Guidance on the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design

Subpart D - Title III Regulation Section 36.406(c) Places of Lodging condominium hotels, and mixed-use and corporate hotel facilities, shall comply with In the NPRM, the Department proposed the provisions of the proposed standards, a new definition for public accommodations including, but not limited to, the require- that are “places of lodging’’ and a new Sec. ments for transient lodging in sections 36.406(c) to clarify the scope of coverage 224 and 806 of the 2004 ADAAG. for places of public accommodation that meet this definition. For many years the The Department’s NPRM sought public Department has received inquiries from input on this proposal. The Department members of the public seeking clarification received a substantial number of comments of ADA coverage of rental accommoda- on these issues from industry representa- tions in timeshares, condominium hotels, tives, advocates for persons with disabilities, and mixed-use and corporate hotel facilities and individuals. A significant focus of these that operate as places of public accom- comments was on how the Department modation (as that term is now defined in should define and regulate vacation rental Sec. 36.104). These facilities, which have units in timeshares, vacation communi- attributes of both residential dwellings and ties, and condo-hotels where the units are transient lodging facilities, have become owned and controlled by individual owners increasingly popular since the ADA’s enact- and rented out some portion of time to the ment in 1990 and make up the majority of public, as compared to traditional hotels new hotel construction in some vacation and motels that are owned, controlled, destinations. The hybrid residential and and rented to the public by one entity. lodging characteristics of these new types of facilities, as well as their ownership char- Scoping and technical requirements acteristics, complicate determinations of applicable to “places of lodging.’’ In the ADA coverage, prompting questions from NPRM, the Department asked for public both industry and individuals with disabili- comment on its proposal in Sec. 36.406(c) ties. While the Department has interpreted to apply to places of lodging the scoping the ADA to encompass these hotel-like and technical requirements for transient facilities when they are used to provide lodging, rather than the scoping and techni- transient lodging, the regulation previously cal requirements for residential dwelling has specifically not addressed them. In the units. NPRM, the Department proposed a new Sec. 36.406(c), entitled “Places of Lodging,’’ Commenters generally agreed that the which was intended to clarify that places transient lodging requirements should apply of lodging, including certain timeshares, to places of lodging. Several commenters Department of Justice Guidance on 2010 Standards: Title III - 49