Hyatt hotel irritations
Nov. 11th, 2010 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessYou would not believe how difficult it is to send a complaint to the Hyatt hotel.
Dear Hyatt Hotels,
I am a wheelchair user who recently came to the Columbus Hyatt Regency to attend the World Fantasy Convention. While at the hotel, I noted a number of things that made your hotel very difficult for me to navigate, and since several flyers stated that this hotel will soon be renovated, I hope my observations may be of use to you.
(Please note that although your hotel representative did speak briefly with me, this was at the beginning of my trip, before I was aware of all the issues, and while I was in front of the colleagues.)
Room location:
This was by far the most problematic aspect of my stay at your hotel. My disabled room was located at the far, far end of the hallway from the elevators, over thick carpet that was very difficult to navigate, to the point where I frequently had to request assistance either from your hotel staff or from acquaintances I had just met at the convention. More than once I had to pause and rest in the hallway, wondering if I would make it to the hotel room. When I left the hotel, it literally took me twenty-five minutes to navigate from the room to the elevator with my luggage.
This is unacceptable. Although I appreciate the fact that I was too far from the elevator to have it disturb my sleep, surely some sort of compromise might be made to move the disabled rooms closer to the elevator, for the convenience of your disabled guests who use wheelchairs?
Bathroom inside the room:
1. Only one towel could be reached from a sitting position in the chair; extra towels could only be reached by standing. This was also true of the hair dryer.
2. Shower: although the shower/bathtub was equipped with a moveable shower head unit, it had been left in its highest position – again, out of the reach of wheelchair users. Since I do have use of my legs and can stand for (very) short periods, I moved it down – only to have your housekeeping service move it back up. I had to request assistance from acquaintances to move it back down again.
3. When the bathroom door was open, I could not get in or out of the hotel room with the wheelchair until the door was shut. Unfortunately, your housekeeping staff left the door wide open on Saturday, and when I tried to get into the room, I couldn't, and had to call an acquaintance for assistance. (Making this worse, I experienced cell phone problems, and ended up having to get on your T-Mobile service to email a friend in Florida to ask him to call the acquaintance. Again, not a good experience.
Closets:
Extra blankets and pillows were placed too high for wheelchair users to reach, unless, like me, they were able to stand for brief periods.
Outside the room:
Your second floor bar/lounge area became a reception room for the convention, and as such, a genuine nightmare for me, because of the following access problems:
1. This floor had only one (1) bathroom, at the far end from the bar. A short walk for able bodied people, but in a wheelchair, this meant negotiating through thick carpet (difficult to push a manual wheelchair over) and past chairs and people.
The real problems, however, began at the bathroom, where the door was literally too heavy for me to open from the chair. This meant requesting a – again, newly met – acquaintance to join me on a trip to the bathroom or waiting hopefully for someone to open the door.
Once in the bathroom, your handrails (which I do use) were placed too far from the toilet seat. I eventually gave up and tried to transfer from the wheelchair to the toilet without the handrails and slipped and fell on the floor. I'm ok, but I don't suggest repeating this for future guests.
2. Your hotel bar contains one fairly standard bar, at a height too high to be accessible for wheelchair users. Your bartenders could not see me and I had to ask others to ask the bartenders for drinks. (Not at all incidentally, that experience led me to ordering very few drinks at your bar. Admittedly I do not drink much, but you may wish to consider this if you plan to redesign the bar area as well.
Away from the bar, most of the area was furnished with high tables and bar stools that I could not access, forcing me to be far, far below my fellow attendees at the convention. I cannot stress enough to you how painful this was, primarily because it made it difficult to impossible for me to join my colleagues.
I could, however, interact with my colleagues away from the bar – where you had placed furniture at a regular height, allowing me to converse normally with them. While this was a small comfort, the plain fact was, I was still kept out of the bar and isolated from colleagues. (And we did not receive bar service aside from some of your hotel staff who cleared away empty cups – a member of the group, not me, would have to go to the bar for any drinks.)
I urge you to consider adding at least some furniture of normal height to the bar area (perhaps eliminating the high bar tables and their accompanying chairs entirely.
Hotel suite rooms:
I also had the opportunity to visit your hotel suites.
Please note that I could not get my wheelchair into any of the bathrooms in these suites, and indeed had problems just navigating the rooms. While I understand that these suites are designed primarily for able bodied guests, may I suggest at the very least widening the doors of the bathrooms to these suites, to accommodate any wheelchair using guest who may need to use a restroom in this area? (You have no disabled restrooms on this floor.)
Final note:
The overall problem, I think, is that your design assumes that wheelchair users will be travelling with an able bodied companion. While that is generally true in my case, it was not true for me on this particular trip and I do not think it is true for all wheelchair users, the majority of whom are more independent than I am. Portions of your design also assume that the wheelchair user will be using an electric wheelchair. Unfortunately, given the cost of replacing an electric wheelchair (in the thousands of dollars) and the chance that these chairs can be damaged during flight, many wheelchair users, like me, who would use an electric wheelchair or scooter at home chose to use a manual wheelchair while travelling. (As an added bonus it is considerably easier to move my manual wheelchair in and out of a taxi.)
I would ask that as you redesign your hotel, you consider the needs of those who, like me, will be using manual wheelchairs.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Dear Hyatt Hotels,
I am a wheelchair user who recently came to the Columbus Hyatt Regency to attend the World Fantasy Convention. While at the hotel, I noted a number of things that made your hotel very difficult for me to navigate, and since several flyers stated that this hotel will soon be renovated, I hope my observations may be of use to you.
(Please note that although your hotel representative did speak briefly with me, this was at the beginning of my trip, before I was aware of all the issues, and while I was in front of the colleagues.)
Room location:
This was by far the most problematic aspect of my stay at your hotel. My disabled room was located at the far, far end of the hallway from the elevators, over thick carpet that was very difficult to navigate, to the point where I frequently had to request assistance either from your hotel staff or from acquaintances I had just met at the convention. More than once I had to pause and rest in the hallway, wondering if I would make it to the hotel room. When I left the hotel, it literally took me twenty-five minutes to navigate from the room to the elevator with my luggage.
This is unacceptable. Although I appreciate the fact that I was too far from the elevator to have it disturb my sleep, surely some sort of compromise might be made to move the disabled rooms closer to the elevator, for the convenience of your disabled guests who use wheelchairs?
Bathroom inside the room:
1. Only one towel could be reached from a sitting position in the chair; extra towels could only be reached by standing. This was also true of the hair dryer.
2. Shower: although the shower/bathtub was equipped with a moveable shower head unit, it had been left in its highest position – again, out of the reach of wheelchair users. Since I do have use of my legs and can stand for (very) short periods, I moved it down – only to have your housekeeping service move it back up. I had to request assistance from acquaintances to move it back down again.
3. When the bathroom door was open, I could not get in or out of the hotel room with the wheelchair until the door was shut. Unfortunately, your housekeeping staff left the door wide open on Saturday, and when I tried to get into the room, I couldn't, and had to call an acquaintance for assistance. (Making this worse, I experienced cell phone problems, and ended up having to get on your T-Mobile service to email a friend in Florida to ask him to call the acquaintance. Again, not a good experience.
Closets:
Extra blankets and pillows were placed too high for wheelchair users to reach, unless, like me, they were able to stand for brief periods.
Outside the room:
Your second floor bar/lounge area became a reception room for the convention, and as such, a genuine nightmare for me, because of the following access problems:
1. This floor had only one (1) bathroom, at the far end from the bar. A short walk for able bodied people, but in a wheelchair, this meant negotiating through thick carpet (difficult to push a manual wheelchair over) and past chairs and people.
The real problems, however, began at the bathroom, where the door was literally too heavy for me to open from the chair. This meant requesting a – again, newly met – acquaintance to join me on a trip to the bathroom or waiting hopefully for someone to open the door.
Once in the bathroom, your handrails (which I do use) were placed too far from the toilet seat. I eventually gave up and tried to transfer from the wheelchair to the toilet without the handrails and slipped and fell on the floor. I'm ok, but I don't suggest repeating this for future guests.
2. Your hotel bar contains one fairly standard bar, at a height too high to be accessible for wheelchair users. Your bartenders could not see me and I had to ask others to ask the bartenders for drinks. (Not at all incidentally, that experience led me to ordering very few drinks at your bar. Admittedly I do not drink much, but you may wish to consider this if you plan to redesign the bar area as well.
Away from the bar, most of the area was furnished with high tables and bar stools that I could not access, forcing me to be far, far below my fellow attendees at the convention. I cannot stress enough to you how painful this was, primarily because it made it difficult to impossible for me to join my colleagues.
I could, however, interact with my colleagues away from the bar – where you had placed furniture at a regular height, allowing me to converse normally with them. While this was a small comfort, the plain fact was, I was still kept out of the bar and isolated from colleagues. (And we did not receive bar service aside from some of your hotel staff who cleared away empty cups – a member of the group, not me, would have to go to the bar for any drinks.)
I urge you to consider adding at least some furniture of normal height to the bar area (perhaps eliminating the high bar tables and their accompanying chairs entirely.
Hotel suite rooms:
I also had the opportunity to visit your hotel suites.
Please note that I could not get my wheelchair into any of the bathrooms in these suites, and indeed had problems just navigating the rooms. While I understand that these suites are designed primarily for able bodied guests, may I suggest at the very least widening the doors of the bathrooms to these suites, to accommodate any wheelchair using guest who may need to use a restroom in this area? (You have no disabled restrooms on this floor.)
Final note:
The overall problem, I think, is that your design assumes that wheelchair users will be travelling with an able bodied companion. While that is generally true in my case, it was not true for me on this particular trip and I do not think it is true for all wheelchair users, the majority of whom are more independent than I am. Portions of your design also assume that the wheelchair user will be using an electric wheelchair. Unfortunately, given the cost of replacing an electric wheelchair (in the thousands of dollars) and the chance that these chairs can be damaged during flight, many wheelchair users, like me, who would use an electric wheelchair or scooter at home chose to use a manual wheelchair while travelling. (As an added bonus it is considerably easier to move my manual wheelchair in and out of a taxi.)
I would ask that as you redesign your hotel, you consider the needs of those who, like me, will be using manual wheelchairs.
Thank you for your time and attention.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-11 03:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-11 03:23 pm (UTC)