Realistic pricing for accessible travel: what local businesses can change

What to take away

Accessible travelers plan further ahead and abandon bookings faster when information is missing. Most of what a business can do here costs nothing.

Publish the rate, not a request form

An accessible room behind an enquiry form reads as expensive and awkward. Publish it as a room type with a price, like every other room.

If the rate genuinely differs, say why. If it does not differ, saying so removes the doubt that stops people booking, because travelers have learned to expect a premium that in most properties does not exist.

Start with a number travelers can compare. In US mid-range properties, typical standard room rates run from $120 to $220 a night, and the accessible room of the same class is priced at the standard figure: the rate a traveler compares is the standard rate for that room type, not a separate accessible band. If the standard queen is $150, the accessible queen is $150.

Where the accessible room is larger, a few dollars more is understood, because the guest sees what the extra buys. A premium of $30 or more a night on an identical room is the pattern travelers complain about.

Advertise the rate where travelers check. Put the accessible room on the same booking page as other rooms, with the same cancellation terms, and tag which rooms have a roll-in shower, step-free entry and grab bars. Say on your page that the published rate is final and is not raised at check-in.

A listing on a state tourism accessibility page or a regional travel guide gives travelers a second source to confirm the price. Before you publish, ask a Center for Independent Living, the federally funded disability organization that serves every state, to walk the room and the entrance, and correct anything on your page that does not match.

State the companion policy

Whether a companion or personal assistant is admitted free is a material cost for a party of two, and it is frequently unstated.

Write it down: what the policy is, what documentation if any is needed, and how to arrange it. Ambiguity here loses bookings silently.

Two rules sit behind the policy. On the ground, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the ADA Standards for Accessible Design set out what an entrance, a restroom, a room or a seating area has to provide, and the Department of Justice's ADA Information Line is where a business or a guest can check a requirement or file a complaint. In the air, the Air Carrier Access Act bars airlines from charging for disability-related accommodations and requires a passenger who travels with a companion for assistance to be seated with that companion.

A line you can copy: Companion admission is free for one personal assistant or support person travelling with a disabled guest, no documentation is required, and we hold the seat or room next to yours when you book.

Do not charge for access

Nothing damages a business's standing with this audience faster than a surcharge attached to the accessible option, whether it is a room, a table or a seat.

Where a cost is genuinely different, such as an adapted vehicle transfer, explain the cost and price it separately rather than adding it to the access.

Say what equipment exists

Shower seat, bed rail, portable ramp, beach wheelchair, hearing loop, large-print menu. List what you have, whether it is free, and how much notice it needs. Travelers already carry the chargers, spares and medication that fit in a bag; what they cannot carry is a shower seat or a ramp.

Businesses consistently underestimate how much a short list like that is worth. It converts an uncertain enquiry into a booking.

Employ people who understand it

The businesses that get this right tend to have staff with direct experience, and the case for that goes beyond service quality.

The Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy publishes practical material on employment practices, workplace accommodations and the policy behind them, which is a useful starting point for a small business thinking about hiring rather than guessing.

Handle complaints well

Things go wrong. What matters is what happens next.

Take it seriously, fix what is fixable, be honest about what is not, and never argue about whether the person's need is real. Where a guest wants to escalate, an access complaint goes to the Department of Justice through the ADA Information Line, and a complaint about a price or a refused booking goes to the consumer protection office of your state attorney general. A business that handles the issue directly rarely reaches either.

The one-page fix

Entrance, door widths, restroom, parking distance, room types with rates, equipment list, companion policy, and three photographs.

One page. It answers most enquiries before they are made and it is the highest-return thing a small tourism business can publish.

How travelers budget is set out in our guide to budgeting for accessible travel, and the questions they will send you are worth answering on the page before anybody asks.

The same page works for attractions

Hotels are the easy case, because the room rate is the product. A museum, a park concession, a tour operator or an attraction can publish the same one page: ticket price, companion policy, the accessible route and the equipment on hand. Travelers planning a day out ask a hotel's questions of every place they pay to enter.

Common questions