Hotels that offer limited accessible rooms ‘miss out on business'

27 August 2015 by
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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