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Disability AND THE ***
Extended-stay hotels are a large and growing segment of the lodging industry. In 2007, they accounted for more than 5 percent of the nearly five million U.S. hotel rooms (over 250,000 rooms) and more than seven percent of rooms in the pipeline. They employ a niche marketing strategy that promises to deliver a "home away from home" to business executives, consultants, students, and trainers on long-term assignments, as well as individuals seeking temporary housing who are in transitional situations, such as divorce, relocation, separation from the military, graduation from college, and vacationing families who prefer more roomy accommodations, in-suite kitchenettes, and other comforts and conveniences of home.
Significant progress in the lodging industry in the 19 years since President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has made travel more possible, more enjoyable, and more responsive to the needs of people with disabilities, including nearly 10 million mobility-impaired Americans. A significant area in which compliance appears to have lagged, however, possibly due to uncertainty regarding the law, is extended-stay hotels.
Extended-stay hotels often combine elements of both transient lodging and residential apartments and, as a result, may present some confusion about whether the ADA or the Fair Housing Act governs the rights of the disabled traveler. Indeed, a business traveler, a consultant, a student, an individual in a transitional situation, or a member of a vacationing family who uses a wheelchair, may be surprised to learn that some extended-stay hotels are largely inaccessible. A home away from home may not always be available to everyone if they happen to be mobility impaired.
One explanation for the lack of clarity in this area is that the law may not have kept up with changes in the way the lodging business is operating. In one instance, an extended-stay hotel may have a minimum stay requirement, often two weeks or more, which allows the operator of this facility to claim that they are subject to the far more lenient access provisions of the Fair Housing Act (FHA), and not the ADA. Another potential loophole in the ADA occurs when a purchaser of a building, constructed or renovated to be a residential building and subject to the...