Stayed in an accessible room at Travel Lodge, here's my review!

SeasideAnne

I had to travel to Milton Keynes from home on the North West Coast near Blackpool. I can drive but generally don't go far, mainly just locally as the car is the best way to get my wheelchair safely with me to appointments or the supermarket. I have primary progressive MS and severe arthritis.

My son is in a hospice in Milton Keynes and I needed to get to him. I thought staying in a Travel Lodge would mean I didn't have to drive further miles to find a place to stay, and I needed wherever I stayed to be accessible for a wheelchair.

Here's my experience…

First I want to say that the young lady who was on the reception desk when we arrived was excellent, efficient, friendly and helpful. None of what we experienced was her fault.

However the bedroom was NOT suitable for a disabled person. We booked an accessible room but the only things in it that were partially accessible were the toilet and wash basin. A bath, no matter how many grab handles it has, is not accessible IMO. The toilet did have a grab handle on the wall and a fold down one on the other side, which was fine, but it was too low, even for someone in a wheelchair who wants to slide over to it.

Yes there was room to turn round in the bathroom, but because of that the bed area of the room was far too small. It was meant to have zipped twin beds. There was no zip, the beds were only 2'6" wide, 76cm max and had the bare minimum of springs, plus they were very low. In order to fit the 'twin beds' into the room (pushed together) left so little room on either side of the beds that even my rollator did not have space to go down the sides. We had to push the beds right up to the wall on one side to make space for a wheelchair on the other side.

The beds were the most uncomfortable I have ever had the misfortune to try to sleep in, and neither of us slept at all. Outside there was no space to park for a disabled person. We were told that 2 disabled spaces existed, but they are no larger than standard spaces and one is right next to a wall. And none disabled people were parked in them. The surface of the car park was very rough, uneven and had pot holes. There was no lighting where we had to park either.

We had literally no sleep. I had booked another Travel Lodge to break the journey for the return home, but cancelled it because I couldn't bear another night with no sleep in such an uncomfortable bed, so I drove all the way home (the person with me has vision problems and no driving licence now). I think anyone who uses a wheelchair or has accessibility needs may want to know how this trip went.

Jimm_Scope

Thank you for sharing your experience @SeasideAnne. I do think it's really important that we share our individual stories and experiences like this. While my partner and I do not use wheelchairs we have some friends that do and the so-called "accessible" rooms we've seen! I remember one example the room that was supposedly accessible had a step to get into the bathroom!