Best ADA Practices for Resorts

1. Have a designated person on your staff with the responsibility of ensuring great vacations for guests with disabilities. This person should be involved in resort design, procedures and communications activities.
2. Hold units with ADA features for guests who request them.
3. Call guests before arrival to offer assistance and ensure that expected accommodations will be available. Make a note of requested accommodations so reservation agents will be prompted to ask when making bookings for future travel.
4. Add a page to your website specifically for guests with disabilities. Include information on accommodations that are available at your resorts as well as information on area attractions and restaurants that are particularly suitable for guests with disabilities. Here is an example from Tampa Bay, Florida’s destination website www.visittampabay.com/accessible-travel/
5. Train staff on how to identify and respond to guests who require accommodations.
6. Remember that disabilities are not limited to mobility issues, some guests have sensory issues, which include anything affecting the five senses, such as blindness or deafness, autism, and hypersensitivity or sensory processing disorders. These conditions can all create difficulties when traveling.
7. Don’t guess. If a guest calls to ask about accessibility issues, it’s better to say “I don’t know” than to provide inaccurate information. It can be frustrating, and in some cases, even dangerous for a guest with a disability. Providing customer service representatives with details such as measurements, the presence of barriers, and layouts can go a long way toward answering questions about accessibility.
8. Do your research. A great place to start is https://travelability.net/

Related: Serving Travelers with Disabilities Means Going Beyond ADA Requirements

Judy Kenninger, principal of Kenninger Communications, has been covering the shared-ownership real estate industry for nearly two decades.