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Pool Lift Pandemonium - Enough Already! Editor-In-Chief Glenn Haussman proves why the Department of Justice is completely wrong, dispels special interest group rhetoric and provides a realistic solution every reasonable person should agree with. Tuesday, July 10, 2012 Glenn Haussman

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Enough is enough with the “Pool Lift” controversy. It’s time for the Department of Justice to get out of the business of hoteliers when it comes to ADA pool lifts. It’s also time special interest groups take a deep breath and stop carping about an issue that has little relevance to the day to day life of a typical disabled person.

The hotel industry is absolutely, unequivocally not against Americans with disabilities, it’s against ill-conceived wide sweeping rules and regulations that have little to no bearing to the way the real world operates. Unfortunately, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and other industry leaders have not made this point clear and should rework some of their arguments against this onerous requirement to make it clear this is not a wholesale move against the disabled population, but a fight against an impractical one size fits few requirement.  On an industry wide basis the cost of following code would cost a ridiculous amount of money for equipment that at the vast majority of hotels that might never be used.

Last week the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) blasted the hotel industry in a press release claiming it was “blocking” those with disabilities from equal access to swimming pools. Words like that conjure erroneous perceptions that do little to create conversation but do plenty to cast mom and pop hoteliers as villains. The image in my head is of a general manager standing in front of a pool wagging his finger at a person in a wheelchair and telling that individual to bug off.  Truth is the typical hotel owner is not a villain but a hard working individual that has been financially pinched by the severe recession. And the way the rules are worded make this specific regulation onerous and unjust.

The problem the hotel industry has with this issue is these rules do little to address the real problem and only make sweeping generalizations through declarations that do not take into account the ramifications against small businesses at all.

Did you know the rules as stated now require pool lifts to be permanent (mostly) and that a pool lift may not be shared between two identical pools in the same location, or a pool and a spa in the same location? Oh yeah, hot tubs need them too. That is a ridiculous and punitive approach to an industry that already does an incredible amount to ensure its businesses are accessible to all human beings. See all that braille writing everywhere on signage in hotels? I am clueless how a blind person is able to know those signs are there or even find them, but the government makes hotels have them. Fortunately it’s not a big issue since the cost is negligible, but pool lifts are a totally different matter. Current rules mean a property like the La Quinta Resort & Cub could be forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to satisfy the requirement on its 41 pools and 53 hot tubs. And it would be ugly too and detract from the experience for the 99.99 percent of other guests.  One dedicated area should be sufficient and is not unreasonable.

The above mentioned associations are not acknowledging this reality and instead are focusing on what they feel would get them the most headlines. It’s the problem with all politics these days and makes our entire society ill. There is no legitimate reason to require the average hotel to have pool lifts. Few people use the typical hotel pool and a tiny fraction of those may have a disability that prevents them from getting into a pool in a normal fashion. In conversations with owners and operators of typical road side hotels during the past year, not a single one said not having a lift has caused any customer service issues.

Here is a typical style comment I hear repeatedly posted by a reader on Hotel Interactive that captures the sentiment of this issue. “ In 12 years as owner-operator of a small, non-destination hotel with a beautiful indoor pool and hot tub, there has been NOT ONE complaint or request from our disabled guests for a self-operated pool lift. We have had many disabled guests who have safely enjoyed our pool and hot tub, both of which have easy entry steps with hand rails.  Virtually all our disabled guests travel with family members or friends who routinely assist them in using our facilities.  Because of the above, the cost to install and maintain the required equipment is an unreasonable governmental intrusion into my private business.  Installation of the equipment will further require hiring additional staff to insure the safety of our guests, because once a disabled person enters the pool and gets off the lift, the dangers of their being unable to get back onto the lift are obvious.”

What the AAPD and NCIL should be doing is working with hotels is absorb what this reader wrote. The solution is right there. The real issue regarding pool lifts should not be to make sure every pool in the country has one of these costly devices, rather they should focus their energy solely on resort properties that promote water based activities as a primary reason to come to the hotel. The way these organizations are handling this issue now is a shaming attempt that stokes a non-existent fire and its making everyone look bad for no reason. It is foolish partisan politics that seems to be like a gotcha game rather than an attempt to find a palatable solution for all.

Even Helena Berger, Executive Vice President of the AAPD is unsure of how many people are really affected by not having pool lifts even though in their release last week claimed “over 50 million Americans with disabilities, including our nation’s veterans and senior citizens, will be unable to enjoy access to swimming pools this holiday.” When I asked the association how many people really need pool lifts? And of those how many actually are unable to use a hotel pool that expected to; this is the response I was given:

“It's impossible to know exactly how many people need pool lifts or would be able to use a hotel pool if fixed lifts were provided, simply because many potential lift users have been taught that requesting a lift is an "inconvenience" to hotel staff. However, we know that there are approximately 3.3 million Americans who use wheelchairs, and another 10 million who use a walking aid such as a cane, crutches, or a walker -- and a vast majority of them would certainly benefit from hotel pool lifts. What we hear regularly from our members and advocates is that being forced to request lifts is equivalent to being forced to ask for "special access" to hotel facilities that we're paying for just like any other traveler. It's humiliating, and it's relegating millions of Americans -- including business travelers, veterans, and many others -- to second-class status.”

She makes a point but it’s lost in rhetoric that belies the truth of the issue. The number of people who are truly being prevented from enjoying a swimming pool is statistically irrelevant and a far cry from the 50 million the groups cited earlier that day. My mom uses a cane and guess what, the handrails already installed work just fine. And when we choose to go on vacation we can easily find a resort that has a pool lift or a zero entry pool. She would actually feel more humiliated using a pool lift since everyone at the pool would be staring at her. Or if we were at a roadside hotel no one would be looking at her since very few use those pools as it stands now.

Reasonable heads must prevail and the hotel industry should provide pool lifts in certain situations to accommodate guest expectations at resorts. The AHLA and other industry leaders should encourage this policy too because that makes sense. That is the only true level headed solution because having the government force an already strapped industry to install pool lifts in a wholesale manner is just another case of bureaucratic buffoonery.