How much can it cost to make a hotel that is adapted for people with disabilities, or to convert a hotel to suit people with disabilities (estimation)?

For a newly-built class A select service property, the going rate is about $10 million, give or take.

How can I give you a figure off the top of my head like that? It's because every new hotel is required to fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. There are very few people who are able to travel at all, who cannot be accommodated, somehow, in any hotel built to current codes. And if one of those people calls ahead, we'll think of something.

Is every room in a hotel built to current codes fully accessible to people with disabilities? No. There's just not the demand. You would incur vastly increased construction and furnishings costs per room if you made every room in the hotel fully accessible, and for most people who show up, a standard hotel room is quite adequate.

If a hotel closes, gets sold, but is overtaken by squatters before the new owner has started business, what is the protocol for getting them out?

If I make an offer on a hotel, and it has been closed, I'm going to require that it be delivered at closing completely vacant; and if they cannot or will not deliver that, or the building is occupied by anyone other than people who are there for a reason that I am okay with, the deal's off. I’m also going to demand as part of the deal that it be — other than that which I might agree to in advance — unencumbered by franchise, unencumbered by management, unencumbered by any tenancy or leasehold interest, unencumbered period — free of any liens, free of any claims, nothing to get in the way of my absolute say in who’s allowed to be there, who’s allowed to set foot on the property and who isn’t; or how it is to be managed or what I can or can’t do with it, or who has the right to claim any of my return, revenue or rent from the use of it.

Former Heart of Durham Hotel, Durham, N. C. (Indyweek)

If squatters have so overrun the building that they've, legally, established "residency”, then running them out of there -- if they can be driven away -- is the seller's problem. Or should be. If he's not fully in possession of it, then he can't really claim that he owns it, and therefore has no right to try and sell it to anyone. And your wisdom, intelligence, and business sense is somewhat open to question if you buy it.

Why do hotels and office buildings lock the stairwells and force you to use the elevator?

First of all, it's very illegal to lock a marked exit: the stairwell is there for fire safety and must be accessible any time the building is occupied - which for a hotel, is pretty much 24-7.

I assume you mean, they're locked from the inside, so you cannot enter a floor from the stairwell.



It's a security issue. Some people lock access to upper floors from the stairwell (you can exit the stairwell at the first floor or ground level) to control traffic, to prevent people from transiting from upper floor to upper floor via the stairwells or to prevent people (particularly undesirables) from occupying the stairwell (it's not unheard-of in some places to find a wino or street person, or worse, sleeping or loitering in one).

I've seen a few hotels in locations where I would do that. Going into a stairwell to sneak a smoke in a 'tobacco-free' building is one thing - I do it myself sometimes - but all I need to see is a couple knuckleheads in a stairwell smoking weed, and that's it . . . new door hardware goes on order the next day.

I work in a hotel, my manager keeps the fire alarm switch off, is it legal?

No, it certainly is not.

I assume your hotel's in the USA or some other civilized country where the building codes require that a hotel have one. But even if they didn't, anyone who would disable one is -- at best -- too irresponsible to be allowed to run a hotel.

Having it down one night because of a malfunction is one thing, and that's never good; but if life safety systems are compromised, it rates a first-thing-following-morning emergency expenditure. And I'd have an extra person there through the night, just wandering corridors -- with a current guest list, sorted by floor, in his pocket and at the ready in case he smells smoke.

Even if it wasn’t illegal . . . if a fire breaks out, and someone, maybe more than one person, is killed or disfigured for life; and you know you could have done something differently to keep it from happening . . . could you live with that for the rest of your life?

Originally appeared on Quora