WARNING for people with service dogs!

If I could give this zero stars, I would. This experience started OUT awful. I reserved an accessible room because my sister and I have blood circulation issues (POTS; postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and dizziness/lung issues that have been exacerbated by covid. As soon as I said we have two service dogs, the issues began. This hotel insists on requiring proof for service dogs, which is ILLEGAL TO REQUIRE.

I spoke to both the desk employee and the hotel owner in great length and with great frustration. Both of them continually interrupted me, argued with me, and kept insisting that everyone with service dogs who has stayed at their hotel has provided cards for their animals and have not told them anything I was telling them. They insisted that this was hotel policy and that they have never heard of the ADA rules and regulations I was stating. TO BE CLEAR, here are the ADA rules for service animals in hotels that were all broken tonight:

"Hotels are NOT ALLOWED to require people to show proof, papers cards or otherwise, that their animal is a service animal. - They are NOT ALLOWED to charge pet fees for service animals, even if the person doesn’t have proof or refuses to show them proof. - They are NOT ALLOWED to designate rooms for service animals (AKA pet friendly rooms) when there are other rooms available because service animals are legally considered as MEDICAL EQUIPMENT and are legally allowed everywhere their person is allowed, disregarding other people’s allergies. Hotels will often try to insist on putting service dogs in pet rooms because they “have to take care of their other guests with allergies” but this is ILLEGAL."

I kept repeating these because these two women would not listen, would not stop arguing, and would not let me speak. They told me that their pet friendly rooms are smoking rooms, even though we requested non-smoking. This is an enormous issue because even without the ADA rule listed above about designated rooms, we both have lung issues. Cigarette smoke leaves a smell in those rooms that makes us both nauseous, and it’s an instant migraine trigger for my sister.

Eventually, the hotel owner told front desk to give us “room (___)”, to which she rudely questioned (paraphrased), “Without charging them a pet fee? We’re really going to let them stay without charging them? … Okay.” They gave us a room on the SECOND FLOOR. People who need a first floor accessible room. This room is not accessible, the bathroom is tiny, the AC doesn’t work properly, the toilet is broken (I have to keep fixing it so it will flush), and the shower-to- bath lever is broken. My sister is having an attack, her heart is racing, and she could barely fit her service dog in the bathroom with her, which she needed because she could barely stand up in the shower but couldn’t take a bath because of the broken lever.

Sep. 06, 2022