Wheelchair Access Hotel Room...Reasonable Adjustments?

AVENUE

Hi There....I travel quite a bit within the UK with my Adult Son who is Disabled and a Wheelchair User. He has learning difficulties and we need to share a room. We need a room that has twin beds and also a wetroom with wheel in shower not bath. I am finding, more & more, that so many hotels, even if they have an accessible room with wetroom, often only have those rooms as a double, and say they can not split them into a twin? They often do not suggest a solution to this or offer a "reasonable adjustment". They are basically saying that I either have to sleep in the same double bed as my adult son, or book 2 rooms. Neither of these are acceptable. It is of course discriminatory, by forcing someone travelling with a person with these specific needs, to either sleep with their travelling companion, or pay double the cost..ie for 2 rooms.

Some hotels such as Premier Inns & Travelodge do split beds via zip link beds, but it seems so very many other hotels, even those within large groups, or indeed more upmarket hotels say they can not do this. One Holiday Inn Hotel, initially made what seemed a reasonable adjustment by offering an interconnecting room free of charge, then later back tracked on this & said they'd only do this for half of our stay of 4 nights and the other 2 nights I'd have to pay full charge for both rooms.

Can anyone tell me is there any law or rule which i could quote which would force the hotel to make reasonable adjustments whereby we were not discriminated against in this way? As most hotels just give me a take it or leave it response. Many Thanks.

D_M_E

Could the Equality Act pt 13 be of any help?

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/part/13

AVENUE

I can't see anything within there that would help with hotels although I'd been told they have to make reasonable adjustments.

Spoonie_Turtle

Do they come under providing a service to the public? https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/part/3/crossheading/provision-of-services-etc

If not, the whole of the Act is here https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents

[Deleted User]

I'm afraid the answer is you can only use hotels that offer what you need

50Twuncle

Premier Inns have a disabled friendly "accessible" room in most, if not all of their hotels 
If you ask - they will try to put you in that room !
The rooms have a massive wet room with handles and grabs all over the place

tacpot12

I agree that the effect is discriminatory, but quoting a law at reception when you arrive to check-in is never going to produce the result you want. The Holiday Inn offer was quite good; clearly they had fewer bookings for two of the days so it was no issue for them to let you have two rooms for the price of one. 

I think you need to complain to the Head Office of the hotel chains you would like to be able to use but cannot because they don't have zip-link beds in their accessible rooms.  This is not going to produce an overnight solution for you, but might over time persuade certain chains to buy zip-link mattresses next time the mattresses are due for replacement. 

In the meantime, I think you need an alternative solution. Would one or other of you be comfortable on an camp bed with a camping mattress? There are some very comfortable mattresses available; if you travel quite a bit the investment in a really good mattress could be worthwhile. Just make sure the camp bed has an aluminium not steel frame, as you will find the steel ones are rather too heavy. 

Savvy_Sue

Premier Inn also have a bed settee in all their rooms (at least I think they do) and that's how they make twin beds if requested. No idea how comfy they are. 

QuackQuackOops

AVENUE said:

Hi There....I travel quite a bit within the UK with my Adult Son who is Disabled and a Wheelchair User. He has learning difficulties and we need to share a room. We need a room that has twin beds and also a wetroom with wheel in shower not bath. I am finding, more & more, that so many hotels, even if they have an accessible room with wetroom, often only have those rooms as a double, and say they can not split them into a twin? They often do not suggest a solution to this or offer a "reasonable adjustment". They are basically saying that I either have to sleep in the same double bed as my adult son, or book 2 rooms. Neither of these are acceptable. It is of course discriminatory, by forcing someone travelling with a person with these specific needs, to either sleep with their travelling companion, or pay double the cost..ie for 2 rooms.

Some hotels such as Premier Inns & Travelodge do split beds via zip link beds, but it seems so very many other hotels, even those within large groups, or indeed more upmarket hotels say they can not do this. One Holiday Inn Hotel, initially made what seemed a reasonable adjustment by offering an interconnecting room free of charge, then later back tracked on this & said they'd only do this for half of our stay of 4 nights and the other 2 nights I'd have to pay full charge for both rooms.

Can anyone tell me is there any law or rule which i could quote which would force the hotel to make reasonable adjustments whereby we were not discriminated against in this way? As most hotels just give me a take it or leave it response. Many Thanks.

It isn't discrimination as you have a choice. Not liking or bring able to afford the choice doesn't mean they discriminate.
Some hotels offer what you need so you ought to stick with those. 

Spoonie_Turtle

This is kind of a grey area. Making your business inaccessible physically or financially (when they'd otherwise have been able to afford it if they didn't have the disability) is unfair if there are ways round it, if those ways round it are reasonable.

Indirect discrimination is putting in place, a rule or policy or way of doing things that has a worse impact on someone with a protected characteristic than someone without one, when this cannot be objectively justified - the problem is whether this issue with the beds and mattresses can be objectively justified.

Personally, I think giving you the extra room for half the price is reasonable - though it is not fair to say you could have it for free and then turn round and day something different. In general though, it's not fair that your son has to pay more, but it's also not entirely fair for the hotel to foot the cost for the entire extra room and what that entails (extra linen, extra cleaning, extra breakfast?). Disability benefits are intended to cover these kinds of extra costs - whether they actually do or not is of course a separate issue.

Maybe you could approach hotels to explain that they would have more business if more people in your situation could use their rooms! It shouldn't be up to us to educate, with the Equality Act having been in place for 10 years and the Disability Discrimination Act 15 years before that, but it unfortunately still is. It's better to try to work together with businesses if we can, then everyone benefits. Otherwise they won't learn and they will still be inaccessible for others too.