Is your hotel’s website accessible to people with disabilities? If you don’t know the answer to that question, you’ll probably end up in court.
In this episode, we examine what’s behind the dramatic spike in website accessibility lawsuits being filed against businesses under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And why commercial enterprises found to be non-compliant are hit with tens of thousands of dollars in penalties. Experts we interviewed for this report say the reality is it’s only a matter of time before you get sued over your hotel website as drive-by litigation takes a back seat to surf-by lawsuits.
The good news is there are steps you can take to make your hotel website accessible to guests with disabilities and not only avoid your day in court but generate new business as well.
Global business travel is a $1.4 trillion industry. The Global Business Travel Association calculates the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 resulted in a loss of $113 billion in business travel spend in hotels, airlines and other sectors of the travel industry. But all is not lost. GBTA, industry analysts and travel management companies see some green shoots of hope for 2021 as the COVID-19 vaccine rolls out and corporations put some of their people on the road again. This report is part of Long Live Lodging’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the hospitality industry.
Long Live Lodging, an online multimedia news organization that covers the hospitality industry, found itself tossing aside its plans for news coverage late in the first quarter of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. and devastated the hospitality industry. The year turned out to be ground-breaking for Long Live Lodging, which developed the industry’s first live digital conference, and its podcast, Lodging Leaders, which increased its followers through timely, credible and balanced reporting on trends and issues driving the industry during the historic year. The company also won international recognition for its coverage of the COVID-19 crisis and its work as a whole. Long Live Lodging is a startup media company, formed in 2019, with Lodging Leaders, which was founded in 2015. In today’s report, we celebrate the podcast’s 300th episode. Podcast founder and co-host Jon Albano and co-host Judy Maxwell have a free-wheeling conversation in which they review the top podcasts of 2020 (Can anyone say ‘fair franchising’?) and give a brief preview of what the media organization plans for 2021.