deb scott

Review of Hyatt Regency Denver at Colora...

The room was wonderful, with a lovely view of the ...

The room was wonderful, with a lovely view of the sunrise over Denver, but that is not why I'm writing this review.

My spouse is blind and I have a severe latex allergy, which basically means that nearly everything in the modern world is likely to land me in the ER and/or dead. This creates a rather interesting dilemma when we travel and at least 3 to 6 months to prepare for.

The best I can usually hope for is to find one hotel and restaurant in any given city that does not use latex gloves and hope they also will not have balloons for decoration, advertising or just randomly brought in by customers. This does not address all the other ubiquitous things that create airborne latex, such as rubber bands, bath mats, rubber fatigue mats, weather mats, elastic-bound bottom sheets on the beds, rubber backed carpeting, etc. So I generally assume that sooner or later I'm going to get hit with a reaction with life-threatening consequences.

Sometimes the choice of hotel is mandated by the event. More often than not, the hotel uses latex gloves and so I simply cannot go. Even with my doctor ordered respirator, the amount of latex would overwhelm me. This year, the conference hotel was at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. My spouse contacted them well in advance and found out, of course, they used latex gloves. However the general manager and VIP manager expressed interest in accommodating my latex allergy. They agreed to switch out all latex gloves for latex free gloves throughout the hotel and all food service. They took great pains to make sure our stay would be safe, including having meetings with staff and personally overseeing the hotel room.

Nevertheless, I am used to arriving at what should be a latex safe hotel and running into all sorts of things that they forgot to remove. I walked in to our room at the Hyatt and... I could breathe. They took care of everything. After a day of difficult travel, I could just collapse on the bed and BREATHE. We ordered room service, and I could eat without choking. I slept without waking up gasping for air. Both managers wrote me a personal welcome and assured me they wanted to know if there were any issues to address.

There was one hiccup but that was immediately remedied when we called down, and it never happened again. I also received calls and a visit from the Executive Housekeeper to follow up on the reaction from the mats. I can honestly say that in all my travels, domestic and global, I have never been treated with such concern and attention to detail.

As for my blind spouse, the Regency Club which provided breakfast, snacks and evening desserts were excellent assistants. They helped him choose foods and brought plates to him, so he didn't have to try and find them by feel from the buffet. All this done with such amazing good cheer and professionalism that they felt more like family than staff. More importantly, he felt accommodated, not disabled. This positive and helpful attitude was apparent throughout the hotel no matter who we interacted with.

The Hyatt Regency, at least in Denver, gets my highest possible rating not just for the excellent lodging and food, but for accessibility at its best: Making disabled persons feel at home... and normal.