CHLA Lodging News Nov/Dec 2019

www.calodging.com November/December 2019 17 Members with questions on this important and urgent topic are free to contact CHLA’s Member Legal Advisor, Jim Abrams ([email protected] ). hotel reservations for disabled individuals has provisions for reservations made via third- party reservation agents. DOJ’s Guidance to the 2010 regulations states that third-party reservations services are not liable for non-compliance with these reservations rules, but owners and operators of places of lodging are responsible for ensuring that reservations made though these third-party services comply with the five requirements discussed above. With regard to the first requirement (that the process for booking an accessible room is the same as the process for booking a non-accessible room), the guidance states: “…The rule, both as proposed and as adopted, requires covered public accommodations to ensure that reservations made on their behalf by third parties are made in a manner that results in parity between those who need accessible rooms and those who do not. Hotels and other places of lodging that use third-party reservations services must make reasonable efforts to make accessible rooms available through at least some of these services and must provide these third-party services with information concerning the accessible features of the hotel and the accessible rooms. To the extent a hotel or other place of lodging makes available such rooms and information to a third-party reservation provider, but the third party fails to provide the information or rooms to people with disabilities in accordance with this section, the hotel or other place of lodging will not be responsible.” Lodging operators should discuss with their third-party reservations services how they intend to comply with the foregoing requirements. In addition, the guidance states that “some” accessible rooms must be made available to these services, and accessibility information about these rooms and the facility must be provided to the third-party reservations service. The Guidance also suggests that once an accessible room has been booked through a third-party reservations service, the hotel must make sure that the reservation is handled in a manner that complies with the five requirements in the regulations. Thus, lodging owners, operators, and the companies that handle their reservations should review not only how they handle reservations from third-party services, but also how those third- party services handle reservations for accessible guest rooms. 