Woman in wheelchair books ‘accessible’ hotel room only to arrive and be told ‘there is no accessible entrance’ by staff trying to shift the blame

A disabled woman who is reliant on a wheelchair has claimed that the accessible room she booked at a Travelodge hotel in the UK was not accessible, as the only way into the hotel was via a set of stairs. However, the staff at the hotel told the woman they didn’t know she needed assistance, despite her claiming she booked an “accessible” room.

TikToker Isabel Canto shared her experience in a video that has since gone viral, reaching over a million views. The content creator has made videos documenting the challenges disabled people face befor. Another of her recent videos showed her being refused entry onto a bus due to parents and their strollers taking up the disabled space.

In this case, Cantos was under the impression that the “accessible” room she said she booked would actually be accessible. However, upon arrival, she discovered that the lift was “out of order,” meaning she would not be able to get to her room.

@isabelcantomusic

UPDATE: thank you everyone for your help getting Traveloge’s attention. A lovely manager just called me up to reassure me they are on the case. I had an incredibly stressful experience trying to access this @TravelodgeUK as a wheelchair user, and I fear what happened to me will happen to other wheelchair users too if Travelodge don’t make urgent changes. I reached out to them privately, but I’m anxious they may not respond for some time. So please tag them in this video and encourage their immediate attention on this issue. #wheelchairuser #accessibility #disabilityrights

♬ original sound – Isabel Canto ?

In her video, she spoke with a member of staff, telling him, “No one called me to tell me that the lift was out of order.” The employee’s response? “We didn’t know if you need any assistance.” Isabel argued that booking an accessible room should mean anyone should be able to get to it, including those in wheelchairs. However, the employee claimed that many people had booked the room and had not needed assistance.

The Travelodge employee claimed there was a warning on the website

The employee told Isabel that there was a warning about the broken lift on the website, which made her question whether she had missed anything when she initially made the booking. She later went back to the Travelodge site and found an accessible room at the same location. She got as far as the payment page but was initially unable to find any notification warning about the broken lift.

After a bit more searching, Isabel did find a warning on the homepage of the specific hotel she was staying at. However, Isabel claimed this page was only found by searching for the hotel “without giving any specific dates.” Even then, she had to scroll down quite a bit to find it.

Isabel contacted Travelodge to find out when the warning was put on the site, but she insisted that, even if the warning had been there when she booked, it wasn’t adequate considering how easy it was to miss. “I was expecting to see a big red banner at the top of the page,” she claimed.

In an update in the video description, Isabel claimed that she had since been contacted by a “lovely” Travelodge manager who reassured her that they were on the case. Accessibility is important, especially if service is advertised as accessible, then the onus should be on the service provider to make sure it stays accessible.

(Featured Image: Isabel Cantos, TikTok)

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