For anyone that has ever loved someone in a wheelchair or been in a wheelchair extensively can tell you that just ordinary everyday activities take an extensive amount of effort and planning. This means that vacations almost sound like an impossibility and anything normal is long gone. And so a trip to the store becomes an obstacle course trying to determine if it is worth going out and how to best plan for the adventure. For us, we have learned the local scooters in walmart are never charged and it is far better to keep Tim in the wheelchair have him push the cart and me in turn push Tim, It may appear odd but the result is that we can get our groceries and have a "normal" shopping experience. Well at least the new normal since last February when this auto-immune disease caused Tim to go from able-bodied to having no feeling from the waist down. The bathrooms are disappointing as there are no family bathrooms and the handicap accessible stalls are in the opposite side of the bathrooms. I also hate to see extra toilet paper placed on the rails they are for pulling up not a shelf and trashcans should never be in the path of travel. It's obvious that the people that do that have never dealt with wheelchairs and I hope they never do but there are 450 million people in the US alone that are wheelchair bound and they sometimes need to use the bathroom..ok it was a rant, I am safely off of my soapbox.
But that is what makes Hyatt Hotels so very special. The Hyatt Place website is user friendly with the option to reserve both a King size Accessible room or a 2 Queen Accessible room, the "virtual tour" includes the bathroom which has a raised toilet, bars in the bathroom and shower, and proof that there is in fact a walk in shower. They also offer sturdy bench seating so that means the shower chairs are not added to the long list of additional equipment that has to come along as part of the equipment needed to survive. I love it because unlike most hotels they guarantee an accessible room and don't try to blanket these concerns with statements that say "not every room has all accessible feautures, not guaranteed until check in" That statement makes it sounds like they believe that handicap especially wheelchair bound people don't have the right to shower and go to the bathroom without being afraid or not able to perform the most basic of human needs. I also appreciate not having to call the hotel directly asking if they have raised toilets, bars in the shower, walk in showers, to usually be sent to housekeeping and hope they remember correctly...and then be told they can not guarantee a room, Its simply simply click on an accessible room type and they guarantee it amazing! I also love that there is both a king accessible and queen accessible, why? Because many handicap people have families that also need a place to sleep. We have plans to go on our first ever vacation in March, I am hoping they are just what they say they are. Also, I feel obligated to mention that you can sign up for Hyatt Gold Passport and earn points towards free nights without blackout dates and other upgrades. And no, I don't work for Hyatt :)
http://nashvilleairport.place.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/place/reservations.jsp;jsessionid=KBZRDRDNIFZWECTEAGDCFFAKMQAYOIV0?start=4
Here is a link to the Hyatt, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words!
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