Letters

From June 24 through June 27, 1998, myself, my partner (Barb) and a friend stayed at the Comfort Inn on East 59th Street in Anderson, Indiana. I made this reservation several weeks in advance by telephone, and the room was paid for in advance by credit card. At the time I called, I asked if they had a handicapaccessible room on the first floor. The representative said, "Yes," and "We have a swimming pool, too." I asked if the pool was also accessible; the representative responded, "Yes."

When we arrived, there was not a handicap parking space in the rear of the building (which, we were told, was the closest entrance to our room), nor was there a ramp or a cut in the sidewalk. The lot was very small, with room for only eight to ten cars to park.

Our room, number 128, was not accessible. Barb pushed my scooter into the room, because the metal strip holding down the carpet was too high for me to cross. The bathroom was very small and even the able-bodied members of the party had difficulty fitting in the room. The bathroom door barely cleared the toilet. There were no handrails whatsoever. There were table lamps that were easy-access. The next day, when we returned from being away, the table lamps were gone, having been replaced with wall lamps, which; were difficult for me to reach without stretching.

The supposedly "accessible" swimming pool was a nightmare. When Barb and I got to the pool, I was going down the ladder, only to find out that it was loose. I lost my balance and fell into the water. Fortunately, Barb was there to assist me. I could not get out of the pool due to the pain in my legs. We had the maintenance man, Danny, help me get out. We tried a stepladder, but it wouldn't work. I had to climb on top of a small patio table, with Barb and Danny holding onto me. I was scared and upset. We went back to the room. My legs were sore and I ended up with a softball-sized bruise on my left calf.

At one point, a motel employee approached us and asked to enter the room. She had a cast on,her leg and carried a clipboard. Thinking she was with Housekeeping, we consented to her entering the room. She checked the television, lamps, and other furnishings, made some notes on her clipboard and left. At no time did she identify herself by name or job title or give us any indication as to why she was in the room. We have yet to discover who she was or what she was doing. (I was told the woman was, indeed, with housekeeping, but still no explanation was provided as to what she was doing in our room.)

We (Barb and myself) were locked out of the room three times because the plastic computer key-card did not work properly. Our friend Jan, was locked out four times. The first time I waited by myself for at least 10-15 minutes before the door was unlocked from the inside: Later, when we were locked out again, late at night, Barb walked around to the front lobby to get another key. She was given one with no explanation of the problem, no offer to have it corrected, and no apology for the inconvenience from any Comfort Inn employee.

We have called and written to Gary Thoraldson, CEO of Comfort Inn, and we have called their franchise offices numerous times. One customer service representative, Kathleen, who, after heaving an audible sigh of annoyance, told us that "a refund isn't going to happen, you had a choice, you could have gone to another motel." Hardly an attitude to contribute to return business or satisfied customers!

Finally, after numerous calls and letters, on July 28, I received a letter from Comfort Inn (dated July 20) that was equally unhelpful and unsympathetic. In it, Comfort Inn claimed that I was told when I called that only one-bed rooms were available for handicapped persons (apparently Comfort Inn assumes that all disabled people are friendless and travel alone, and they do not take into consideration that a disabled person may well require a traveling companion.) They also claim that I was told on the phone at the time of the reservation that the bathrooms were not accessible. I was not told this, and where is the logic of having handicapped-accessible motels rooms it once you're inside, you can't use the bathroom? The entire pool incident was not addressed in the letter at all. In this letter, the representative claimed that she showed me the room and I approved it. This is blatantly untrue, as I made the reservation over the phone and did not see the room until we arrived for the stay. Also, I had never met the woman who called, so how could she have shown me the room? We had also been charged for one more night than we stayed, and our AAA discount was not included. While the extra charge was finally corrected, after several attempts, I have since been notified by AAA that I will not be getting any credit or refund from the discount.

We are outraged with the lies and disrespect that was given to each of us. Comfort Inn advertises "100% Satisfaction Guaranteed." Obviously, they have no knowledge of how to serve people with disabilities, and no idea of even the most basic service for customers. This goes beyond bad service, however. We were discriminated against and treated as less than human. The one accessible feature of the room, the reachable lamps, was removed during our stay, as if to ensure we had no conveniences whatsoever.