Overview

A bit of background info, my husband is a full time wheelchair user and is paralysed from the chest down. Our experience will be of interest to anyone using a wheelchair. We booked the Bodmin Jail Hotel, as a treat before we started our holiday in Cornwall. The hotel is a former historic jail which has been recently renovated. We booked an accessible room and rang through to the hotel to make note of our requirements. We were told there was a couple of steps to the dining area but they had provision for wheelchairs. On arriving the check in was not brilliant and we were asked to move our vehicle out of the disabled spaces as they were having maintenance done later that afternoon, however there are several disabled spaces right outside the hotel. The accessible room we were given only had access to the bed from one side . The bathroom was a wet room which is what we require but unusually there were no shelves or anywhere to put your toiletries. Anyway only small issues really and the room was nice enough. This hotel is classing itself as a luxury experience so we were looking forward to using the facilities. This was our first problem, the dining and bar areas are on a different side of the building and are only accessed via 5 or so steps. The accomodation block has a fantastic state of the art lift which is on the outside of the building however you cannot gain access to the eating and drinking areas from this lift, the only access is via steps. We asked at the reception how we should get up the steps to get a drink in the bar or the outside area. After looking a bit uncomfortable and discussing it with her colleague she replied that there was a manual stair lift that a member of staff would help us with but she said she hadn.t been trained nor had the duty manager . She suggested we could go outside and go that way around however this was via an uphill gravel driveway and was a reasonable distance and wheelchairs and gravel do not go. We asked to speak to the Manager. We waited an hour an a half during which a young man gave us a chat re the history of the hotel. Eventually a duty manager came and escorted us to the steps where he had brought a wheelchair evacuation chair which he said he was now trained on to get my husband up the steps. Now... we wanted a drink , then we had booked dinner and then we had breakfast. For us to do this not only would we have to request assistance 6 times but also my husband would have to transfer out of his wheelchair and onto the device and back again 12 times which does have a degree of safety to be considered. I am sorry I believe this is not acceptable... this is not a luxury experience for us.. we just want to have a drink and eat like everyone else. We asked to speak to the General Manager and he was very apologetic and could see the problem and said that he would do his best to make it a good stay but the truth was there really wasnt anything he could do about the steps. Despite the owners spending in excess of £50 million on this hotel I feel little thought has been given to accessibility . I feel they have ticked the boxes but not thought it through as to how it actually works and how that makes the customer feel. We had now been at the hotel for 3 hours and not even got to the bar. This is billed as a luxury hotel and the whole experience had upset us . We felt we were left with no alternative but to leave the hotel and luckily we were able to find alternative accomodation. In the hotel's defence we are in correspondence with them and they have said they will try to make adjustments but they are very busy at the moment and are not in the position to make any changes. Bearing that in mind I certainly would not recommend this hotel for wheelchair users right now.

Transport & Parking

Access

Toilets

Staff