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To: 

Expedia Inc. 333 108th Ave NE Bellevue, WA 98004 [email protected]

Ganesh Hotels 3252 Cassopolis St. Elkhart, IN 46514 [email protected]

Wyndham Hotel Group 22 Sylvan Way Parsippany, NJ 07054 [email protected]

Cc: Indiana Disability Rights, South Bend Human Rights Commission, Dr. April Lidinsky at Indiana University South Bend

Dear Customer Service Representatives

My name is Emi Koyama and I am writing to make a formal complaint about the experience I had at Super 8 Hotel in South Bend, Indiana operated by Ganesh Hotels on October 27, 2016. The room was booked on September 24th through Expedia.com. I was visiting South Bend to give the 2016 Gloria Kaufman Memorial Lecture at Indiana University South Bend.

I understand that some people (I'm not sure who they are) who read about the incident on social media have contacted some of you, but I thought I'd provide my own account directly.

At service animal. I explained to her that there is no such thing, and the documents that some travelers may present carry no legal weight.

Still, she insisted on seeing the document. As I was prepared for this, I pulled up a Department of Justice guideline on ADA service animals on my iPad, which read, in part:

When it is not obvious what service an animal provides, only limited inquiries are allowed. Staff may ask two questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform. Staff cannot ask about the person's disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task.

I have encountered resistance from restaurant and hotel employees who were not trained about these legal requirements, but usually showing this document resolved the problem. This time however, the front desk clerk suggested that the federal regulation I pulled up may be "fake" because I just got it off the internet, and continued to demand a documentation. I asked her to use her own computer or phone to look up the document from the Department of Justice website to make sure that it is legit, but she refused to do so.

The clerk then called her manager, and, after explaining the situation to the manager, handed the phone over to me. I explained the federal regulation on service animal and read the paragraph I quoted above to the manager, but she also insisted that the documentation was required, because I could be lying about the service animal or the federal regulation. Again, I asked her to go to the Department of Justice website herself to find out if I was "faking" the law, but she declined. I asked the manager for her name, to which she replied "Sara" but refused to provide her last name. I gave the phone back to the clerk at her request, by which point the manager apparently made the decision to refuse service to me.

After in the lobby while I ask the people from the Indiana University who invited me to South Bend could come meet me and help me figure out what to do, but she insisted that I had to leave the building immediately or she would call the police on me.

Thus, I found myself and my dog freezing outside in a cold rainy weather of about 40 degrees temperature with strong wind blowing at around 6:30pm. Because I was dropped off by the ADA paratransit, which requires a reservation at least a day prior to the date of travel, I had no transportation. Further, I use electronic wheelchair which does not fit in most cars or cabs, so I had no place to go or means to get there.

I was desperate for help from someone in the area who could take me to a different place or at least come and let me get in their car so my dog and I could be warm at least, so I posted an urgent request for help on social media. I did not ask anyone to complain to the hotel, but apparently some people did, and the clerk came out at around 7:25pm after almost an hour of freezing outside in cold rain, and told me that she was letting me check in. At that point finally I was told that the hotel would accept my dog as a service animal. (I posted an update to the original social media call for help letting everyone know what happened after entering my room.)

What happened to me that evening is not just a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, but also a failure of basic human decency. The clerk was clearly not trained on the legal obligation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the manager was also ignorant about it, but they also lacked imagination about what it would mean to throw out a customer with a disability using a wheelchair who have traveled from afar in a remote area where there are no other businesses or public transit or anything nearby on a cold rainy night.

Ganesh Hotels: How do you train employees or hotel managers on legal obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act? How did this failure occur, and what are you doing to ensure that it will not happen to other people? Remember, I happened to have the knowledge of the ADA guideline and social connections that allowed me to get inside eventually, but other customers might not and they still do not deserve to be left freeing outside. Wyndham Hotel Group: What protections are in place for franchisees bearing your brands (Super 8, etc.) are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act? How was it possible for the entire staff at a Super 8 hotel to be ignorant about their legal obligations, and what are you doing to ensure that the same thing will not happen at other Wyndham-branded hotels?

Expedia Inc.: What do you do as a market facilitator to ensure that companies that you partner with are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and that it is safe for people with disabilities to book their travels with Expedia and your other sites?

I would like to hear your responses to these questions and also receive a formal apology from the manager of Super 8 Hotel in South Bend or someone above her. My friends have suggested that I should sue the hotel or demand a full refund. I would not go that far at this point because I was otherwise satisfied with the room and the booking process, but I think it would be fair and reasonable to ask for a refund for at least one night's stay after I was left freezing outside for almost an hour in a strange city, wondering where I would go and how.

What I want out of this incident most is the assurance that the practice of disability discrimination is discontinued at Super 8 Hotel South Bend as well as at any other hotel under the control of Ganesh Hotels or in partnership with Wyndham Hotel Group or Expedia, Inc.

Thank you very much for your immediate attention to this problem. I look forward to hearing from you in the next couple of weeks.

Best,

Urgent Hep Needed - Oct 26 2016 Help needed! I am sitting outside this motel I’m rain with temperature about 40 degrees because this motel does not believe that my dog is a service animal. That required me to either pay pet deposit or show documentation identifying her as a service animal, so i showed them a copy of Department of Justice’s ADA regulation of service animal that clearly says that what they are doing is illegal. The woman in the front desk questioned that the government document could be fake, so i asked her to look it up on her own computer our phone for the same document on DOJ’s website and she refuses. She then had me talk to the manager (who claimed that her name was Sarah, even though the prison on the desk said that the manager I spoke with was the person on the business card I am uploading), who kept saying that she’d have to charge fees because of the extra cleaning they have to do etc. unless I provide an official documentation of my dog nigh a service animal. The woman on the front desk then asked me to give back the phone, which i complied, and the manager decided to reuse service on me and told me to leave the premise or they’d call the police. Which brings me to outside child in rain. I don’t have any other place to go and have no rides. It’s hard for me to get anywhere because i have a big power chair and there is no public transit nearby (I came here on ADA Paratransit and can’t get same day appointment). It was booked with Expedia so I’m going to call their customer service too. Photo: business card of Priti Jairam, general manager at super 8 in South Bend, phone 574-243-0200.

Under the U.S. law, service animals are dogs (and sometimes miniature horses) trained to perform specific tasks to assist persons with disabilities. Emotional support animals are those that provide comfort and emotional support to people experiencing psychiatric disabilities, but animals do not need to be trained.

People with disabilities are entitled to live with (Fair Housing Act) and travel by air with (Air Carrier Access Act) their emotional support animals, but the landlord or airline can require a documentation of the disability and how the animal might help the person with the disability.

Service animals, on the other hand, must be accepted at places of public accommodation (Americans with Disabilities Act) without any "proof” or documentation, and can accompany a person with disability on an airplane on the “credible verbal assurance” that the dog is a service animal.

The problem is that many airline personnels do not know the difference between emotional support animals and service animals that are trained to assist people with psychiatric disabilities, and improperly demand to see a documentation for a psychiatric service animal. This has happened to me and my friends many times, making air travel more stressful than it already is.

For those flying with their psychiatric service animals, I recommend that you print out and carry with you a copy of the Department of Transportation’s Guidance Concerning Service Animals in Air Transportation (PDF) which includes the following directive for airline employees (p.24875):

Ask the passenger: "Is this your pet?" If the passenger responds that the animal is a service animal and not a pet, but uncertainty remains about the animal, appropriate follow-up questions would include:

"What tasks or functions does your animal perform for you?" or "What has it been trained to do for you?" "Would you describe how the animal performs this task (or function) for you?"

As noted earlier, functions include, but are not limited to:

A. Helping blind or visually impaired people to safely negotiate their surroundings; B. Alerting deaf and hard-of-hearing persons to sounds; C. Helping people with mobility impairments to open and close doors, retrieve objects, transfer from one seat to another, maintain balance; or D. Alert or respond to a disability-related need or emergency (e.g., seizure, extreme social anxiety or panic attack).

I have a bunch of trips coming up in the next several weeks, so I called ADA access line for Alaska, Delta, and United airlines to let them know about my accessibility needs.

Alaska - Very quick call. They took my call right away and they asked all the necessary questions (width of my power wheelchair, what disability-related task my service animal performs) and not excessive ones.

Delta - They took my call right away. They wanted more information about my power wheelchair (weight, length, and height as well as the width) but less information about my service animal (they didn't even ask what service my dog performs, which they are allowed to). The person went further by asking what seat would be ideal for me and made sure that i had the best seats for each leg of my flights.

United - I had to wait for 15 minutes while their machine blasted a rendition of George Gershwin that was too loud and making breaking noise. The person only asked about the width of my wheelchair, but then kept insisting that my service animal was "emotional support animal." I explained the difference several times, but she did not accept that. I asked her to make sure to record that I am traveling with a service animal, but she told me that she was marking it as "medical needs" and didn't clarify what that meant, so I don't know if I'm going to have another trouble once I get to the airport.

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