Hotels that offer limited accessible rooms ‘miss out on business'
Hoteliers are missing out on business as they only offer a limited number of accessible rooms, and those that are available have fittings often more "akin to a hospital or care home".
That's according to a study from German bathroom supplier HEWI (pictured), after conducting a poll with YouGov on the issue of accessible hotel rooms and the feelings of both disabled and non-disabled people.
With just over a quarter (26%) of British adults saying that they would be fairly or very unhappy at being given an accessible room by a hotel, and 17% saying that they would ask to be moved, HEWI has suggested that hotels could do more to make their bedrooms and bathrooms adaptable to both disabled and non-disabled guests, to avoid obvious "disabled" furniture, such as grab rails and shower seats, when they are not needed.
Stephen Maley of HEWI UK said: "There is no need for bathrooms more akin to hospitals or care homes, as we have systems where you can put good-quality brushed steel blanking plates on the wall, and when you have a disabled person staying, you can simply add grab rails and shower seats as and where you need them."
Arnold Fewell, former hotel general manager and now a permanent wheelchair user, added: "In my opinion, if wet rooms were built as standard, they would have much more appeal to all hotel guests. If hotels want to attract more business from disabled people, they need to have a process in place when a disabled person makes a booking where more information about their specific needs is collected."
The accessible tourism market has been estimated as worth a potential £33b.
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