By Adam Mogelonsky, Larry Mogelonsky
The hotel industry has seen an explosion of new brands and sub-brands over the past two decades, and this trend shows no signs of abating. This diversification is driven by various forces, with a prominent rationale being that emergent brands can better appeal to niche interests, microsegments or specific customer identities.
We see this trend in the rise of the extended stay category (Home2 Suites by Hilton, Residence Inn by Marriott, Hyatt House) and the growth of serviced apartment or aparthotel brands. Premium and luxury segments have also excelled by focusing on particular value propositions, whether it’s sustainability (1 Hotels), wellness (Aman, Hyatt Andaz, Mandarin Oriental, Six Senses), fitness (Accor’s Pullman, IHG’s EVEN, Equinox Hotels), or nightlife (Kimpton, Moxy, The W). Additionally, there are numerous brands, soft brands, and associations exploring lifestyle, design, art and culinary-forward experiences.
Despite the proliferation of brands, there remains a significant customer cohort that has not been adequately embraced at the operational and marketing levels: guests with disabilities. While hotels in the United States must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), this often translates to meeting only the minimum design criteria, training, SOPs, or cultural appreciation. Corporate efforts in this area frequently amount to ticking a compliance box rather than implementing thoughtful programming with services, amenities, and team training designed to make a hotel the preferred choice for disabled or handicapped guests. According to Pew Research Center’s analysis of 2021 census data, over 42 million Americans have disabilities, representing 13% of the civilian, non-institutionalized population.
This presents an untapped market. There is a growing need for ADA-forward hospitality, accompanied by opportunities to upsell and cross-sell, thereby capturing more total revenue from this cohort. ADA enhancements need not be corporately mandated but can be executed at individual properties to realize similar benefits.
The Silver Tsunami
The term ‘cohort’ is deliberately used to describe guests with disabilities, rather than the age-specific ‘demographic,’ because disabilities can affect anyone at any time. Nevertheless, the aging baby boomer generation underscores the need for hotels to better cater to this market gap. The boomer generation is entering retirement and becoming elderly, with age being the primary risk factor for developing minor or severe health conditions that may lead to disabilities. Unlike previous generations, advancements in longevity have extended lifespans and enabled many with disabilities to continue traveling well into their later years.
Historically, life was a dichotomy: people were healthy and traveled until they became unhealthy and immobilized. Modern medicine has transformed this paradigm, allowing many elderly individuals to live longer and maintain an active lifestyle. The ‘Silver Tsunami’ refers to the wave of elderly individuals who will populate every corner of the world, most of them active travelers. Countries like Japan, South Korea, and members of the European Union will soon have more than a third of their population aged 65 or older. In the United States, the Census Bureau estimates that by 2030, approximately 73 million boomers will be 65 or older.
With age as a leading indicator for chronic diseases or physical impairments, potentially one third of future guests will experience mobility issues, chronic pain, heart problems, hearing loss, poor eyesight, compromised immune systems, diabetes, or predementia.
Verifying Your Handicapped Services
Irrespective of attaining the official designation, there are many design flaws and training errors at hotels in this area; issues that may not be apparent to able-bodied hoteliers until a handicapped guest arrives onsite. Here are some key points for hoteliers to consider:
- Multiple hotel entrances and exits with only one having a ramp, which is often not clearly communicated on the website or prearrival emails
- Older hotels with elevators and doors that aren’t wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs comfortably
- Handicapped rooms not located near the elevator, with thick, soft carpets that hinder wheelchair movement
- Handicapped rooms lacking essential features like bedrails, toilet grab bars, or shower seats, and uneven floor thresholds that prevent wheelchair access to bathrooms
- Property management systems failing to properly identify and configure rooms for wheelchair-bound guests versus other disabilities
- Hotel amenities such as restaurants, spas, and meeting spaces not easily accessible for handicapped guests, with no communication about accessibility on the website
- Frontline staff inadequately trained to assist disabled guests, leading to errors in room assignments, directions, and suggestions for local attractions
- Foodservice areas lacking accessible tables
- Restaurant staff not reviewing guest profiles or reservation comments to anticipate and accommodate disabled diners
- Limited or non-existent handicapped transportation options for excursions
- Absence of compassionate error recovery SOPs to ensure disabled guests feel valued when issues arise
Addressing these points could take over a year, but it is crucial to ensure a hotel is regarded as a destination of choice for disabled travelers. Independent verification or rigorous self-inspection is needed to resolve these issues during preconstruction, planning a PIP and updating training protocols. As well, and as is true for other properties, exceptional service can overcome any fault.
Eldercare Services
From suggested actions and a feasibility study to show the potential opportunity for your local market, it is straightforward for an existing brand, especially in the extended stay or aparthotel categories, to dedicate whole floors or sections to superior ADA compliance. Some destinations may even support hotels where all rooms are fully accessible.
To upsell additional services, hotels should blend short-term hospitality with assisted care facilities or eldercare centers. Specialized labor will always be a challenge, but their services can be offered as an additional charge above the nightly rate. Consider the following upselling opportunities:
- Online packages for adjoining rooms to accommodate family or multigenerational travel
- On-demand access to caregivers trained for specific conditions
- Dining options for specific dietary needs, such as keto-friendly foods for diabetes
- Offering wheelchair-accessible transportation services
- Sessions with physiotherapists or rehabilitation practitioners
- Developing wellness experiences with accessibility in mind
And as may be redundant to say at this time, technology will play a vital role in these efforts. Some areas to consider include:
- Modern booking engines to increase the visibility of ADA rooms and services
- Training a website chatbot to answer accessibility questions
- Stronger data interfaces with CRM systems to identify disabled guests in advance
- Connected safety features like panic buttons
- Deploying robots to fulfill basic runner functions
Ultimately, our thought is that there’s a significant, untapped market niche here. As seen in the cruise industry, catering to disabled guests can be highly profitable. Above all, ensuring compliance and training your teams to empathize with these guests is simply the right thing to do.
