The Purple Pound

Firstly, I am a person with a disablility who is passionate about equality and awareness and trying to make a difference for others.  I generally see a lot of inequality around me in my daily life and I can't change everything but what I can do is try to make a difference by tackling one thing at a time.  Even if that is campaigning  for signage to be put up at four designated disabled bays at a HIEX Hotel.

I have spent many nights in hotels and one problem is that many of them do not have the required number of accessible rooms that the Building Regulations state.  I accept that some hotels are listed or are of historical interest but when a fairly new hotel fails to comply with the one in twenty room ratio it annoys me. I think that the majority of hotel chains are missing a trick by not having more accessible rooms and grades. 

They don't appear to have notice the potential spending power that many disabled people have often referred to as the purple pound. The 11 million or so disabled people living in the UK have billions and billions of disposable income which makes them an economic force and should not be forgotten.

I am always looking at new hotels that are being built as these should be complying with not only the number of accessible rooms but they should also offer wetroom or bathroom with bathtub in equal numbers. 

Thhe Premier Inn has fifteen new hotels that are opening in the next six months.  February sees the opening of London Archway, Edinburgh City Centre (Royal Mile), hub by Premier Inn Edinburgh Royal Mile, hub by Premier Inn London Spitalfields, Bristol City Centre (Lewins Mead), Felixstowe Town Centre, Newcastle City Centre (The Gate), London Sidcup and Portsmouth Havant South (Langstone/A27). While March sees the opening of Buxton, Penrith and Ware.  May has two more hotels opening and they are Matlock and Edinburgh City Centre (York Place). June has Newport City Centre (Wales).  I will be interested to see if these new builds comply with the standards set out by Building Regulations.  I know that the Premier Inn in Bexleyheath which opened just over a year ago does comply fully and does offer both a wetroom or a bathroom with lowered bathtub.  

IHG brand hotels which include the Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Hotel Indigo are opening new hotels this year in London, Manchester and Edinburgh to name a few.  

All my life I have contributed to society and I see myself as equal to the next person but sometimes I feel that I am definately not an equal.  It shouldn't take building regulations to force hotels to include more accessible rooms into their future plans.  There is a large community of disabled people who do not require the use of a wheelchair but require the use of a wetroom or walk-in shower because they may not be able to use a bath because of poor upper body strength or injury. Space is not required to accommodate a wheelchair and so the size of the bedroom area could be reduced to that of a standard room or equivalent grade.  This would mean that a room designed with walking disabled in mind could be universally used by all guests not just ones with a disability.

I have read many hotel reviews by disabled hotel guests and the one question that everyone seems to have is who designs these accessible rooms because the designers don't seem to have any understanding of disability.  Is that the fault of the hotel or the architects I don't know but maybe they should actually ask some disabled guests what they would like to see in a room.  I would like to see more twin accessible rooms or zip-lock beds so that you can share with a friend not everyone is travelling with a partner.  I would like to see better staff training of disability as I feel that staff are often unsure of how to approach a disabled person and I understand but really we won't bite!  We are are like any other guest and just want to be treated the same.