Excerpt from Forecast, January/February 1996
"Discovering the Disabled" by Robert Cole
The travel industry, too, has begun to make changes. In the early 1990's for example, Embassy Suites Hotels, Inc., focused on accessability. Tiny bathrooms, an absence of railings and narrow doorways all combined to make accommodations less than accommodating to guests in wheelchairs. Management also worried about the responsiveness of hotel staff.
So the company sought outside assistance from Opening Doors, a Woodford, Virginia-based consulting firm that helps employees become comfortable with--and thus better at-dealing with customers and co-workers who have hearing, vision or mobility impairments.
As a result of the changes it made, Embassy Suites has seen an average annual increase of 23,000 room bookings for people with mobility impairments and $13 million in gross revenues from guest who are disabled.