I'm going to assume you don't have any type of vision impairment. I, however do - partial vision loss from a stroke.
Actually, I enjoy a condition called Dry Macular Degeneration, which causes something close to a 50% reduction in light sensitivity. Like I'm wearing sunglasses all the time. A hotel hallway filling up with smoke would put me at a severe disadvantage. It's not something I lose sleep over.
A housekeeping cart has a higher height profile than an ECV does. I've become conditioned when walking down a hotel corridor to look for something at that height, not at the height of an ECV.
From what I can find, the two most popular brands of housekeeping carts are Lavex and Rubbermaid. Their carts run between 45" and 50" tall. ECVs usually run about 36" to the top of the seat with powerchairs usually running taller yet. The housekeeping cart is all of 9" to 14" taller. I spent 10 or 15 minutes now 3d modeling this and it's really hard to get a human being to see a 24" x 48" x 50" obstacle but not see the same obstacle when reduced in height by a foot. You have to walk with your chin pointed at the horizon.
If you say you're significantly less likely to trip over a 4 foot tall obstacle you've been conditioned to look out for in hotel hallways than one that's 3 feet tall and in essentially the same spot, I won't argue against that. My point is that placing a wheelchair to charge in the hallway, as described, doesn't increase your chances of being injured to any significant level. If I could prove to you that driving a Ford quadrupled your chances of being killed by a meteor, would you let that information change your car buying decisions?
Or do you only see a disability that requires an ECV as one that should be accommodated? When you're saying that someone using an ECV should be accommodated by leaving it in a corridor where a visually impaired person may trip over and the visually impaired person should just suck it up as one more burden they have to deal with in a day, that's exactly what it sounds like.
That's not what I'm saying at all. What I'm saying is that adding a (roughly) housekeeping cart sized item to a large hallway to the already ubiquitous occurrence of said housekeeping carts should not, and indeed does not, lead to an increase in injuries. The only way that it possibly could is by contriving a situation in which there is an uncontained hotel fire and the ECV owner has decided to walk to safety instead of taking the device they depend on for mobility.
On the other hand, just like you must occasionally discover aspects of otherwise wonderful hotel rooms that are not set up well to accommodate your vision issues, occasionally the layout of a hotel room is such that there is no space within it to conveniently park and charge the device without also causing a significant obstruction to getting in and out of the room.
Comparing the number of ECVs in use in the WDW resorts (huge) with the number of wheelchairs parked in the hall (usually see one or two per trip) tells me that it's not a common problem. I don't imagine too many people would leave the expensive device their very lives depend upon outside the locked security of their hotel room ... on a lark.
Second, I know the chances of a major hotel fire are slim, but how do you think the relatives of the victims of the MGM Grand and numerous other hotel fires would feel about your comments? OK, fire codes have improved a LOT over the years,
The victims (and families thereof) of the MGM Grand fire and the DuPont Plaza Hotel Fire have publicly taken a great deal of pride in the laws passed in response to those fires that make my statement true. In hotels brought up to code since those fires ('80 and '86) you are usually safer staying in your room than evacuating; unless the fire is inside your room of course.
Take the personal responsibility to put the ECV where it belongs - out of the hallway.
I prefer to let the hotel direct me to where it belongs; and on more than one occasion my party has been advised that the hallway space is an appropriate option if we were comfortable using it.
The only exception I see is if a guest is travelling alone and doesn't have the strength to walk far enough to prop a door open before driving the ECV into a room. But then, they wouldn't be the ones parking the ECV out in the hallway and then walking inside, would they? Because if they can do that, they can can walk to the door, prop it open, and then drive the ECV inside.
I can only use my own experience traveling with a disabled friend or family members as an example.
My dad can get the doors open just fine but could not bend down to set a doorstop if his life depended on it.
My friend's cancer left her with 85 pounds body weight and hollow bones. Walking in through the door requires turning the handle then pushing the door with two hands until it opens about 15" so she can slip through. Leaving is a little trickier but she manages it much the same by gripping the handle with both hands and leaning her weight against the door until it opens enough to get through. It takes a few long seconds longer than when I get the door but she can come and go as she pleases.
If she had to bring her chair through the door alone using your door-stop method, she would have to push the door to its fully opened position, and then while holding it there position a doorstop into place on the floor. Then, after bringing her chair through the door, push the weight of the door off the door-stop, move the stop out of the way, and then clear the door as it closes. She could probably manage it if it were a good day. It would take much longer, leave her exhausted, and expose her to a real risk of injury. She would not be coming and going as she pleased, even on her best days, there would only be so many of these maneuvers in her. On most days, she would be completely unable to do this on her own.
Thankfully, most people going on vacation travel with friends or family and those people can hold the door. Indeed, the only times my group has parked her powerchair in the hallway have been when there were no available suitable outlets in the room or when the only available outlets put the powerchair in front of the door. In the last 2 years worth of trips, at least one trip per month, this has happened a handful of times; 4 or 5 times maybe. Most likely because we nearly always stay at PoR and as MamaBunny said, the pathways can be a tight fit there.
But if we were to start booking AKL or Yacht Club more often, where our rooms are often on a 8-10' wide corridor, I wouldn't hesitate to leave the chair in the hall if the option is offered by a CM.
They put potted plants, park benches, and the occasional sculpture along the hallway walls, an unoccupied powerchair there is not a fire hazard.
