Wheelchair accessible hotels: how to book a room that works for you

Roll-in shower, transfer shower or bathtub

For many wheelchair users this is the question that decides the booking, and the answer changes from room to room. An accessible room needs a bathtub or a shower that complies, and only some of them must have a roll-in shower, the kind you can roll into without leaving the chair (2010 ADA Standards, 806.2.4 and table 224.2). The Department of Justice makes the same point in its guidance on hotel reservations: an accessible hotel bathroom may meet the requirements with either a bathtub or a roll-in shower, and that difference can decide whether a room is usable for a particular person (ADA Title III regulations, appendix A, section 36.302(e)).

In a hotel room, a required roll-in shower has a folding seat, and the shower is a hand-held spray on a long hose: the fixed shower head that other buildings may use instead is not allowed (2010 ADA Standards, 608.4, 608.6 and its exception). The seat height and the hose length are in ADA hotel room requirements.

Roll-in showers run out first. Under the 2010 Standards, a hotel with 50 rooms or fewer does not have to have any room with one, and a hotel of 51 to 100 rooms needs only one (2010 ADA Standards, table 224.2); the count for every size is in ADA hotel room requirements. If you need it, book early, say so when you book, and ask the hotel to block that room (28 CFR 36.302, paragraph (e)(1)(iv)). Grab bars and controls in each kind of shower are in ADA shower requirements.

What the hotel has to do when you book

For reservations made on or after March 15, 2012, by any means, including by phone, in person or through a third party, a hotel in the United States has to (28 CFR 36.302, paragraphs (e)(1) and (e)(3)):

• Let you book the same way: accessible rooms can be reserved during the same hours and in the same manner as any other room (28 CFR 36.302, paragraph (e)(1)(i)).
• Describe the room: the accessible features of the hotel and its rooms, in enough detail for you to judge on your own whether a room meets your needs (28 CFR 36.302, paragraph (e)(1)(ii)). The Department of Justice’s guidance gives an idea of what that means. For a hotel built to the 1991 Standards, it may be enough to say that the hotel is accessible and, for each accessible room, give the type of room, the size and number of beds, the type of accessible bathing, such as a roll-in shower, and the communication features. An older hotel with limited access should also describe the accessible entrances, the route to check-in and to the accessible rooms, and the features that fall short, such as a room door that measures 30 inches clear. After booking, trained staff should be able to tell you more: the layout of the room and bathroom, the shower design, where the grab bars are, and amenities such as a bathtub bench (ADA Title III regulations, appendix A, section 36.302(e)).
• Hold accessible rooms for the people who need them: until every other room of that type is rented (28 CFR 36.302, paragraph (e)(1)(iii)). In the Department’s example, if a hotel has 25 rooms of one type and 2 of them are accessible, it rents the other 23 first (ADA Title III regulations, appendix A, section 36.302(e)).
• Block the room: on request, reserve an accessible room or a specific type of room and remove it from all reservation systems (28 CFR 36.302, paragraph (e)(1)(iv)).
• Guarantee that specific room: the accessible room you reserved is held for you, even where the hotel does not hold specific rooms for other guests (28 CFR 36.302, paragraph (e)(1)(v)). The rule does not oblige a hotel to guarantee reservations; when it guarantees rooms, the guarantee for an accessible room applies to the specific room reserved. If the hotel asks every guest for a payment or deposit to reserve a room, it may ask you for the same (ADA Title III regulations, appendix A, section 36.302(e)).

Two limits are worth knowing. The holding, blocking and guarantee rules do not apply to rooms or units not owned or substantially controlled by the company that runs the building (28 CFR 36.302, paragraph (e)(2)), which the Department’s guidance relates to timeshares, vacation communities and condo hotels whose units belong to individual owners (ADA Title III regulations, appendix A, section 36.302(e)). And the Department did not apply these duties directly to third-party booking services. A hotel that uses them has to make reasonable efforts to offer accessible rooms through at least some of them and give them the information about its accessible features, but if the third party fails to pass that on, the hotel is not responsible (ADA Title III regulations, appendix A, section 36.302(e)). If you book through a travel website, call the hotel afterwards to confirm the room and its features.

Your rights at a US hotel under the ADA

• Hotels are covered: they are businesses open to the public under title III of the ADA, which must give people with disabilities an equal opportunity to use what they offer (ADA.gov introduction to the ADA). The exception is an establishment with five rooms or fewer for rent in a building where the owner lives (ADA Title III regulations, 28 CFR 36.104).
• Reasonable changes to policies: a business makes reasonable modifications in its policies, practices or procedures when they are needed for a person with a disability, unless the change would fundamentally alter what it offers (ADA Title III regulations, 28 CFR 36.302(a)).
• No surcharge: a business may not charge a person with a disability extra to cover the cost of the measures the ADA requires, such as barrier removal or reasonable modifications (ADA Title III regulations, 28 CFR 36.301(c)).
• Comparable choices: accessible rooms are spread among the classes of guest room, with comparable choices of room type, number of beds and amenities (2010 ADA Standards, 224.5).
• Older hotels: a hotel whose last building permit application was certified complete before March 15, 2012, or that started construction before then without a permit, may have been built to the 1991 Standards instead of the 2010 ones (2010 ADA Standards, 28 CFR 36.406(a)). In older facilities subject to barrier removal, the Department of Justice notes that strict compliance with the 1991 Standards is not required; barriers are removed to the extent that it is readily achievable (ADA Title III regulations, appendix A, section 36.302(e)). That is one more reason to ask for measurements, not labels.
• Complaints: a complaint against a business open to the public, a hotel included, is filed with the U.S. Department of Justice, through ADA.gov (ADA.gov introduction to the ADA).

Around the hotel: places in Braillito Maps

A good room is half of a trip. The other half is the café for breakfast, the restaurant for dinner and the pharmacy around the corner. Braillito Maps is a community map that answers ten questions about each place: step-free entrance or ramp, wide doorway, accessible restroom, accessible parking, tactile paving, braille signage, braille menu, audible signals, guide dogs welcome and a quiet environment.

Before you travel, open the map around your hotel and filter by what you need, for example a step-free entrance, a wide doorway and an accessible restroom: only the places marked yes for all of them stay on the map. Each answer is yes, no or no data until someone knows, and the score of a place is the number of yes answers out of ten, always shown with its number, never by color alone.

The checklist has no question for roll-in showers or bed height, so those you ask the hotel. And when you find a place near the hotel that works, add it, so the next traveler finds it already checked. Meet Braillito Maps.

More accessibility guides

• ADA hotel rooms: how many accessible rooms and roll-in showers a hotel needs, rooms for deaf and hard of hearing guests, and what each room has inside.
• Accessible travel: your rights on flights in the US and the EU, accessible hotel rooms, and what to ask before you book.
• ADA shower requirements: transfer and roll-in shower sizes, the seat, grab bars, controls, the hand-held shower and the threshold.
• ADA turning space: the 60-inch turning circle, the T-shaped turn, the 30 by 48 inch clear floor space and where the ADA asks for each.
• ADA door width: 32 inches of clear width, maneuvering space, thresholds, hardware and opening force.
• Accessible parking: ADA parking requirements: how many spaces, how wide, the access aisle and the sign.
• Guide dogs: how they work, where they can go under the ADA, and how to act around one.
• Wheelchair accessible taxis: what the ADA requires of cabs and drivers: no refusals, no higher fares, help stowing your wheelchair, and which vans need a ramp or a lift.
• All accessibility guides