Handicapped Traveling

Being handicapped and traveling is not easy even in 2009.  I would like the hotels/motels builders, designers, owners and managers to be handicapped for one night and try to find a room to accommodate them.  Believe me is very frustrating and difficult.

Most hotels/motels consider the room to be handicapped when it has bars in a TUB.   For those people in a wheelchair or with leg problems, it is not possible to get your legs into or out of a tub even with bars.   They try to be fancy and put marble or smooth tile on the floor.  When wet these are very slippery.    Usually the rooms are no bigger than a standard room so if you have a wheelchair or scooter it is very difficult to get around.  It would be nice if they would increase the number of plugs to accommodate devices including the wheelchairs or even cell phones.   

Last year when we were traveling to Michigan, I ran into a new problem.  The hotel/motel chains think they are doing you a favor by putting in higher mattresses with pillow top coverings.   We stayed in one hotel that the mattress was at least 32 inches from the floor.  Most people cannot even sit in comfort let alone get into a bed that high.  For a handicapped person this is impossible.   The manager bought in phone books with a towel wrapped around them to use as a booster.   Of course with getting up and down to use the bathroom, this did not work well at all.    Falling was a real possibility, so I was awake all night making sure my husband was all right. 

So, this year when booking a hotel/motel I had to ask for the dates, if it was a roll in shower, if was handicapped assessable, if there were two beds or a king, and how high was the mattress.  This makes it impossible to book a room on-line which is usually a little cheaper.    I started looking for and booking rooms at 2 PM and didn’t finish until     9 PM. and this was only for five nights.    I hope that other handicapped people have an easier time then I do.