How can they not know?



I kept asking myself and others in my group that question as we called on Congressional Representatives and Senators recently.

I attended the AH&LA Legislative Action Summit recently, along with about 250 other lodging industry folks, including about 30 of our Owners Association members. We spent a full day preparing ourselves with issues briefings,  panel discussions, and  presentations from members of congress about the critical issues we agreed to address: visas and visa waivers, labor regulations, OTA taxes, and  of course, our most immediate challenge, compliance with the ADA regulations, particularly pool lifts. After that, we were briefed on how to conduct our Hill visits the next day to get maximum advantage of our time with legislators and their staffs. Each one of us came to town with commitment and energy and then became  “coached” to be the voice of our industry.

I witnessed again that we can be heard in Washington—but we must have lots of...

Though additional ADA standards were issued in 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice did not release a requested clarification on the pool lift standards until January 31, 2012. The Owners Association concurs with public statements made by AH&LA expressing disappointment with this interpretation, which comes just two months before the compliance date and at tremendous cost to hotels. We will closely monitor this issue as AH&LA determines next steps.

However, you need to take action immediately to protect your hotels. The clarification makes clear that pool lifts need to be available at each pool at all times when the pool is open, and only fixed lifts will be acceptable, unless a hotel can demonstrate that installing such a lift is not readily achievable.

 

IHG has prepared and posted on Merlin an Advisory on New DOJ Guidance on Pool Lifts. They have also secured discounted pricing through Spectrum Aquatics. The full IHG advisory is available on Merlin under the Quality Tab > Hotel Topics....

I had one of those Oprah “aha” moments during our Board meeting earlier this month. Now I didn’t spend a lot of time watching her show, but I think everyone knows she popularized the phrase “aha moment.” She was talking about one of those times when you stop short, and think “wow, why didn’t I think of that sooner.” Which is exactly what happened to me as we closed our Board meeting.For months now we have been working on a new identity for the Association. Our target has been and will be to introduce our new name and logo at the IHG Americas Investors & Leadership Conference next week. All focus has been on that date. But as I got ready to adjourn the Board meeting, I stopped short: I realized this was our last meeting as the IAHI. Never again would we gather together under this name—it seemed like a moment we should have commemorated, and we didn’t. Which was my “aha”…I know almost daily there are times that we are so focused on what’s at the end that we fail to acknowledge all the milestones along the way. Did...