Hotels

The COVID-19 Delta variant’s emergence and spread has hampered plans for group and business travel this fall and winter, spurring CBRE Hotels Research to temper its expectations in September for Q4 2021 U.S. lodging performance on a national basis. CBRE’s tempered outlook extends into 2022, given the likelihood that corporate travel budgets will remain constrained next year.

Earlier this year, the lodging outlook had been brighter due to strong leisure demand boosting summer occupancy levels beyond expectations at U.S. hotels. But the emergence of the Delta variant sapped momentum from more lucrative business travel, giving rise to a concerning “second-derivative” market condition in which the recovery continues, but at a slowing pace.

To read more, see the full report in Hotel Business.

Barbara and Jim Twardowski recently penned an article for AARP which lays out steps for finding a hotel that will meet the guest’s accessibility needs.

Their top recommendation: Reach out to the hotel to inquire about accessibility well in advance of your stay. Because the number of ADA accessible rooms are limited, it’s important to plan and book early – but first, be sure to contact the hotel directly to verify that it will meet your needs. Asking about things like bed height, the availability of swimming pool lifts and the design of roll-in showers are all important pieces of information to consider before your trip.

To read more of their tips for securing accessible hotel accommodation, read the full article on the AARP website.

According to Laurent Roffe, CEO of Tapooz Travel, a disability travel company that conducts bespoke tours for groups to both domestic and international destinations, hotels often lack the accessible features that his clients need. Roffe provides his hotel partners with a list of affordable accessibility products and equipment that can improve the experiences of disabled guests.

“Following our conversation about making hotel rooms more comfortable for guests with disabilities using simple, off-the-shelf (meaning mostly Amazon) pieces of equipment, here are the basic 13 items any hotel manager should have available.” Roffe told us. “Hotels often keep them in storage until they are put in the rooms before the guests check in. And the best part is that most items can be purchased from Amazon for under $50 and the entire kit will run $1,194.62.”

They are the very same items that his trip leaders carry with them when they take groups on road trips. All these are easily and cheaply purchased from Amazon.

For a surprisingly small investment any hotel can make a huge difference in comfort and satisfaction for the guests.

Our take: Travel companies have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients and are often the first to identify niggling annoyances that may or may not fall under ADA compliance, but make the experience profoundly unpleasant for people with disabilities.  TravelAbility would like to thank Laurent, who is also a member of our advisory board, for sharing this information.

13 Items Than Can Make Any Hotel Room Accessible

(Shared by Tapooz Travel)

Product	Price	Image
Bathtub Transfer Chair	$204
Shower Chair	$41.09
Raised Toilet Seat	$39.77
Foldable lightweight ramps  (4′ & 6′ Suitcase style)	$109.00
Adjustable Step-Up (4/6/8”)	$33.99
Door Threshold Ramp (2) and/or step over	$99
Curtain Pull Rods (with round grab)	$29.90
Stand alone Mirror (with and without light)	$17.99
Hand-held shower head (to replace regular shower head)	$26.99
Quick adapt shower head (goes straight on the spout)	$9.99
Bed transfer slide board	$37.99
Movable grab bars with lockable suction cups. (short, medium and long)	$27.99
Heavy duty plastic mats (36″x48″ / set of 6) For high-pile carpeting to create a solid path-of-travel for manual chair users	$59.95

OUR TAKE: Because travel companies like Tapooz have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients, they are often the first to identify nuances in accessible sleeping rooms and bathrooms—i.e. showers and curtain cords that may be out of reach—that make travel annoyingly unpleasant for people with disabilities. All or some of these products can be used as an interim solution by hotels between renovations. TravelAbility would like to thank Laurent, a member of our advisory board, for sharing this information.