Lack of fully accessible hotels

Wibbles
Wibbles Online Community Member Posts: 3,358 Championing
in Everyday life

I am trying to find fully accessible hotels - when I say "accessible" - I mean

  1. No step between parking and room
  2. Secure Parking by the hotel entrance - not in an insecure car park, 1/2 mile away
  3. Accessible bathroom - with shower and enough room to turn 180 degrees
  4. Level access to restaurant

Hotel.com has 3 hotels that meet these requirements - from £300 per night

Which is 3 times the expected rate.

Premier Inn - is less - but still around £150 per night (plus breakfast) - which is a hefty amount of money for a room.

There is a severe lack of reasonably priced fully accessible hotels in UK.

Comments

  • Littlefatfriend
    Littlefatfriend Online Community Member Posts: 436 Trailblazing

    Really Wibbles?

    That's kinda disappointing.

    When I used to travel I assumed I wouldn't have access to showers. Most often I was sofa-surfing or kipping in my car. I have the advantage that I barely sweat at all (although not like the former prince!) and can get away with that for weeks at a time.

    But that was 7+ years ago and I'd expect/hope things would improve.

    This might seem weird, but could you use the showers at a swimming pool etc? I've done that before, but it wasn't easy! I can't swim, obvs.

    The only holidays I've had where I had access to a shower (and shower chair) were in places built specifically for that purpose.

    Have you tried asking RADAR? Remember the RADAR key thing? When I was more active they had all sorts of useful advice about everything accessible here.

    If you Googly "free radar accessible hotel guide UK" there are an host of options, including (but not limited to):

    https://news.motability.co.uk/everyday-tips/plan-an-accessible-summer-holiday-uk/

    https://www.accessable.co.uk/

    https://www.tourismforall.co.uk/accessible-places-to-stay/hotels

    https://www.bluebadgecompany.co.uk/blogs/blog/travelling-abroad-with-a-radar-key-what-disabled-travellers-need-to-know

    Good luck

    😺

  • Richard_Scope
    Richard_Scope Posts: 3,928 Cerebral Palsy Network

    Book direct with:

    Premier Inn

    Travel Lodge

    Leonardo Hotels

    Wet rooms can be requested as well

    I use all of them when travelling for Scope or on a short break. Premier Inn is slightly better than the other two.

  • Wibbles
    Wibbles Online Community Member Posts: 3,358 Championing
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1097282#Comment_1097282

    This is in a specific area of England, where we stay when we visit my parents in law

    We generally DO stay in Premier Inns - but as I said, when you pay £150+ for a bare room - it tends to limit the number of days that we can stay

  • WRG941
    WRG941 Online Community Member Posts: 6 Listener

    not sure which location you need, but we stayed at Maison Des Landes hotel in Jersey last summer - fully accessible (its purpose built) and an amazing place to go to (the weather is great in Jersey!). My daughter is in a wheelchair with very complex needs and it couldn’t have been better, we loved it

  • Wibbles
    Wibbles Online Community Member Posts: 3,358 Championing
    edited March 3
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1097280#Comment_1097280

    I am sorry - but most of those links, give no accessible hotels at all - and those that do - are mostly hurrendously expensive boutique hotels - or are for holidays - we just need odd single nights.

    There are many that claim to be accessible but have steps (you can see the steps in photos of the rooms) and even rooms on 1st floor - without a working lift !

    One of them even says "one night bookings sometimes refused"..

    It looks as if we're limited to Premier Inn.

  • johndtay
    johndtay Online Community Member Posts: 45 Connected

    Premier inn seem to say the only rooms with just a shower are the accessible rooms. This might vary between hotels but it is odd. Travelodge do talk about accessible rooms. If these hotels have Resturants some of these may be on the first floor.

    holiday inn advertise accessible rooms. It may vary on location and operator show on the booking pages of the websites. I’m really impressed with some independent hotels have advertising they have ground floor rooms,

  • Wibbles
    Wibbles Online Community Member Posts: 3,358 Championing
    edited March 20

    We do stay at Premier Inn - specifically in Sutton Coldfield - and yes the wetrooms are accessible - the restaurants are on the ground floor - the toilets themselves are are standard sized (not raised) and the beds are way too high - I tend to fall off them to crawl to the toilet in the middle of the night.

    It unfortunately looks like the hotel is paying lip service to "accessible rooms"… ie) Not fully accessible.

    The staff are friendly and helpful.

    There are NO grab rails at all in the bedrooms themselves.

    The cost is huge - we would like to stay longer than 1 or 2 nights, but at £350+ for a 2 night stay - its too much !!

    I was hoping to find a privately run accessible hotel as an alternative / cheaper option.

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