Best access guide yet to London’s hotels

Nothing will be left to chance for disabled people visiting London with a new guide commissioned by Visit London, launched this week on www.directenquiries.com.  The guide includes more than 800 accessible hotel rooms in the capital - the most detailed such guide to any city anywhere.
 
The guide is based on an independent access audits carried out by Direct Enquiries and describes the visit from arrival by car or public transport to reception, the restaurant, other public areas plus the rooms and bathrooms. 

Available at www.directenquiries.com and http://www.visitlondon.com/accommodation/accessible/index, the guide also notes services such as low level counters, hearing induction loops, facilities for visually impaired guests and adjoining rooms for carers. 

A particularly useful feature is a set of photographs to accompany individual routes through each hotel, showing for example how to get from the car park to reception, or reception to the restaurant.  Alongside the photographs are details of surfaces, distances, light levels, signage and door widths.

The guide is easy to use.  Visitors can search for a hotel by general area (north, south, east, west and central London), by postcode, by hotel name, or search for specific facilities and services by clicking on the access icons.  Hotels will be returned prioritized by access facilities required and then proximity to the location searched for.

Liz Sayce, Chief Executive, RADAR said: ‘The new hotel portal is very thorough and a great asset to anyone with an impairment.  It is helping to break down barriers disabled people may face when visiting London.’

Says Carolyn Smith, director of visitor economy for the London Development Agency, who sponsored the research, ‘As host of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we want London to be a truly accessible city, and to provide complete reassurance to our disabled visitors.  The best way to do this is to give them a completely objective assessment of facilities which leaves nothing to chance and makes their visit as stress free as possible.’

James Bidwell, Chief Executive of Visit London, said: ‘This hotel guide is of great value in helping make London a truly accessible city.  Our 'accessible London' pages on visitlondon.com also suggest how visitors can use London's public transport, theatres, attractions and shops more easily’.

In total 114 hotels were audited around the city, at all price ranges.  Premier Inn, Travelodge, and Holiday Inn and Express by Holiday Inn, both part of the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), offer the largest selection of accessible rooms.

Any other hotels which wish to be audited and be listed in the guide should contact Deborah Evans at the LDA on 020 7593 8163 or email deborahevans@lda.gov.uk.

Travellers with disabilities are a lucrative and growing market.  The Disability Rights Commission estimates that there are around 10 million disabled people living in the UK and that their consumption is worth over £50bn a year to the UK economy.  As our population ages the demand for accessible facilities will increase further.

The project is the latest in the 'London Open to All' programme, helping London’s accommodation become more accessible to its visitors.  For more information on London Open to All see www.lda.gov.uk/tourismsupport

The hotel audits were conducted by Direct Enquiries Ltd, an access specialist and publisher of the Nationwide Access Register.  The Register, on www.directenquiries.com, also includes disabled access information on many leading high street stores.

3. The LDA is responsible for tourism development in the capital and provides grant funding to Visit London for the marketing of London as a world-class city. With the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games just a few years away, the LDA is now placing special emphasis on improving the quality, accessibility and sustainability of London as a visitor destination. The visitor economy in London is valued at £15 billion a year.

4. Visit London is the official visitor organisation for London. Its role is to promote London, targeting domestic and overseas leisure and business visitors as well as Londoners. Visit London works in partnership with the Mayor, the LDA and the tourism industry in London.London is the number one city destination in the world and in 2007 the capital welcomed a record 16 million overseas visitors.