Overview

Room was not ideal for wheelchair users neither was bathroom. A manual wheelchair (or any type of wheelchair!) would not fit alongside the bed with the pull cord, the room was small with little room to manoeuvre. No room for electric wheelchair in the bathroom, the bath was very high up and there was no seat for showering, the only way they could call this ‘accessible ‘ is due to the grab rails.

Transport & Parking

Access

There were lifts. Getting down to the NEC i was directed to an extremely bumpy weirdly cobbled path that my manual wheelchair would not have got down without the wheels getting stuck constantly, it was pretty unpleasant in my power chair. The next day I asked if there was any other way and was told there was! I could go out through the fire doors in the restaurant! This was much better, however I couldn’t get back in this way so had to take the bumpy path that goes uphill again.

Toilets

There were grab rails but that was the only thing that made this a disabled bathroom, as previously described. Toilet was nice and clean. In the foyer there was also a disabled toilet which was suitable.

Staff

When I phoned in advance to discuss my health related requirements and when I checked in the staff were very helpful and friendly and I felt reassured. However, once we were in our room the help was lacking. One example-I needed to wash medical equipment and lost my washing up liquid, there was no where to buy any and the hotel refused to help with this!

Anything else you wish to tell us?

The hotel boasts it has 17(?) accessible rooms but I feel this is not something they should be advertising. All of these are doubles, which I feel is a ploy to pay for an ajoinjng room for carers, as they only seemed interested in money. The emergency cord is at the bed that isn’t wheelchair accessible so that should be changed. There should be a seat for showers or a lower/walk in bath as the bath was so high, most accessible hotel rooms have a wet room type shower. The room was very noisy- the air conditioning/ heating was clunky and the cooler would suddenly start banging- we did not sleep well and this could be especially disturbing for people with sensory issues. The bumpy pathway going to the NEC should be made into a smooth ramp or the access in and out of the restaurant should be improved. The staff could have gone the extra mile to help, a card in the bathroom said they can provide free razors and toothpaste etc but they couldnt help you wash your ‘dishes’. There were no vending machines and on checking in the kitchen staff were very rude and said we could only have soft drinks (apparently all they had was coke or lemonade) and they sent pints up and charged loads. We asked if there were shops nearby and we were told no, only to realise the next day theres a huge shopping centre with vending machines, costa, WHSmith etc.

Photos