I Had To Say Thank You

As a person born with Spina Bifida, I have encountered many good and bad situations with every day living circumstances. I was recently very impressed with the way situations regarding people living with disabilities were handled at a local hotel that my boyfriend, Torrance, and I stayed at. I have to give them all of my props in this blog. Although they weren't the most accessible hotel I've visited, they embrassed every suggestion I had to make the hotel more accessible. Every single problem that I encountered was fixed almost immediately, not just put on the back burner.

We parked in the designated disabled parking with the no parking zone on the side in order to alow the van's ramp down. It was the only spot we could use. We parked one night and noticed someone had parked in the marked off area and was blocking us from getting back into the van and leaving. We had plans set for that day so I told the office that it needed to be moved within an hour. And it was moved without delaying our plans for the day. Because our issues were mostly with the no parking zone, I suggested that they repaint the lines to make it more dominant. When I made the suggestion it was 11pm. I left the hotel room at 8am the following morning and the lines were already repainted.

Aside from the parking situations, when Torrance and I were first checking in, they told us that the accessible rooms were all slightly different. They allowed us to view all of our choices of rooms and pick which one would fit us best. While looking at our choice of rooms, we noticed that they had shower benches in all the bathrooms but the way they had the shower chairs would mean that the person's back would be to the knob that turns on the water. This would be a very dangerous obstacle for a person to have to transfer in and out of the shower while the water is running... Therefore making everything more slippery and easier to lose control and fall. If they only changed the rooms in which they placed the shower chairs, in order to allow the hotel's guests to actually face the direction of the shower head and knob while taking a shower, the problem would be fixed. Before our stay at the hotel ended, the chairs were moved to the proper rooms that would allow them to be safely utilized.

Every single problem Torrance and I had while staying at this hotel was fixed almost immediately. It really made us feel like we were valued guests. Whereas many times when a person speaks up about these types of things, we get ignored or put off to the side. I wanted to write this article to give them as many props as possible. They deserve every ounce of it. I want to say Thank You to them for making my stay with Torrance at their hotel, one that I will never forget because of their great hospitality. I would recommend this hotel to anyone living life on a wheelchair! Thank you to all the employee's at that hotel!