No Accessible Room after it was Confirmed! Disastrous!
In August 2022 I booked 4 rooms for our family including a wheelchair accessible room for me. My reservation clearly designated an accessible room. However, upon arrival we were given a standard room #717 – the sink level was at my eyeballs when sitting in my wheelchair. Totally unusable for me.
My wife had arrived earlier, had unpacked, and had settled comfortably into the standard room – and naturally didn’t want to repack to move rooms. When I arrived, the front desk stated they decided to assign us a standard room, rather than the requested accessible room – so we could be closer with the other family members. They knowingly disregarded my request and the hotel’s own confirmation of an accessible room – what’s wrong with them? Does Westin, owned by Marriott, not care about accessibility and the customer? Naturally I was very unhappy. They acknowledged their mistake and finally provided an accessible room #618 – but made me pay for the 2nd room – an extra $227. The manager didn’t seem to care one bit.
I’ve had several similar issues at other large Marriott properties using their online and call center booking. Some large Marriot’s (and Westins) no longer permit front desk booking – online is the only option. Wheelchair Jimmy is done with Marriott (and other Marriott owned properties) and hope never to visit them again. Marriott promotes their accessibility but regularly fails to deliver.
On the WJAR Index this Westin gets a 1: if they don’t provide an accessible room when booked, then it’s NOT ACCESSIBLE.
Here’s my advice: if you find a small Marriott property that permits booking at the front desk of the specific property, then fine. But don’t use Marriott’s online booking option. It stinks!
Other Hotel Notes: In the accessible room I was finally provided, the bed height was a bit high for me at 30-31 inches. A Hoyer Lift should work with this bed. The tub shower was not accessible. The hotel offers a small underground self-parking structure with only a couple accessible spaces. I had to move an orange safety cone and take up 2 spaces.
