Overview

The Raddison Blu Hotel Paris-Boulogne was always hustling and bustling with tourists and local Parisians alike. Located in Central Paris the hotel was in easy commutable distance to some of the most popular tourist attractions. The hotel had fantastic accessible facilities in the rooms but the basics seemed to have been overlooked. The entrance to the hotel was difficult to navigate in a wheelchair - a revolving push door that was too narrow to fit a wheelchair in - the single pull door next to it, was too heavy to open. The lifts were difficult to operate due to the key-card slots being placed to high out of arms reach from a wheelchair. The accessible rooms however were great, spacious enough to manoeuvre the wheelchair around with ease, this was the same for the adjacent wet room plenty of space, a shower chair and numerous grab-rails throughout to assist if required. The hotel bar/restaurant it was flat and accessible but was quite small making it difficult to manoeuvre the wheelchair between tables as they were close together, especially during peak-times when busy.

Transport & Parking

I travelled to the hotel by taxi and they always stopped right outside the entrance which was helpful. Taxis are easy to call from reception - this is probably the best way you'll get around the city due to most of the Parisian public transport network being inaccessible to Wheelchairs.

Access

The access in the hotel needs some basic adjustments; The entrance to the hotel was difficult to navigate in a wheelchair - a revolving push door that was too narrow to fit a wheelchair in - the single pull door next to it, was too heavy to open on my own, there was no automatic push button and no way to signal to staff for assistance unless they happen to be looking out if the window at the time. I was usually reliant on passers by or taxi drivers to assist - which they were always happy to do! The lift was also quite difficult to operate from a wheelchair - you had to place your keycard in the slot of the lift once inside and press your required floor, I found the keycard slots were out of arms reach from my wheelchair and I couldn't operate them without difficulty. Often the keycards would randomly stop working and they’d have to be reactivated at reception - this was highly annoying.

Toilets

There was an accessible toilet near reception - it wasn't huge but it had ample space to manoeuvre as well as numerous grab-rails.

Staff

The staff where very friendly and helpful.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

Yes I would recommend it - despite the basic issues it's a nice modern hotel just be aware of the difficulties you might encounter. I would stay here again as the hotel was very central and within commutable distance to many tourist attractions.

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