Red259

If you don't mind an accessible room then go ahead and book it and you can note in your comments that if they need to move you for a person that needs the room it is fine. Otherwise chances are that room may sit there vacant and lose the hotel money on a nightly basis, which is likely the reason for the discounted rate.

cordelli

I'm on the side of book it. I don't think it's good for anybody for the hotel to not book the rooms under the chance they will become full, and they won't know ahead of time they need the rooms.

I usually put something like accessibility features not needed, feel free to move to other rooms.

postnobills

I'm trying to redeem some standard 50,000 point awards at the HGI Marina del Rey. I've checked about a dozen different dates over the next six months and every time the only room available at the standard award rate is a special mobility/hearing accessible room. All "regular" rooms require premium point redemptions. Also, on every date I've checked there are standard king and queen/queen rooms available at the same cash rate as the handicap accessible room, but those rooms are not available for standard Hhonors rewards.

Is this kosher? Seems to me like an under-handed way to try to limit reward redemptions, and I really would prefer not take an accessible room that I do not need and possibly deny it to someone who really does need it.

InkUnderNails

Take it and don't worry about it.

I have found some hotels have a generous inventory of these rooms and that they are often the last to be utilized. Put in your notes that you would be happy to switch rooms at check in if needed and an upgrade would be nice.

They are not like handicapped parking spaces. No one is going to check you and kick you out if you are not "qualified."

writerguyfl

The total number of accessible rooms at each hotel is set by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), not demand. I worked in hotels for a lot of years and never heard of a time when we didn't have an accessible room when it was needed. A note on the reservation saying you don't need the accessible features should be sufficient.

There was a recent thread addressing that part of your question, although it was about dollars, not points. But, it does have other people commenting on ethics of booking an accessible room:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...m-cheaper.html

dw

I posted something about this in the Conrad Hong Kong thread, but I think this actually deserves its own thread. There seems to be a troubling new development where properties (either intentionally or due to an IT glitch, I'm not sure) are only making standard accessible rooms available for standard awards. I've noticed that this is now the case at the Conrad Hong Kong, and I've recently read two other reports on FT about this, at the HGI Marina Del Rey and at the new Hilton Bangkok Sukhumvit.

I've personally checked award availability at each of these properties, and it seems that, so long as standard accessible rooms are available for booking:

1) Only standard accessible rooms are available for standard awards
2) The regular standard rooms, even though they are the exact same rate as the standard accessible rooms (and available for revenue reservations), are not available for award booking
3) Almost all room categories above standard rooms are available for premium awards

I find this a very troubling development, and unless this is some sort of IT glitch, am concerned that HHonors is allowing properties to play around with award availability in this fashion.

I realize that some may say, (i) we can go ahead and book the accessible room and let the hotel know that we do not really need it and (ii) regardless, there is always the chance that we will be assigned an accessible room. However, if the property is fully booked this almost guarantees that we will be put in the accessible room we reserved, and many of us do not like them, particularly in cases where we are using our points (i.e. more likely to be for a vacation, special occasion, or at an aspirational property, where we care more about the room we are assigned than a work trip).

This is certainly not the case at Hyatt, Marriott or Starwood. Starwood is the only other one of these four where you can specially book an accessible room (at Hyatt and Marriott you have to separately request it), and the only time a standard room booking at Starwood would be limited to an accessible room would be if the hotel was sold out of the regular standard rooms.

I'm hoping this isn't something that we will see spread to more and more properties. After this year's devaluation and the recent lowering of executive lounge standards, this is yet another unwelcome development.

3Cforme

You assert that only accessible rooms are available as Standard awards at three identified properties. Have another look at the HGI Marina del Rey and the Conrag HKG specifically.

I won't claim standard availability is good but your thesis is disproved.

dw

Are standard accessible rooms still available for booking? I've noticed that once the standard level accessible rooms get zeroed out, the standard rooms then open up for award reservations.

The problem is, so long as there are standard accessible rooms available, you won't be able to book the standard rooms.

EDIT: I've created a screenshot to illustrate what I am seeing at the Conrad:



And here's an example from the new Hilton in BKK:

Kacee

This is a very recent development. I booked a cash+points stay at Conrad HKG last week and got a Superior Room. Now they're only offering the accessible room for cash+points. I do suspect this is an error.

RAPC

This has happened in the past at the Conrad HKG. I swapped a couple of emails with the hotel and they were more than happy to change it to a standard room if I booked it.

Looks like it has kicked in again.

dw

Thanks-- good to know we can contact the property afterwards and have it switched. So I wonder if this is intentional or just some sort of glitch?

jphripjah

The Hilton Sukhumvit and DoubleTree in Bangkok are both showing standard awards for accessible rooms only on the dates I recently checked.

travelexpert

I have stayed in accessible rooms at HGIs--and find them to be considerably larger than standard rooms--with no downside.

iflyjetz

I've found accessible rooms to be a crapshoot - sometimes they're better rooms, other times they've got strange alterations that most would consider worse than regular rooms.

Kacee

The downside is the bathroom. Typically a wheel-in shower with weird controls, no bathtub, and an extra-high toilet seat with a grab-bar. The counters may also be lowered.