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Dealing with hotel re: ada, service animals and the federal law

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desiderata310

MyPTSD Pro
So I have to start by saying that I've traveled a good bit with Charlie. Not extensively but enough and while I've met a few people I've had to educate, I've never been quite so insulted as I was tonight.

I made arrangements through Expedia at a Super 8. When I checked in, I brought Charlie, (in vest) in with me for registration. I checked in, no problem, and went back out to grab our stuff. When I came back through (again with Charlie in vest) the lady at the counter (same one who checked me in) stopped me and insisted that she had to charge me an additional fee.

I told her that no, she couldn't, this was a service animal.
She insisted that he had to have papers and ID.
I explained that this was what FAKE handlers had and that the only place that insisted on papers was Canada- check her federal laws.

And from there it got heated.
She accused me of starting a shouting match. (actually she started it)

I asked for the number for Super 8 so that I could talk to corporate: she told me to go look it up on line.

THE f*ck?!
I gave her one of the cards I had made up for Charlie (that has the federal law on it) and told her to brush up.
I went back out to the car for something with Charlie (this time OUT of vest)and someone else started calling to me as I came back in- I told him to look up ADA and kept walking.

SO ... I called Expedia. After sitting on hold while they spoke to hotel staff (who wouldn't budge) they assured me that they would follow up with the manager the following day, educate them.

I'm calling and reporting the incident to the Department of Justice. There's a HEFTY fine attached to this shit.

oh.. I am in New York State by the way.

So all you service dog handlers out there, I would encourage you
contact Super 8 and tell them they need to brush up on their ADA laws and why.
and consider not staying at Super 8s yourself.
This one was a dicey decision anyway but I WAS exhausted. Now I'm just keyed up
 
Oddly, I'm just furious.
There's been a real mental shift of late and I get angry very easily. In the past I would have just sucked it up and paid the fee and probably not slept and left in the wee hours and CERTAINLY would not have reported anything to the DOJ. (actually I did have a run in about 3 years ago)
but in the last couple of months I have done some extraordinarily scary stupid things when people wrong me.

Not sure what that's all about but that's a different post altogether.
 
I think it's becoming more of a problem because of all the fake dogs out there that are making life miserable for the rest of us. These pets in vests that poop and pee and bite are everywhere. And biz owners don't know their rights about misbehaving service dogs so they are getting more and more frustrated. I'm glad you stuck to your guns...and even more sorry you had to deal with this
 
I am sorry you went through this but I will agree that a big part of the problem is people that are slapping a vest on their untrained pets and causing problems for legitimate service dogs. I was in the grocery store this weekend watching a manager argue with a patron about her “service dog” that she had brought his bed in put it in the cart then put the dog in the bed and said it was her service dog as it sat there growling at the manager.
 
So sorry you're dealing with this. I'm to the point where I call out the "fakers". I drill them with questions and educate them on what a service dog actually does. People suck and unfortunately they're everywhere. ;)
 
I talk to friendly employees and managers every chance I get when they welcome us to tell them yes, they can kick a "service dog" out if it's causing a disruption. That line usually gets their interest because it's so unexpected.:):)
Then I go thru the ADA laws with them and so far they've been really receptive. I give them some things to look for that the ADA says are violations like lunging...barking..pooping. I finish up with a quick "a true handler would never let their dog act like that" And voila! Someone new on our side, it takes all of 5 minutes and pretty much all of them have been grateful because they are so afraid of being sued.

People who DON'T welcome us?? Now that's a different story...
 
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