have beds on platforms so they are annoyingly high and impossible for me to get into – will they remove the platform for you? Is there a charge? Fortunately, many hotel websites detail their accessible features, which makes it easier, but I still suggest confirming them. You may need to contact the actual hotel front desk as opposed to a toll-free reservation line, and you can ask for pictures or a diagram if you need to. In Candy Harrington’s wonderful book Barrier-Free Travel she suggests that if all else fails, you ask to talk to a housekeeper, who surely knows what the room looks like. She also points out that in hotel-speak, “reserving” a room is not a guarantee, but if the staff “blocks” a room this means it is held for you.

6. Take a deep breath, smile and ask for things if you need them. No amount of planning eliminates problems completely. On my recent trip to France, out of four hotels two were perfect, one was great except for the shower, and one was poor. C’est la vie, right? Sponge baths are not the worst things ever.