My boy and I decided to take Odin out to Venice beach for a birthday weekend out. We made a reservation at a hotel and arrived. I will admit that I accidentally did not disclose that Odin was with me. I’m waiting for his new “service dog” vest to come in (and have been using his mesh “in training” vest since it’s summer here in Southern California and we live in the desert). I haven’t been vesting him today as the ADA states under titles II and III that an SD does not have to be vested nor identified by gear.

Well, when we arrived to the hotel, I told the receptionist that I had Odin and that he is a multi-purpose service dog. She told me that I needed documentation. I told her that there is no legal documentation necessary for service dogs in the US. She then pointed to some sort of documentation on the wall (that looked like it had come off some sort of scam site online because I have never seen it before even when I worked with a program in the beginning of his training and I refuse to use any sort of documentation for access because it hinders other legitimate teams who owner train which is perfectly acceptable). Anyways, I tried to inform her that according to the ADA, there is no legal registration and that she is allowed to ask me two questions which are: 1. Is that a service dog that mitigates a disability 2. What job or task are they trained to do?

The law also states:

Staff are not allowed to request any documentation for the dog, require that the dog demonstrate its task, or inquire about the nature of the person's disability.

After we were told to leave, we were in the parking lot, trying to cancel our stay and they wouldn’t refund us our money (over $300) and told us we could talk to the owner tomorrow morning. They also said if we didn’t leave immediately that they would call the police and I told them please DO. I would LOVE to make a report. They then backpedaled and told us that we would have to talk to the owner and there wasn’t anything they could do. I then sent them the articles straight from ADA.gov and cited where they broke the laws. They then told me that they could not accommodate me without: 1. Documentation on my disability (excuse me??!!!) 2. The animal being present. ( He was present. He was in a “cover” position by my side as we stood in front of the counter - I was wearing messenger style leash)

We told her that he was there and that it was very illegal to ask for documentation about my disability but if it got us the room that I’d provide it. They then stopped contact with us.

We called around and found out that they have “sister” hotels, but it doesn’t seem like they have a “cooperation” attached to them, at least not one attached to their website. I’ll be calling in the morning to speak to the owner and will be directing them to the ADA INFO line. But, does anybody know the specific law(s) they broke about asking me for documentation on my disabilities? I know it’s illegal, but when I looked online, it seemed like the ADA pertained more to employment than just regular businesses.