Hotel Accessibility Checker

Accessibility Requirements for Hotel

A hotel accessibility checker scans the pages a guest uses to choose a room and book it: the booking form, a room page, photos and the contact form. The ADA lists an inn, hotel, motel or other place of lodging as a public accommodation when its operations affect commerce. A narrow exception covers a place inside a building with five or fewer rooms for rent when the owner lives there. The Department of Justice’s web guidance names hotels, inns and motels as businesses that must make the goods and services they offer online accessible.

Hotels also have a reservation rule that is separate from WCAG. Under 28 C.F.R. § 36.302(e), a place of lodging must let people reserve accessible guest rooms in the same manner as other rooms, and describe accessible features in enough detail for a guest to decide whether a room meets their needs. A booking page that hides those features in an unlabeled image fails that practical need. There is still no Title III regulation that sets a technical standard for business websites. The Department of Justice says businesses have flexibility in how they comply, and it points to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as helpful guidance. A 2010 consent decree required Hilton’s websites on hilton.com to meet WCAG 2.0 Level A for the term of that decree, which has ended. The decree bound Hilton, not every hotel. AccessBell’s ADA preset tests WCAG 2.1 Level AA. A hotel accessibility checker shows the automated failures on a live page so you can fix the booking flow, then keep checking as rates and photos change.

The Department of Justice’s March 18, 2022 web guidance lists hotels, inns and motels among the businesses open to the public, and says the ADA applies to the goods, services and privileges those businesses offer on the web. (opens in a new tab, source: ADA.gov: Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA (March 18, 2022))

Common Issues on Hotel Sites

• Booking calendars that need a mouse

  Date pickers built as clickable grids often have no keyboard support and no accessible name for each day, so a guest cannot choose arrival and departure without a mouse. That is a WCAG 2.1.1 and 4.1.2 failure.

• Room photos with no text alternative

  A gallery of room and amenity photos with empty alt text tells a screen reader user nothing about the bed, the bathroom or the entrance. WCAG 1.1.1 requires a text alternative. The reservation rule also asks lodging sites to describe accessible features in enough detail for a guest to judge the room.

• Guest details and request forms

  Name, phone and accessible-room fields are frequently unlabeled, and an error such as “choose a date” is not announced. WCAG 3.3.2 and 3.3.1 cover labels and error identification. The Department of Justice’s web guidance calls out inaccessible online forms as a barrier.

• Rates and availability shown only by color

  A red label for sold out, or a green badge for an accessible room, conveys nothing to someone who cannot see that color and nothing to a screen reader. WCAG 1.4.1 requires the information in text as well.

• Embedded booking engines

  Third-party booking, review and chat widgets add their own markup. One unlabeled button or focus trap in the widget is on every page that loads it, and your theme cannot fix code the widget owns.

How to Fix What the Scan Finds

1. Start with the booking path: dates, room choice, guest details and the confirmation. A guest who cannot pick a date or submit a reservation cannot stay with you, and those are the journeys hotel website complaints describe.
2. Describe accessible room features in text, not only in a photo or an icon. Put details a guest needs in order to decide, such as a roll-in shower or a visual alarm, in the same booking flow as other rooms.
3. Name every booking control in text, such as “Check-in date” and “Select king room”, and check the flow with the keyboard: Tab to each control, activate it with Enter or Space, and leave calendars and pop-ups with Escape.
4. Rescan after every theme, booking-engine or photo update. A new widget can add unlabeled buttons to every room page overnight.
5. Run a free scan above on your homepage and a few key pages, fix issues starting with critical and serious, then rescan to confirm.
6. For ongoing protection, AccessBell Pro monitors up to 500 URLs per domain every day and alerts you when something regresses.

Related Guides

• ADA Compliance CheckerThe free scanner preset for WCAG 2.1 Level AA, for any page.
• WCAG 2.2 AA CheckerThe free scanner preset for WCAG 2.2 Level AA, for any page.
• ADA Title III Law for Businesses: What It Means for Your WebsiteADA Title III law for businesses explained: who it covers, how it applies to websites, what the DOJ and courts expect, the risks and a practical compliance plan.
• ADA Website Compliance: What Businesses Need to KnowHow the ADA applies to websites, which WCAG level courts and regulators reference, the Title II rule for public entities, and practical steps to reduce risk.
• Received an ADA Demand Letter? Here Is What to Do FirstGot an ADA website demand letter? Here is exactly what to do in the first week, what it typically costs to resolve, and how to avoid the next one.
• WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions Explained in Plain EnglishWCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions explained simply: visible labels, format hints, grouped fields and required markers, with code examples and a test routine.
• WCAG Success Criteria LibraryLook up any success criterion the scan flags, in plain language.
• Free Accessibility Statement GeneratorPublish a statement once your known issues are fixed.

Hotel Accessibility Questions