According to Open Doors Organization, from 2014-2016, 26 million Americans with physical disabilities took 73 million trips, spending $17.3 billion. It is a market that is growing by 22 percent annually, according to Travel Agent Central.
Elements of Service: Serving Guests with Disabilities, revised in 2019, is an online learning program designed to train guest-facing hotel employees in best practices for serving guests with physical disabilities (vision, hearing, and mobility impairments).
Learners are presented with a variety of service situations for guests with disabilities, where uninformed actions can cause distress or even danger. From the point of entry and check-in to food service and at touchpoints throughout a hotel visit, service providers learn the communication skills and tools that will create outstanding service interactions with this fast-growing traveling population.
Elements of Service provides all hospitality professionals from top to bottom with the tools they need to make sure a property’s interactions with people with disabilities are positive ones.
The program:
- Teaches how to effectively and confidently interact with guests with disabilities
- Uses service situations, showing how a poor response can cause distress or even danger
- Takes learners through hotel experiences for travelers with disabilities
- Equips hospitality professionals with communication skills and tools to create outstanding service interactions
The goal of this program is to ensure that hotel staff feel confident and equipped to handle service interactions with hotel guests who are disabled—without the uncertainty, confusion, and missteps that often characterize the experience of both service providers and hotel guests with disabilities.
There are knowledge checks with feedback throughout the program. A 20-question quiz at the end of the course tests understanding.
Time to complete:
30-45 minutes