Can hotels charge more for handicap accessible rooms, and do they have to make these rooms available to handicapped individuals?
No hotel is going to ask those guest to move to a new room for a single night if only because of the increased cleaning costs incurred. If there are vacancies (hotel not fully booked), and a nondisabled person using an accessible room, then the hotel has screwed up, and (according to DOJ) is supposed to ask the nondisabled person to more. Also if I was running a hotel my most expensive rooms (suites/double kings/fancy baths/ocean views/etc.) would be the handicap units as it might mean selling those rooms even when my hotel wasn’t full. If you made that choice then you would have to make those rooms available to disabled persons at the standard rate, not at the fancy rate, and move your rich people when disabled people need the room. So it’s not actually a good choice.
Regarding your first question, does the smaller room have adequate space that it could be made accessible? Rooms for disabled people are generally a bit larger than the lowest cost room, particularly the bathroom. Accessibility involves a lot more than just maneuvering clearances for wheelchairs. Even if there’s enough room to accommodate a 60″ turning radius, the sink still has to have the correct clearance and access requirements, and the toilet and tub/shower need grab bars. The shower may need a seat. And of course, if this were a two-story motel, the room obviously couldn’t be on the second story unless there was an elevator.
From the DOJ’s Technical Assistance Manual, 1994 Supplement: Also, if the motel’s only available accessible rooms were offered at higher rates than the room initially requested, it may be a reasonable modification of policy for the hotel to make the more expensive rooms available at the lower rate. See also the DOJ’s Common ADA Problems at Newly Constructed Lodging Facilities. My ex-partner uses a wheelchair. We stayed in many hotels over the years, and were never charged “extra” for an accessible room or told that we couldn’t have it because it was occupied by a nondisabled person.
