The teeth

Your rights, and who actually enforces them

The single biggest reason nothing happens after an access failure: complaints go to people with no power to act. Police can't arrest a hotel for an ADA violation — it's a civil rights matter, not a crime. Here's where the power actually sits, and the paperwork that moves it.

The rules most travelers don't know exist

Hotels must hold your accessible room. 28 CFR §36.302(e) (the 2010 ADA regulations) requires a hotel to hold a reserved accessible room for you and remove it from sale. "We gave it away, here's a regular room" is a federal violation, not bad luck.
Airlines owe you a working chair. Under the Air Carrier Access Act and the 2024 DOT wheelchair rule, mishandling your wheelchair is automatically a violation; the airline owes prompt repair or replacement at its cost, plus a loaner that meets your needs. Every airline must have a Complaint Resolution Official available at the airport — ask for one by that exact title.
Parks, restaurants, and taxis are public accommodations. ADA Title III covers them all. Refusing a wheelchair user, or making access unreasonably burdensome, is actionable — and private suits recover attorney's fees, which is why disability-rights firms take strong cases free.

Something happened — where do I actually report it?

Answer one question and get the agency with real enforcement power, plus the pressure points most people never use.

What happened?

Why reports feel like they go nowhere — and what changes that

Agencies act on patterns, not single incidents. One traveler's complaint sits in a queue; forty documented incidents against the same hotel chain is a case. That is the accountability engine Keep the Room is built to be:

Log every incident here (dashboard, coming in Phase 2) — timestamped, exportable, complaint-ready.
We aggregate by company and publish scorecards — public numbers move corporations faster than lawsuits.
Clusters get referred to state Protection & Advocacy organizations and disability-rights litigators who need exactly this evidence.

Generate your reconfirmation letter

Send this 48 hours before check-in and bring a printed copy. A letter that cites the regulation, in writing, changes front-desk behavior — clerks escalate what they can't dismiss.

Your name

Hotel name

Confirmation number

Stay dates

Accessibility features you reserved

Your letter

Subject: Reconfirming ADA-accessible room — reservation [confirmation #]

To the Front Office Manager, [hotel name]:

I am writing to reconfirm my reservation ([confirmation #], [dates]) for an ACCESSIBLE room with a roll-in shower and grab bars.

Please note that under the Americans with Disabilities Act regulations, 28 CFR §36.302(e), a hotel is required to (1) hold the reserved accessible room for the reserving customer and (2) remove that specific room from its reservations system. This is not a request or a preference — it is the room I reserved, and federal regulation requires it be held for me.

Please reply in writing confirming that the accessible room described above is blocked for my stay. I will keep this correspondence for my records.

Thank you,
[your name]

This page is education, not legal advice. For advice on your specific situation, contact your state's Protection & Advocacy organization — they exist for exactly this and are free.