Overview

The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel is located in Bread Street and is a short distance, around ten-minutes walk, from Lothian Road, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre and the Grassmarket.

Transport & Parking

The approach to the hotel on foot from Lothian Road, as a powerchair user, required me to cross on to the raised pavement outside of the hotel. I approached on the castle side of the street as the other side had inaccessible kerbs. There is a high kerb between the hotel pavement and the road surface with two steps in places so you have to cross using the traffic islands in front of the hotel. Unfortunately, some of the islands are not level access with a 10 cm drop or thereabouts. Just enough to make negotiating my powerchair across a little trickier. Once I had got up on to the raised pavement outside the hotel it was level and easy to wheel across. The hotel entrance is set in a glass frontage and it has wide automated doors. It was well signed and easy for me to find although my visually impaired companion struggled a bit to tell the difference between the doors and the glass frontage. There is limited on-street parking around the hotel. Parking in a nearby car park is available as well as discounts on the charges.

Access

Access in and around the building :- Once I passed through the first automated door there was a vestibule with a second automatic door the leading into the reception. The reception area was bright and light with plenty of space for me to able to move around. There were dropped surfaces for easy access. Going further into the hotel there were a variety of floor surfaces in the public areas. None caused any problems and the corridors were wide and easy to wheel along. My only comment would be that in places they weren’t perhaps as well lit as others. The hotel has tow large lifts, the door clearance was 88 cm and the depth of the lift 148 cm. I found them easy to wheel into and to turn around so I didn’t have to back out. A useful point of note concerned the emergency evacuation procedure for wheelchair users and those with mobility impairments. The emergency evacuation for wheelchair users or mobility impaired guests from the bedrooms requires them to wait in a fire refuge area. This area is protected by fire doors and the clearance width for the access doors is 76 cm. Access in the accessible bedrooms and bathrooms :- The hotel has four accessible bedrooms. Two are described as ‘Standard Accessible Rooms’ and the other two as ‘Deluxe Accessible Rooms’. Both styles of room were well appointed and exceeded my expectations. The room door clearance was 86 cm. The bed was a double bed and the sofa in room was able to be used as a sofa bed. The bed did not have obvious clearance under it for the use of portable hoist. The space in the room was ample for me as powerchair user. My chair is 68 cm wide and 116 cm in length. It felt comfortable for me as a wheelchair user with room to turn, manoeuvre. The bathrooms were of a wet room style and were well appointed with toilet with transfer space to one side, large hand basin, shower area with small hand basin. I could easily wheel in and do a full 360 degree turn. Access in the dining area :- The restaurant (dining room), used for all meals, was large and spacious. Tables and chairs were free standing and could be moved as required. The route to the breakfast bar area was a straight line through the dining area. It could be difficult to negotiate in a full dining room simply because of the volume of people. Staff were happy to offer assistance including serving food and beverages from the breakfast bar if required. The dining room had an accessible toilet, as well as standard toilets, immediately off the dining area. The accessible toilets were located inside of each of the standard toilets so not immediately obvious. Access to other facilities :- The hotel has a small gym on one of the upper floors. Although not large the room is wheelchair accessible and I did venture in for a look around.

Toilets

Accessible Toilets (Public Areas) An accessible toilet is located toward the far side of the reception and adjacent to the lift. The door clearance for the accessible toilet is 86 cm. There were other accessible toilets in the dining room area as well.

Staff

Often it is what the staff do or say that make accessibility work. The DoubleTree was very good in that staff were friendly and attentive. Nothing was too much trouble and the team were quick at offering help if asked.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

It’s often hard to find accommodation where everything works out as a powerchair user as there’s usually something doesn’t quite work or you don’t quite fit. The DoubleTree worked incredibly well for me and I would certainly be happy to visit again.

Photos