Accessible Hotel Rooms Vs. Standard Rooms: What To Look For

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Travelling with a disability – or with a close friend or family member who is disabled – you’ll know just how complicated booking holidays for the disabled abroad can be (especially if you’re planning a group travel experience). With so many different factors to consider – from checking up on any medical conditions with your GP before you fly, to ensuring your chosen destination is suitable for those with limited mobility and deciding which holiday provider to book with or whether to book independently, you might begin to feel like you’re going to need a holiday to get over the holiday!

Once you’ve decided on a suitable accessible travel destination, a great place to start is by deciding which hotel you’ll be staying at.

When it comes to booking accessible hotels for disabled people, there are a few key things you need to look out for.

Contents

• 1 4 Tips for Booking Accessible Hotel Rooms for the Disabled
  • 1.1 Accessible vs. standard room
  • 1.2 Ensure that your accessible room is ‘guaranteed’
  • 1.3 Research the distance from the hotel to the nearest leisure and hospitality amenities
  • 1.4 Check whether your chosen hotel offers a transfer, shuttle service or buggy

4 Tips for Booking Accessible Hotel Rooms for the Disabled

Accessible vs. standard room

What is the difference between accessible and standard rooms? While accessible hotel rooms can vary, in general, the key difference is that accessible rooms are designed to accommodate wheelchairs.

Generally, accessible hotel rooms should include the following features:

• Bedroom door is wider, allowing wheelchair access
• Similar facilities to a standard room, but all items will be situated lower down than they would be normally
• Hand rails in shower and toilet
• Roll-in shower, drop-down shower chair (in some accessible hotel rooms)
• Emergency assistance buttons or cords located in the bathroom (in some rooms)
• Standard bed (i.e. not fold-up)
• May include a hearing loop for those travelling with hearing loss
• Located on the ground floor
• Lift or stairlift access if not located on the ground floor (even older hotels – which often feature traditional spiral staircases and lack working lift systems – are expected to install regular or curved stairlifts in order to be truly accessible for the disabled). In terms of making the most of your accessible room experience, it’s important to choose equipment and mobility aids that will enhance your comfort during your stay. According to Restore Mobility, rollators and other mobility aids designed for travel can significantly improve accessibility, ensuring a smoother and more comfortable experience for those with mobility challenges

Ensure that your accessible room is ‘guaranteed’

Once you’ve found a suitable hotel or resort that offers wheelchair-friendly or accessible hotel rooms, make a point of asking whether your room will be ‘guaranteed’.

As hotels focusing solely on accommodation for the disabled are few and far between, your chosen hotel will probably only have a limited number of accessible rooms available.

Some hotels have a policy that states that accessible hotel rooms are only provided on a first-come, first-served basis, so you could arrive at your hotel only to discover that you’ve been allocated a standard room. For this reason, it really pays to take the time to check that the room is ‘guaranteed’ at the time you place your booking.

Research the distance from the hotel to the nearest leisure and hospitality amenities

Unless you’re the kind of traveller who loves to stay at your hotel and lounge around by the pool or chill out in the lounge all day, every day, spend time researching exactly how far away your chosen hotel is from the nearest shops, restaurants and bars.

You might come across the most accessible hotel you’ve ever seen, but it’s useless staying there if it’s miles away from the town or city centre, leaving you stranded at the hotel unless you fork out for taxis or cabs during your stay.

Check whether your chosen hotel offers a transfer, shuttle service or buggy

If you’ll be staying on a big resort as opposed to a hotel, it would be wise to enquire about whether the hotel offers a complimentary shuttle service or self-service buggy for guests with mobility issues.

Similarly, if your chosen hotel or resort is situated a considerable walking distance away from the town or city centre or nearest restaurants, shops and leisure facilities, you might want to check whether they offer their own transfer service at an additional fee, or whether it’d be a case of relying upon local taxis/cabs or public transport.

Do you have any experience in booking accessible hotel rooms? Share your tips with other readers by leaving a comment in the box below.

This is a collaborative post

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18 Comments on Accessible Hotel Rooms Vs. Standard Rooms: What To Look For

1. Some really useful tips on what to look out for! Sometimes the fine print can be very fine and not give enough details about the area surrounding hotels and if it is accessible… I’m all for reading reviews when I’ve found a hotel I like the look of. Everyone has different opinions but traveller’s photos generally give a ‘truer’ picture! Sim x

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   • I totally know what you mean there Sim. It really pays to check all the smallest details.

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2. Accessibility for all is so important! I appreciate you noting the differences between accommodations – good to know.

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   • Thanks Jennifer, glad you found my post helpful 🙂

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3. This is great advice for those needing to book accessible rooms, so often I hear people complain about this.

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   • It can be a bit of a minefield knowing what to look for!

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4. This is a really helpful guide! My Nan is looking to go away for a few days with my mum and I have been helping them research but looking for accessibility can be so tough! Will be showing them this.

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   • Thanks Rebecca, glad you think so. I encounter similar issues when I travel with my Dad, he has rheumatoid arthritis and so he can’t travel too far.

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5. These are some great tips – it can be so hard knowing what to look for. I’ve stayed in places classed as accessible before and they’ve just added a couple of handrails in strange places! Which is not helpful at all.

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   • Thank you Sarah. It really can; I’ve often struggled when booking trips for my Dad.

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6. These are great tips! I have actually stayed in some hotels that have made all their rooms accessible, so that people with disabilities don’t get turned away. I know that most hotels only have a few accessible rooms, and they do get booked quite quickly.

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   • Oh that’s great, I know some countries have requirements for hotels to do that; I think they all should personally, or at least have to have a certain percentage of accessible rooms.

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7. These are some really fabulous tips you’ve got . Will definitely come in handy for people that are needing them and are travelling soon 🙂

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   • Thanks Kira!

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8. I suspect doing your research before you travel makes such a difference to your holiday. A good tip about asking if the accessible room is guaranteed, you can’t take it for granted.

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   • Thanks Michelle. Definitely pays to check the small print when it comes to these things!

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9. All the above are good sound tips, ALSO check the WIDE wheelchairs are not too wide to fit through some lift doors.

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   • Great tip, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment 🙂

     Reply

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