Disabled access rule may close some hotel pools

— -- Many hotels are faced with making improvements to pools by Thursday or falling out of compliance with the latest accessibility laws for disabled people.

Hoteliers must have pool lifts to provide disabled people equal access to pools and whirlpools, or at least have a plan in place to acquire a lift. If they don't, they face possible civil penalties of as much as $55,000.

There are about 51,000 hotels, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, and most have pools.

The lifts are required by regulations made in 2010 stemming from the Americans With Disabilities Act, a civil rights law that bans discrimination based on disability.

With just days before the deadline, some hotels are considering shutting their pools or whirlpools to avoid penalties or possible lawsuits.

The 93-room Town & Country Inn in Quincy, Ill., for instance, has halted reopening its newly renovated pool and whirlpool for fear that it would buy the wrong type of lift and not meet the new rule.

"If we have to close our pool for a month, that's fine," says Dax Fohey, the hotel's general manager. "Our pool is a nice amenity, but it's not the main feature."

A pool lift costs $3,000 to $6,000. New hotels, which fall under different rules, are being constructed with built-in lifts.

The hotel industry's main lobby group, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, has asked the Justice Department to delay the deadline, but an extension isn't likely.

"They've had quite a bit of time to do their planning," says Eve Hill, deputy chief of the Justice Department's civil rights division. "If they have legitimate reasons in good faith that they can't comply, then that will be taken into account."

Hotel industry leaders say the government created confusion on Jan. 31 with vague and overbroad guidance that seemed to suggest that hotels must buy permanent lifts.

"Everybody is committed to buying a portable pool lift. That is not in dispute," said Best Western CEO David Kong. "The challenge is, why does it need to be permanent?"

Hill says hotels can comply by doing what they can afford to do, even if it's installing a portable lift that's stored when not in use. If a hotel lacks the money to buy one, she says, it can create a plan that shows when it expects to get one.