Everyday accessibility: How to remove travel barriers and make every hotel guest feel welcomed

Different travellers have different needs. Taller passengers often book bulkhead or exit-row seats on a plane for extra legroom. Light sleepers can pick up complimentary earplugs from hotel receptions. Families with young children regularly request rollaway beds for their rooms.

Most people agree travel should be as comfortable and convenient as possible. Yet, for travellers with disabilities, arranging a suitable hotel stay remains surprisingly challenging. This isn’t just frustrating for guests; it’s also a missed opportunity for hotels.

Accessible tourism is the hotel industry’s most overlooked asset. More than one billion people worldwide have some form of accessibility need. That’s greater than the combined populations of the United States, European Union, Mexico and Brazil. By 2050, the world’s population aged 60 and older will double to around two billion, significantly increasing the number of travellers with accessibility needs.

The good news is that many barriers travellers with disabilities encounter during the booking process have simple solutions.

Closing the online information gap

Today, nearly every traveller begins their journey online. Regardless of a traveller’s ability, age, or reason for travel, internet research is where most people begin. Travellers with disabilities start their accommodation searches in the same way, focusing on price, location, safety, facilities and reputation—but with extra considerations.

Online travel agencies (OTAs) provide filters for accessible hotels, but these filters can be unreliable because of vague criteria and inconsistent standards across geographies. While some travellers with disabilities may use OTA filters to begin their search, most rely heavily on word-of-mouth, social media, dedicated disability travel sites and customer reviews. Almost every traveller with accessibility needs will eventually find themselves visiting hotel websites directly to confirm essential details.

Despite requirements laid out in regulations like the Americans with Disabilities Act, hotel websites often omit critical details about accessible bedrooms, such as bathroom fixtures, bed heights, and room measurements. A 2019 Mobility Mojo survey of 1,000 hotel websites across 121 countries found that while 99% had accessible bedrooms, 18% lacked online accessibility information entirely, and none provided room measurements. Interestingly, 35% of hotels without accessibility details did manage to specify pet-friendly information.

This online information gap creates the greatest barrier to travel for those with accessibility needs. In fact, 50% of people with disabilities have said they would travel more if they could be confident that accessible facilities were available.

The solution doesn’t have to be complicated. Clear, simple photos of accessible rooms can help wheelchair users immediately identify potential obstacles like bed height, door widths, shower barriers, or bathtubs. Photos of hotel entrances showing steps or ramps are also beneficial.

Accessible (EAA-compliant) websites allow blind or low-vision guests to book independently, and hotels that provide access essential details about guide dog policies and ground-floor rooms near outdoor spaces (which makes it easier for guide dogs to go outside) online makes the booking process faster.

Information about accessible transport to local attractions and reserved parking spaces can benefit all guests, but especially to those with mobility needs. For guests who are deaf or have hearing difficulties, details about 24-hour reception, personal alert systems, quiet areas and the foot traffic of nearby neighbourhoods are particularly valuable—though most travellers also appreciate knowing details about noise levels and safety.

Many hotels already have this information internally. However, by not presenting it clearly online, they force guests to make direct enquiries via phone or email. Mobility Mojo found nearly one in five hotels couldn’t be reached by phone because of incorrect contact details or busy lines. When reachable, calls averaged three minutes to gather basic information, with the longest call lasting 22 minutes.

Booking without barriers

Even when accessibility information is provided online, most hotels don’t allow online bookings for accessible rooms, yet again forcing guests to make direct contact via phone or email. Mobility Mojo’s research found 53% of hotels surveyed required direct contact via phone or email to book an accessible room.

International phone calls add costs and inconvenience. Guests who are blind or have low vision have expressed frustration at having to recite sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, aloud, especially since they rely on memory rather than reading for this information, and it’s often already stored securely in their browsers.

When booking by phone, travellers must ensure they receive an email confirmation. Hotel staff can mistakenly allocate accessible rooms to other guests, and such mishaps can create significant challenges upon arrival when guests need to be relocated. Without a written confirmation that states the room type reserved, additional difficulties can arise.

For hotels that don’t require a phone call, most suggest booking a standard room online first, then requesting an accessible room via email. If the accessible room is available, the hotel will confirm the reservation. If it isn't, the hotel will cancel the original booking, leaving guests back at square one.

These extensive processes, combined with the delayed response times, have significant knock-on effects for travellers with disabilities who need to secure both accessible flights and accommodation.

While most travellers hope to book flights early for best-value fares, many travellers with disabilities need to book early because of accessibility constraints. Wheelchair users, for example, must secure one of a limited number of seats for passengers with reduced mobility (sometimes four per flight). Similarly, individuals who are blind or have low vision also benefit from booking early because they often need bulkhead seating for guide dogs and require sight assistance through airports.

Empowering staff, welcoming guests

At its core, hospitality revolves around human relationships. The word itself originates from the Latin hospes, encompassing both "host" and "guest," reflecting hospitality's dual nature of welcoming and being welcomed. This same root forms words like hospital, hospice, and hotel—all places centred around caring for others. In hotels, nowhere is this human connection clearer than in interactions between employees and guests.

Without proper disability awareness training, employees may unintentionally overlook important details that affect guests’ experiences. For instance, Mobility Mojo’s research identified a lack of staff knowledge as a common barrier to obtaining accessibility information by phone. Of the 486 hotels that answered calls, staff at 107 hotels couldn’t provide basic details about accessibility. Nearly one in five calls required transferring guests at least once, while 16% needed two or more staff members to answer basic accessibility queries.

The fact that most hotels already hold this information internally suggests the issue isn’t about availability but rather a gap in employee training and disability awareness. Effective disability awareness training can equip employees with the knowledge needed to confidently answer accessibility questions, sensitively communicate and proactively assist guests with a diverse range of needs.

Simple yet important practices include speaking directly to guests with disabilities rather than addressing only the person they’re with and not reassigning accessible rooms once they’ve been booked.

Staff members should also attempt to understand individual communication preferences before contacting guests. For instance, while many guests who are deaf or have hearing difficulties book through OTAs, they often put notes about the best way to reach them in the online booking form. For these guests, SMS or email is often best. However, to add a personal touch, many boutique hotels or guest houses contact guests by phone to confirm bookings and gather pre-arrival information. To appropriately cater to all guests’ needs, staff members should meticulously review online booking notes before contacting guests.

To further enhance guests' experiences, staff can have accessible local attraction information readily available and email hotel restaurant menus in advance of a guest’s arrival. They can also offer to reserve specific dining tables for longer-staying guests, promoting greater independence at mealtimes for guests with visual or mobility needs. Furthermore, front-of-house disability training can teach staff sighted guide techniques, enabling them to offer brief guided tours to blind or low-vision guests, helping them to feel more familiar and at-ease with hotel facilities.

A warm welcome; a winning strategy

Ultimately, accessibility affects everyone at some stage. People have temporary injuries, parents must navigate the world with strollers and small children and adult children have elderly parents with hearing, visual and mobility needs. A person with accessibility needs is often the deciding factor for where a whole group books a family trip, wedding, party or conference. Multigenerational travel, where three generations of family members go on vacation together, is among the fastest growing trends in the travel industry, resulting in an increase in the number of groups with diverse accessibility needs.

Many hotels already have accessible bedrooms. Yet without online promotion and booking, this valuable, high-demand inventory often goes unsold. Furthermore, these hotels have often spent considerable amounts of money to comply with regulation when designing these rooms. In other words, they’ve already invested thousands in the infrastructure needed to serve the accessible tourism market, but they are failing to make a return on their investment.

By providing clear accessibility information online, easy booking processes, and comprehensive employee training, hotels can ensure that no guest experiences confusion or disappointment, creating an atmosphere that truly embodies hospitality’s welcoming spirit.