TravelAbility Insider caught up Pam Wright, COO of Point Hospitality which manages six hotels in California, Arizona, and Utah, including the Holiday Inn Santa Maria, who generously agreed to collaborate with TravelAbility to create a model accessibility landing page. The goal of the page is to help prospective guests with a disability to determine if the hotel meets their specific needs, while also dramatically reducing the likelihood of ADA litigation. The concept was an Accessibility FAQ page focusing on the hotel entrance, bathroom, and sleeping rooms. You can see it here.
Q: Tell us a little about your hotel? (number of rooms, target market audience)
A: We are a 207-room hotel on the Central Coast of California with an outdoor pool, hot tub, fully equipped fitness room, full-service restaurant, and meeting space. Our typical guests range from leisure travelers, wholesale groups, corporate individuals, and group and government (due to our proximity to Vandenberg Air Force Base.)
“It was very easy to add this section to our accessible page and we feel really good about providing such detailed information so potential guests can be sure our facilities will meet their needs.”
Pam Wright, COO of Point Hospitality
Q: Does the brand’s corporate parent, IHG, have contractual restrictions about individual properties adding accessible room images or content to their website?
A: We don’t control the Holiday Inn corporate site where we are displayed, but like almost all hotels I know, we have a mirrored “vanity” site to which we refer all direct bookings from our own marketing where we can include more robust information and, since we are generating the booking through our marketing efforts, we are not required to pay a commission.
Q. Would it be helpful for your local DMO to promote your accessible page on their accessible page?
A: Yes. We would love the direct booking referrals coming to our own website.
Q: What staff member was used to complete the FAQ?
A: Sales, Engineering, and GM, many of the FAQ’s were easy to answer.
Q. How much time was required?
A: The FAQ Section took about 2 hours to gather all of the information
Q. What camera was used for photography?
A: An iPhone camera…and I think you’ll agree that photos are quite clear. We wanted to understand the effort, cost, and manpower needed so any hotel can replicate this using any smartphone camera, minimal staff time, and prepare themselves for the 75 million baby boomers who will be aging into disability in the near future.
Again, here’s the landing page.
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