'WoodSpring Suites is Terrible': Guest Claimed Service Dog Dispute Led to Assault, Eviction.

This hotel guest claims a manager assaulted his partner and kicked them out as they tried to clear up confusion about her service dog.

Photo bySarah/@v.1333

What is a service animal?

While many are just as cute and cuddly, service animals are not pets.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), they're considered working animals since they are trained to perform specific tasks for a person with a disability.

Some everyday tasks service animals are trained on include retrieving objects for a person in a wheelchair, reminding a person with depression to take their medication, detecting the onset of a seizure for a person with epilepsy and helping the person remain safe during the seizure, as well as alerting a person with PTSD of an ongoing panic attack by licking their hand.

A service animal is not the same as an emotional support animal. Emotional support and comfort are not tasks associated with a person's disability.

Where can service animals go?

Service animals are federally allowed in the majority of public spaces. And that's even if they have a no-pet policy. That could include restaurants, malls, hospitals, schools, and hotels since the service animals need to be with their person. This also applies to specific housing, such as college dorms, public housing, and emergency shelters.

A service animal can only be kept out if the dog's presence "fundamentally alters the nature of the goods, services, programs, or activities provided to the public."

Veteran with disability kicked out of hotel

TikToker @v.1333 says she was discriminated against by the St. Louis, St. Charles WoodSpring Suites manager over her service animal. Her video has more than 1 million views.

@v.1333, she explained when my husband and I told the hotel staff that we'd have a service dog with us during our stay. We also explained what services the dog performs.

Having informed them, our stay would go smoothly. But, during our stay throughout ten days there, the hotel manager flooded us with notices and warnings. The notices and warnings said they'd be evicted if the service dog didn't adhere to the pet policy. I identify the manager as Sarah Brodeur.

We also accuse hotel staff of entering our room multiple times without notice or consent.

We made three requests to speak to the manager but could only talk to her once. "Instead of admitting there was a [mistake] on their end, the Manager proceeded to evict me, change the key cards, and call the police,"

According to the WoodSpring Suites site, its hotels allow service and guide animals at all locations. That's as long as they're disclosed and "registered" as such upon check-in.

The location where we lived had three stars on Google Maps. Several guests reported rude staff and a lack of cleanliness.

Violation of federal law

The manager claims That me and my husband didn't properly inform them about the service animal at check-in and proceeded to slam the front desk window cover down, seemingly hitting one of them,

The manager told them they must leave the room by noon, but since her husband needed to find someone to cover his shift, they arrived at 3 pm.

During that time, the hotel staff went through all of our belongings (which included necessary medical equipment) and bagged them.

"I am missing $1500 worth of valuables. I feel wronged and honestly disappointed at this. How many others have there been? How many more will there be?" she explained in the video.

"This is a blatant violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Violation of American freedoms. And tyranny at its finest," She added.

The Daily Dot called the hotel in question, and Sarah picked up the phone. Sarah hung up when we identified ourselves and asked if she was the manager from the TikTok.

Commenters react

"Woodspring Suites is a terrible hotel. I worked at one here in TN," a top comment read.

"I used to work for the same hotel but in a different location.

1. I'm so sorry this happened to you all.

2. I can confirm our management was just as bad," a person agreed.

"Sara also allowed people in our room while we were gone, but my oldest was there and had him step out, and we had several items come up missing as well," another alleged.

This video raised serious questions about how hotels handle service animals and whether more regulations should be made to prevent ADA violations in future.