Checking In a Guest With Limited Mobility
You are the front office supervisor of a 90-room hotel. At 3:15 pm a guest arrives for a three-night stay booked through a third-party site as a 'standard queen'. She uses a walking frame and tells you she cannot manage stairs or a bath. The hotel has two accessible rooms; one is occupied until tomorrow, the other is out of service because its grab rail is loose and awaiting repair. The lift serves floors 1–3 only; floors 4–6 are stair-access. Standard queen rooms are on floors 4–6. A queen room on floor 2 is available but has a bath with a shower over it. The guest is tired and visibly frustrated.
1. What are your options, and which do you choose? Justify the trade-offs.
Read the worked answer
Options:
- Floor 2 queen with shower over bath - no stairs, but a bath she says she cannot manage. Risk of a fall.
- Wait for the accessible room tomorrow - unacceptable for tonight; she has nowhere to sleep.
- Move her to another hotel for the night and back tomorrow - disruptive but safe.
- Offer floor 2 tonight with a shower chair/stool if the hotel has one, then move her to the accessible room tomorrow.
Choice: Option 4 if a shower stool or chair is available and staff can assist; otherwise option 3.
Reasoning: Safety outranks room category and revenue. A bath she cannot safely use is a genuine hazard, and the out-of-service accessible room must not be used - the loose grab rail is a known defect and using it would be negligent. Floor 2 removes the stairs problem; a shower stool may solve the bath problem. If it cannot, a night at a partner hotel is the honest fix. The accessible room must be prioritised for repair and blocked for her from tomorrow, and the third-party booking should be noted as an accessibility request that was missed.
2. What would you say to the guest, and what follow-up actions would you take during her stay and afterwards?
Read the worked answer
To the guest: 'I'm sorry - your booking didn't tell us you need an accessible room, and I want to fix that properly. I can offer you a ground-floor-accessible route to a room on floor 2 tonight, with a shower stool brought up, and move you to our accessible room tomorrow morning. If that won't work for you, I'll arrange a room at a partner hotel tonight at our cost. Which would you prefer?'
Follow-up:
- Inspect the floor 2 bathroom with her before she commits; do not promise what the room cannot deliver.
- Have housekeeping bring the shower stool and check it is stable.
- Block the accessible room for her from tomorrow and chase the grab-rail repair today, with a completion time confirmed.
- Move her belongings personally tomorrow and confirm she is settled.
- Log the missed accessibility request and raise it with the booking channel; add an accessibility prompt to the booking process.
Reasoning: Giving her a real choice respects her autonomy, and inspecting the room first prevents a second disappointment. The follow-up fixes the immediate stay and the systemic gap that caused it.