GoingAway

I'm travelling with my mother who need an accessible room. It's been an interesting experience for me.

- I wanted to use points, but had to call the programs (Hilton & *Wood) directly to book the room. Starwood was much easier than Hilton (whose story changed on availability after they disconnected my first call).

- The Doubletree had a decent room with roll-in shower; the Sheraton we're at now has a full tub that it totally unuseable for her (they have bars which I guess qualifies in their minds for accessibility). The accessible requirement wasn't an issue at either hotel which is a good thing.

- I have status which seems to be irrelevant with any of these reservations because the accessible rooms all seem to be the generic rooms, if you will.

- Front desk personnel have been very helpful is ensuring that I did get an accessible room (DT thought they assigned us one, and was great bringing a key to a different room when it turned out to not be the case).

Katja

I've had a couple of interesting upgrades at hotels where I did not have status - when the regular accessible rooms turned out to be inaccessible, I was upgraded to the Presidential suite, or something equally elegantly named. Very nice.

But at more run of the mill hotels (Marriott CY, etc), I've had same sort of experience you and your mother did. When there are only 2 or 3 rooms in a hotel that are usable, there's not much upgrade potential.

DeafFlyer

I was surprised to stay at a Super 8 in Mo. that had the best accessible room I have stayed at yet. Laugh all you want, but more upper scale hotels didn't have a roll-in shower like this one did.

moodringtone

Actually the ADA requires that accessible rooms be available within all classes of rooms:
I stayed at a FS Marriott a couple of weeks ago and had confirmed an accessible room. I later emailed them asking that the room not have a roll-in shower. They called me the next day because they had already blocked an accessible room for me on the concierge level based on my gold status, but all the w/c rooms on that floor had roll-in showers, and wanted to know if I would prefer a room on another floor.

CDTraveler

I don't have a need for special accommadation in the bathroom, but ocassionally I end with a fully accessible room by chance. Having spent many years in health care, I have some idea of what the special needs of a person using a wheelchair are, so I always study such rooms closely when I get one.

Hand down, the best bathroom design I have ever seen was a small motel in Grant's Pass, Oregon. This bathroom was a large as some Motel 6 rooms I stayed in long ago. There was a very slight slope from the doorway down to the center of the bathroom (probably to keep water from the shower in the bathroom), 2 sinks, one conventional and one set lower down, with the curved front and large faucet handles. All towel racks were lower than usual. The toilet had a frame of grab bars (what's the right term here?) that could be folded up out of the way if needed. There was a small room for the the shower - easily rolled into - with a built-in bench (fold-up) and 2 sets of controls, one high, one low, and a hand held nozzle. The tub had grab bars and large water control handles.

I thought perhaps the room had been customized for someone in particular to use, perhaps a family member of the owner?