Overview

Jury's Inn Southampton is one of the 4 star hotels in the Jury's chain. They have accessible rooms with walk in showers, unlike the nearby Premier Inn Southampton Central nearby (at time of writing September 2019). The hotel is in the City Centre and has a bar and restaurant. During my stay there were a quite a few access issues which I think the hotel should address. Although my overall stay was fine, the number of little issues that came up regarding access deracted from the enjoyment of my stay.

Transport & Parking

I arrived by taxi from Southampton Central station. The taxi took about 5 minutes and cost about £5, sorry can't remember exactly. There was step free drop off outside the hotel, see photo. There are buses that stop nearby but I didn't use them. I think walking from Southampton Station is mentioned on Jury's website as taking 15 minutes, I didn't do this as with my disability and suitcase it would have taken much longer. However the taxi route was level so maybe ok for some people. The hotel is on a traffic island, see photo, with a couple of other buildings, but to go anywhere you need to cross a busy road and the lights are only green for padestrians quickly change again, so take care. From the hotel it was an easy couple of minutes' walk to the Spark building at Solent University where my conference was being held. The hotel is adjacent to the university campus. It's also opposite a nice park, from which you can walk thought to the town centre in a few minutes.

Access

The hotel entrance has automatic doors. On entering there is receiption whcih is at standing height. Also on the ground floor is a bar and restaurant, both with level entrance and with free standing tables and chairs. The buffet breakfast is self service but you can ask for assistance if you require it. My room was on 2nd floor. It had an automatic door. This was very helpful. However, on the first day when I was leaving my room the door closed but was not locking, so safety risk. I phoned down to receiption and someone arrived within a couple of minutes. they were unsure why the room was not automatically locking. Then she said thay sometimes the cleaners press a button above the door, to keep it open while they are cleaning and maybe this was stopping the door to lock. She pressed the button above the door, it was too high up for me to do myself, and the door shut and locked. However after that I was nervous if the door would be left unlocked by the cleaners the following day while I was out. However, the door was fine after that. If you stay there please make sure your door is locked when you leave your room. The bedroom area was spacious, with a double bed, desk, chair , wardrobe space and flat screen TV. The bed was comfortable but firm which made transfers easy for me. The bathroom had a walk in shower. The shower itself was very good, the stand was height adjustable and there was a constant supply of hot water. The shower surface had some slightly raised tiles, and personally i decided to keep my flip flops on when showering as I wasn't sure about how non slip they were (this is a personal quirk of mine which I worry about floor surfaces). In the shower there were 2 grab rails and a shower stool attached to the wall. The shower stool could fold up but there was nothing to keep it folded and attached to the wall so it remained opened even though I didn't want to use it, which was a nusiance for me as it stopped me getting nearer the grab rails, see photo. The shower water drained well in the shower area but the water that ran over into the sink area didn't drain, so I had to stick a towel down on the floor. the shower curtain didn't reach the floor and was stained, it didn't give a nice impression. The sink was low and for me with my lower back problem it was difficult to bend and use. Likewise the location of the hand towel. The toilet had grab rails and the paper bags for sanitary product disposal were on the floor when I arrived, thankfully I had my grabber with me and moved them to the toilet cystern for my ease of access, and they remained there for the rest of my stay. There was an emergency cord by the toilet only and a telephone by the toilet which was located quite a way up the wall. If someone had fallen and was in the floor accessing the telephone would be extremely difficult. While the bathroom was spacious and clean and had the wet room I required, the bathroom didn't fully meet my needs as someone with back pain and mobility difficulties. The bathroom could do with an upgrade, so it better meets the needs of disabled people with as a wide range of mobility problems. The bathroom and automatic door problems really affected my overall score on access.

Toilets

On the ground floor there was a public accessible toilet. It could only be open by a code. Given that this hotel is on a traffic island I don't see why the hotel feels it needs to lock this accessible toilet. if they do they could have it open by RADAR key as most disabled people carry their own RADAR key and thereby would give us independence to be able to go to the toilet without having to get assistance from staff. the public toilet also had a baby changing facilities, it was quite spacious, clean, with grab rails, but the emergency cord was very high up. I reported this to staff and they said that they would sort this out.

Staff

Apart from one member of staff everyone was very helpful and friendly. Receiption was always fast and efficent. When I called down for help about my door not closing someone arrived within a couple of minutes to sort it out. On the day I arrived I had lunch in the bar, I had to wait 45 minutes for my food to arrive, and I had to chase this up. There was a problem with the request not going through. Staff dealt with it well, offered me a complementary starter and apologised. The restaurant at breakfast was very busy. Alex who was one of the waiting staff was very helpful. However, on the 2nd morning another member of staff told me not to sit on a 6 table near the buffet bar as I was on my own. I use a crutch, so I think my disability is visible, but I felt I had to justify why I needed to sit near the buffet bar, due to my disability. He accepted explaination. If it is problematic for the hotel for solo guests to sit on a 6 seater table, then I suggest that some 2 seater tables are placed near the buffet to give disabed people better accessibility choices. Also staff should be better disabled aware, and be able to think of the needs of their disabled customers.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

This hotel on paper ticks is accessible. As I said overall access was very good but for me there were too many little things that did not go right during my stay, they all added up and affected how I felt about it overall. I would advise trying arriving for breakfast when it is quieter. On the first day I found the buffet self service quite stressful, due to the other guests. One pushed passed me a knocked my crutch off the ground in her rush to get to the food, and when I was removing my crutch from my arm and trying to sit down someone squeezed pass my chair, instead of waiting, and in doing so knocked my chair and made me wobble. The 2nd day was fine.

Photos