A photographer's field list for mobility-friendly hotels

What to take away

• Photograph the bathroom first and thoroughly. It is the room that decides everything.
• Put a tape measure in the frame. A photograph with a measurement is evidence.
• Record the alarm and notification equipment, which matters to more guests than people assume.
• Note the lighting and contrast, which decide usability for many with low vision.

Hotel access photographs are the most useful thing a traveler can share, because hotels describe rooms in language that does not distinguish between very different layouts. The same discipline works outside the hotel, at every entrance and threshold on the trip.

Bathroom first

Six frames, in this order:

1. The doorway from the bedroom, door open, tape measure across the clear opening.
2. The whole room from the doorway.
3. The toilet with the grab bars visible, showing which side the transfer space is on.
4. The shower or bath, showing the threshold height and the seat.
5. The controls, showing whether they are reachable from a seated position.
6. The sink, showing the clearance underneath.

That set answers nearly every question a future guest will ask.

The bedroom

Door widths, the space beside the bed, the bed height with the tape measure against it, the route from the door to the bathroom, and the position of sockets and switches.

Bed height is the measurement most often missing and most often decisive for transfers.

Alarms and notification

Photograph the smoke alarm, any visual alert device, the telephone, and whatever notification equipment the room has.

This matters to a large group of travelers, and the equipment involved is a category in its own right. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders describes the range of assistive devices for people with hearing, voice, speech or language disorders, which is the background to what a hotel should be able to provide on request.

If a kit is available, photograph it and note how it was requested.

Fire safety and evacuation

Photograph the evacuation plan on the back of the door, and the nearest accessible exit route.

Fire safety for guests who cannot hear a standard alarm or use stairs is a specific field, and the United States Fire Administration's material on fire safety for people with disabilities covers the equipment and planning involved, including notification devices and escape planning.

Ask at check-in what the procedure is for your room, and photograph the answer if they give you a written one.

Lighting and contrast

Photograph the room as lit, without adjusting the exposure, so the image shows what the lighting actually does.

Contrast between surfaces, edges of steps and thresholds, and glare from windows all matter for guests with low vision. Note whether the bathroom has a light switch outside the door, and whether the corridor lighting is even.

The route

From the accessible parking bay to the room door, in four frames: the bay, the entrance, the lift, the corridor. Include any threshold or ramp. That route is one of the two things people forget to ask about until they arrive.

The shared spaces

Five more frames, taken on the way in or out, that turn a room record into a property record.

The accessible entrance, showing whether it is the main door. The lift, showing the door width and the control height. The lobby restroom with the door open. The breakfast room, showing table clearances. And the route from the lift to the room, which is where unexpected steps live in converted buildings.

Take them once, on arrival, while you are already looking at everything.

Captions and sharing

Property, date, room number, the measurements, and anything you could not verify. Then post it where other travelers will find it.

The judgment about which properties to bother with is in which hotels make sense, and the planning steps cover how to get the room confirmed in the first place.

Common questions

Will a hotel mind me photographing the room? It is your room for the night. Photographing shared areas is worth mentioning at the desk.

What should I carry? A small tape measure. It weighs nothing and it turns opinions into facts.

Is it worth photographing a bad room? Especially a bad room. That is the record nobody else has.

Where should I post them? Accessibility review platforms and mapping projects, and send them to the hotel too. Some fix things.