Originally Posted by
tobegold
I would say this is unethical since most hotels have very few accessible rooms and by booking this room type you would be preventing this room type being made available for use by somebody truly needing an accessible room. Why should a hotel let you book an accessible room at a lower rate and then let you have a more expensive non-accessible room for the same price?
I'm going to quote myself from a post I made in 2016:
Data Point: In the 11+ years I worked in hotels, there was only one single night we ever needed all of our accessible rooms. Once in over 4,000 nights.
Link to that Post:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/26425991-post31.html
The number of accessible rooms is set by law, not by need. The likelihood that booking an accessible room because it's the cheapest will result in blocking someone who legitimately needs that room is slim to none in most cases.
There's nothing unethical about it because logistically it's not a problem for the Front Desk to find an accessible room. A note on the reservation like this is all that's needed: Accessible Room not Needed.
Of course, you should never book a room you aren't okay with getting. So, don't book an accessible room if you aren't okay with staying in one.
Note: We knew well in advance on that one night when we needed 100% of our accessible rooms because those rooms went to a group that booked them months in advance.