Blog
Accessibility Training at The Carlyle Hotel: Advancing Inclusive Luxury Hospitality
June 30, 2025
In a cozy back-of-house meeting room at the historic top-line Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan, I spoke about Elements of Service with three groups of Carlyle associates over the course of a day.
The attendees were team members from across operating departments, including the Hotel Manager, HR, F&B, Guest Experience, Marketing, Sales and Security. The coordinator for the day, Lea Hannigan, is also part of the Enable Employee Resource Group (ERG), which is dedicated to issues around disability and accessibility. Lea, who has nonapparent disabilities, is proud to have disclosed these to her managers and colleagues. She told me that the Carlyle has been very supportive , much more so than any other property or organization where she has previously worked. Rosewood Hotels, the Hong Kong-based company that manages the Carlyle, supports five ERGs under the besieged DEI umbrella, and shows no sign of backing away from this program. Instead, Rosewood Hotels’ website is unequivocal in declaring the company’s support of diversity, equity and inclusion. That they are backing this stance with action through policies and education is something we’d like to see more of across the hospitality industry.
It is no coincidence that our most recent prior training was at Moet-Hennessy. The organization’s currently seeking enlightenment on disability and accessibility in customer-facing and internal operations are weighted toward luxury. These organizations may not have greater interest in the needs of disabled consumers than operators in other market segments and tiers.
However, with their focus on service, they are more cognizant of the growing size and needs of many of their longtime customers, many of whom are aging into people with disabilities. They may not identify as such, but with diminishing vision, hearing, mobility and/or cognitive function, their service requirements become more aligned with those of the disability community.
As luxury consumer brands increasingly add skills and knowledge in social accessibility to the Learning and development of their teams, other service tiers will not only adopt these lessons but also learn to deliver them at scale and with purposeful efficiency.