Anger over facilities for disabled at hotel

04 November 2004 by
Anger over facilities for disabled at hotel

A row has erupted at a Cornwall hotel after a guest claimed it had contravened the new Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

Guest Jenny Gunn told the Cornwall Guardian that she was "furious" about facilities for disabled customers at the Carlyon Bay hotel in St Austell.

Gunn had planned a two-night stay at the hotel with her daughter and son-in-law, who uses a wheelchair, and had checked with the hotel that it had suitable access and a lift.

On arriving at the hotel however, she found that her son-in-law's wheelchair wouldn't fit into the lift. Neither she nor her son-in-law was happy with the hotel's smaller wheelchair, which it offers guests as an alternative to access the lift.

Regional manager John Allen said staff were trained to give customers the most accurate information on the facilities the hotel offered. "We've never had a problem like this before," he added.

Allen said that while the 86-bedroom hotel's lift couldn't be made any bigger, owner Brend Hotels had installed new ground-floor toilets, a ramp to the entrance and accessible parking.

Chris Grace, director of disability consultancy In Your Stride, said the situation was not clear-cut. "Offering a different chair to disabled guests is like offering a different pair of shoes," he said. "One size doesn't necessarily fit all and is unlikely to be received well."

Grace advised hotels to focus more on giving clear information to guests. "Part of the reasonable adjustment the DDA asks for is ensuring you know exactly what guests need. While enlarging the lift shaft might be unreasonable in terms of the cost and disruption, it's the responsibility of the hotel to check they can provide what disabled guests require."

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 4 November 2004

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking