Home is where you plug in your chair

Spent eight days on the road.  It was a wonderful vacation, but we stayed in four different hotels.  So I thought I would share my thoughts on traveling while this disabled.

I will start by talking about hotels.  Now the thing is not all rooms labelled "handicap accessible" are actually accommodating.  My suggestion is to be brand loyal for as long as you can.  If you like a certain hotel chain, and you feel it meets your needs, try to stick to the chain.  The opposite is true too.  

I was at a work conference a couple years ago.  We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn.  I was given an accessible room, but just look at that tub:

Ummm. Does anyone else see a shower bench so low it might as well be on the tub floor? How does someone who is physically challenged use that?  My husband worked from the hotel and Thank God for that or I would have been rather smelly.  An aside (not really): the commode was not better.

My go-to place is the Holiday Inn Express & Suites.  The thing is these hotels are pricey, ranging from about $100-$120 a night for a room with two queen beds or a king sized bed.  There is a free rewards program you can join that can help to offset the cost.  And while I cannot call these hotels cheap, I find it comforting to have a certain baseline of room accodations because traveling is tiring!

So here is the bathroom at our first hotel:

Note the clearance under the vanity and the built in/flip down shower bench.  This bathroom also has a roll-in shower so you can get as close to the bench as you need to be:

So our second hotel - also a Holiday Inn Express - was not as great.  But here is the bathroom:

The vanity had enough clearance for the chair but the sink was too far away from the edge.  It was not ideal but not a disaster.  For whatever reason (maybe the difference between one state and another?) the toilet sat much lower than they do in other handicapp bathrooms that I have seen.  Not sure if you can see the difference between the toilet from the first room (l) and the second one (r), but if the grab bars are at the same height then you can see a difference.

The third hotel was a Fairfield Inn (by Marriot)... I cannot say if the price range is the same as: a) I did not pay, b) it was mostly paid for in points, c) it is at very tourist-y place.  There was a shower bench too.  I did notice that the hangers were lowered to accomodate someone in a chair.

I never noticed signs distinguishing the accessible places from the regular ones previously... maybe every room everywhere does this, but three out of my four rooms during this trip had such plaques.  Room No. Two even had instructions for housekeeping and other staff.  Okay instructions may be an exaggeration.   

The final room was much of the same.  Sink clearance, folding bench, etcetera.  Although this room, unlike others, kept the towels low enough.

One other plus... For those beer drinking guests.  Not sure if every room came with it.

In summary, my thoughts on traveling?  As far as hotels, no two are created equal.  Accessibility, while viewed as a legal mandate here, is a SUBJECTIVE experience.  I have a brand that I prefer that I can expect a certain level of accomodation at; true some rooms are better than others, but I am able to go from the door to the bed, through the bathroom, reach the sink, and have place to sit on while lathering and rinsing everyday.  I also can not travel alone.

If, like me, you have a brand that meets many of your needs and you can afford it, do so.  If there is a loyalty club, join it.  Because you are going to be in unfamiliar environmnts plenty and having one that you can expect a certain degree of comfort in is reenergizing.  Which you need for all those pit stops on vacation.