3
Objective wheelchair review
This is undoubtedly a nice hotel and all the staff met or exceeded our expectations, but there are some issues with accessibility. It is well place for tourist sites literally a one minute roll to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square and plenty of accessible buses nearby to other areas.
As there was no information on their web site regarding accessible rooms I contact the hotel direct and was put through to the housekeeping manager Lina who emailed me the same day with the following:
There are two adapted rooms
Room 214 has access of more than a meter to the left of the bed but only 77cm to the right.
Room 249 has access to the right of bed but only 72cm to the left
Bed height approx 60cm
Toilet height 44cm
She also sent photos, see attached.
To get so much good info back in so short a time is unheard of and as the measurements were fine for me we booked, thankfully only for one night.
The bedroom was adequate but considering it is a five star hotel and the price charged it was small.
The good thing about the bathroom is the sturdy well placed grab rails by the toilet, but the flush buttons are too high to reach from a wheelchair and the emergency button is only reachable if you are sat on the toilet..
There is a lowered sink but access is blocked by a full width towel rail and a foot plate height shelf, (see photo) the reception manager arranged for this to be removed but there was nothing she could do about the towel rail. The extremely large mirror is too high, from a standard height wheelchair you can only see your forehead upwards.
The shower or should I say showers, there were 3 shower heads, one in the ceiling, a hand held that couldn’t be reached from the drop down seat and an adjustable height one. As usual the shower gel etc was out of reach from the seat and no where to put anything down, also the cantilevered glass doors made it almost impossible to get in with a wheelchair.
Overall access to and around the hotel is reasonable, but the much vaunted residence only Drawing Room isn’t accessible as it has two steps, to get into it and the breakfast buffet in the restaurant is down four steps although the staff did ensure that I didn’t miss out on anything it isn’t the same as choosing from the buffet yourself.
I didn’t try the spa so can’t comment on that, the only other issue I could see was that the fire doors in the corridors would be awkward for a wheelchair user and as you need to swipe your key card to operate the lift the swipe pad was at standing height so if you are travelling alone you would need to ask someone to do this for you.
Two things I really didn’t like about the hotel is that on check in your credit card is charged £250 to cover anything you spend in hotel and any left at the end of your stay refunded within 10 working days. On check out a 2.5% discretionary charge is added for staff gratuities while I didn’t mind this going to the staff I didn’t like how it was just announced at check out rather putting you on the spot.
This is undoubtedly a nice hotel and all the staff met or exceeded our expectations, but there are some issues with accessibility. It is well place for tourist sites literally a one minute roll to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square and plenty of accessible buses nearby to other areas.
As there was no information on their web site regarding accessible rooms I contact the hotel direct and was put through to the housekeeping manager Lina who emailed me the same day with the following:
There are two adapted rooms
Room 214 has access of more than a meter to the left of the bed but only 77cm to the right.
Room 249 has access to the right of bed but only 72cm to the left
Bed height approx 60cm
Toilet height 44cm
She also sent photos, see attached.
To get so much good info back in so short a time is unheard of and as the measurements were fine for me we booked, thankfully only for one night.
The bedroom was adequate but considering it is a five star hotel and the price charged it was small.
The good thing about the bathroom is the sturdy well placed grab rails by the toilet, but the flush buttons are too high to reach from a wheelchair and the emergency button is only reachable if you are sat on the toilet..
There is a lowered sink but access is blocked by a full width towel rail and a foot plate height shelf, (see photo) the reception manager arranged for this to be removed but there was nothing she could do about the towel rail. The extremely large mirror is too high, from a standard height wheelchair you can only see your forehead upwards.
The shower or should I say showers, there were 3 shower heads, one in the ceiling, a hand held that couldn’t be reached from the drop down seat and an adjustable height one. As usual the shower gel etc was out of reach from the seat and no where to put anything down, also the cantilevered glass doors made it almost impossible to get in with a wheelchair.
Overall access to and around the hotel is reasonable, but the much vaunted residence only Drawing Room isn’t accessible as it has two steps, to get into it and the breakfast buffet in the restaurant is down four steps although the staff did ensure that I didn’t miss out on anything it isn’t the same as choosing from the buffet yourself.
I didn’t try the spa so can’t comment on that, the only other issue I could see was that the fire doors in the corridors would be awkward for a wheelchair user and as you need to swipe your key card to operate the lift the swipe pad was at standing height so if you are travelling alone you would need to ask someone to do this for you.
Two things I really didn’t like about the hotel is that on check in your credit card is charged £250 to cover anything you spend in hotel and any left at the end of your stay refunded within 10 working days. On check out a 2.5% discretionary charge is added for staff gratuities while I didn’t mind this going to the staff I didn’t like how it was just announced at check out rather putting you on the spot.
