A: I’m sorry your family ended up in a hotel room you couldn’t use.

Booking.com could have done a better job with the room description, but this Mexican hotel nightmare was also preventable. If you’re traveling with someone who has special needs, you might consider working with a qualified travel adviser. For example, Travel Leaders, one of the largest travel agency groups, publishes a list of agents who specialize in accessible travel (www.travelleaders.com/travel_agent/agent-search-results.aspx?slctInterest=Accessible+Travel). There’s also a nonprofit organization, the Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality, that can help connect you with a property or agent that will fit your needs (http://sath.org/).

I think you did your best with the information you had. The property description seemed adequate. But everyone expects air conditioning in a modern hotel. A TV too. I think Booking.com should have placed a warning on the site if the hotel didn’t have any amenities that everyone takes for granted.

A brief, polite email to your online agency might have helped. I list the names, numbers and email addresses of Booking.com’s executives on my nonprofit consumer-advocacy site: www.elliott.org/company-contacts/booking-com/.

It turns out your family booked a “deluxe ocean front” room on the upper floor of the Villa Las Estrellas. Air conditioning and TV were not listed as amenities for the specific room category chosen, according to Booking.com. Your online travel agency also verified that the hotel tried to help you by placing you in a room with AC and giving you access to a TV lounge. Booking.com offered you a refund of $833 — half your room rate for the five days you were in Tulum — which you accepted.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the author of “How to Be the World’s Smartest Traveler.” You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org, or email him at chris@elliott.org.