Overview

Positives: disabled parking near the front door, room on the ground level and pretty spacious, lovely staff. Negatives: disabled facilities and access clearly an after thought, very much a token gesture.

Transport & Parking

The hotel is just off the M73 motorway and has a large car park. I took stars off as although the disabled parking bays were as close as possible to the front door they had flag poles at the end of they bay. This meant my car didn’t fit into the bay fully. Not an issue really until a large bus had to reverse past it to the bus bay. Missed my car by cm’s. The other issue was getting back out, there were bollards a car width away from the back off my car that meant a 6 point turn and reversing a fair way to turn. Not bad in a small car, but it you had a van you would struggle.

Access

Getting into the hotel was all level access, but there were several slight rises were carpets met, could be a trip hazard. It’s an old building so corridors were a little narrow. My room door was a standard size and not widened for a wheelchair, also an old fashioned key access which was a little high. Once inside the room was pretty spacious, as we had twin beds there wasn’t a lot of room for a wheelchair between them due to the sofa bed. I’m sure the staff would have moved it if asked. An important point was lack of plug sockets. Only two in the room which were located on the wall opposite the beds, no USB ports. Luckily I always have an extension cable in my bag (I use an oxygen concentrator and CPAP machine overnight) and a power pack for my phone - I need it beside me in case of an emergency. The room did have a flashing fire alarm, but I was never asked if I needed assistance in an emergency and there wasn’t a escape plan on my door. My room was next to the fire exit however. One point I didn’t check before arrival was access to the function suite (we were there for a wedding). Getting into the restaurant was up two large steps, no ramps at all. There was access through the hotel (not pointed out to me until the end of the night). Once inside the suite was upstairs and there is no lift. These steps were steep and round two bends. I can’t do stairs at all. Luckily it was a family wedding and I have several well built cousins that could carry me up. Not very dignified or comfortable, and as each time the room had to be changed i.e. from service to meal, then to dinner then to dance, we had to go back down to the restaurant each time.

Toilets

The bathroom was very disappointing and clearly a token effort. I knew before we arrived there was going to be a bath instead of a shower. Not great but I was only staying 1 night. The toilet was extremely low (even my dad commented how low it was), thankfully I had asked for the height when booking and brought my own seat riser (they don’t supply such a thing), even with that it was hard work. The hand rails were badly located, the drop down one even when down was too far back to be of use. The sink was lower down, but as it was boxed in there was no room for knees underneath. They had also opted for two taps instead of a mixer one. Such a scolding issue. Unfortunately they had decided not to put a carpet bar on, so the join between the bathroom tiles and room carpet had a raw edge that I got my foot caught in each time. The floor files also got very slippy when wet, I couldn’t get off the toilet when we first arrived as my feet kept sliding. There was no disabled toilet upstairs at the function suite as no access. However there was one in the foyer of the hotel, but I never used it.

Staff

Staff were lovely. The head housekeep was great and had the concentrator and O2 bottles ready in my room on arrival. Everyone was cheery and chatty.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

Their covid precautions weren’t great. Although there is a sign at reception to wear a mask inside, I regularly seen staff with no masks including the people I assume to be the owners/managers. The serving staff all had masks on but not the people in charge.

Photos