Tag Archives: hotel

The (Tired and Moody) Modern Hotel, Boise ID

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Last year we loved it.  This year: not so much.

The motel seemed tired this year: the rugs in both rooms (we are a family of five so we rent two rooms) were dirty and stained, the walls were marked up and the bathroom countertop in one of the rooms was burned. The staff seem a little jaded too, and at times seemed rather put out that they had to answer a customer.  Two times our room reservation was messed up (I won’t go into all the details here).  If you need an ADA room, there are only two and one (the bigger one) is in front of the bar, which can be very loud at night.

But check out this photo I took.  This is what really soured me on the hotel:

 

The owner of The Modern Hotel and Bar thought this was a perfectly good spot to park.

The owner of The Modern Hotel and Bar thought this was a perfectly good spot to park.

The car parked oh-so-illegally, in the ADA-defined spaces AND in the cross hatches for minivan entry and egress is the OWNER of the hotel.  There are two ADA-spaces:  one was taken, so we parked in the other.  But because this black car was parked in the cross hatches where the ramp would go, we couldn’t get our daughter out of the car without backing into the road.

When I went to the desk to make them aware that someone was parked in such a way as to impede our daughter’s mobility in the parking lot, they nonchalantly said they’d look into it.  Because I could see the car from our room, I checked back in with them when the car was still parked there 20 minutes later, only to be told that it was the owner of the hotel and she’d be leaving soon.  She didn’t leave “soon.”  And they didn’t seem to really care that their customer wasn’t happy about it.

I met the owner a day later when she was serving me a coffee in the bar.  As she clearly knew who I was, this would have been the perfect time for her to have acknowledged that she had parked – wrongly – in the ADA space.  I wasn’t looking for her to fall on her sword;  I just would have liked to hear her say, “Hey, I didn’t realize the impact I had on someone who needs those spaces.  Sorry.”  That’s all.  Recognition that those spaces are there for those who need them, and not for anyone’s convenience, would have been sufficient.

If you have two good legs, or set of lungs, or heart, then celebrate that.  Walk a few more feet or even several blocks and leave those spaces for someone who needs them.

 

 

Accessible Hotel Review: The Hotel Terra, Teton Village, WY

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Although not inexpensive, it has a few things going for it:

  • the accessible parking spots are near the door (so you don’t need valet every   day unless you want it)
  • the outdoor pool is heated and has a chair lift for those who need assistance getting into the pool
  • IMG_2469we were able to create an apartment-like suite by adjoining a single room next to a one-bedroom hotel room that easily accommodated the five of us and our wheelchair.  The suite then had two bedrooms, a Murphy bed, three full bathrooms (one of which was completely accessible), a kitchen (refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, stocked with utensils, dishware and a coffee maker), a living room area that accommodated all of us and a 6-person table.  And the laundry facilities were across the hall from us!IMG_2470
  • there were several dining options, all accessible, nearby;  you could order take-out from all of them and there was a small grocery store (the Mangy Moose)
  • The Aspens, an organic supermarket, was down the road a few miles and is accessibleIMG_2504
  • very close to the southern entrance of Grand Teton National Park
  • close to Jackson
  • just before I left, I was on The Hotel Terra website and saw a 30% discount on hotel rooms for some of the dates we were there;  I called and they applied the discount to our entire stay.  Nice!
  • concierge service was very helpful in researching wheelchair accessibility for activities and restaurants

What I didn’t like about The Hotel Terra:

  • there was a big gap, maybe two inches from the entrance to the door jamb, which was awkward for Marianne to manuever over in her wheelchair (she got a little stuck sometimes)
  • there were only three or four accessible parking spaces, and it doesn’t seem like enough
  • the Mangy Moose store is not wheelchair-accessible
  • the restaurants are expensive, and it was impossible to get a reservation at Calico, a highly-recommended restaurant near The Aspens, or Q Roadhouse (right next to Calico), which were more affordable
  • the pool is small – really small
  • there are two buildings;  we opted to stay in the main building which had the cafe in the lobby, a restaurant in the lobby, the pool and the gym.  But the accessible room overlooks the Teton Village courtyard, which has a water fountain that attracts small, excited – and, when the jets go off randomly, shrieking – children.  And sound does carry in this valley….