Safer, Fairer, Better: Why hotels need to raise their game when it comes to access

Anyone who has checked into a hotel and been allocated a bedroom which has been adapted for a guest with disabilities will have had an insight into the problem. The utilitarian, bolted-on handrails, the ugly framework around the loo, the general sense of an environment more reminiscent of a hospital than a hotel room, risks undermining the sense of comfortable retreat which you expect when on holiday or a short break. 

It’s easy to forget too, that access problems are not restricted to those who have obvious disabilities - especially in a travel environment. Every week at Victoria Station in London I see travellers of all ages and capacities on their way to the Gatwick Express struggling to get their suitcases up the long flight of steps which leads from the tube to the railway platform. 

But it is in hotels, which need to be a home from home for all their guests, where the problems tend to be most critical. Legislation - especially in Europe - has ensured significant improvements in facilities and access provision, and many practical problems have been mitigated with lifts, rails, ramps and frames but could they be better designed?

Bespoke Hotel Awards | The inspiration behind the competition

Elegant design is rarely a focus for access solutions: you only have to look at those utilitarian bathrooms or the clumsy, insensitive way that wheelchair ramps are often added to steps. What we need is better, more subtle life-enhancing solutions which would give guests with mobility or other difficulties the help they need, in a way which is in keeping? 

It is a cause which Telegraph Travel is backing as part of our campaign for Safer, Fairer Better travel in 2018 and a major step forward was made with the announcement earlier this year that some answers were proposed in the House of Lords when the winners of the 2018 Bespoke Access Awards were announced.

The awards covered three categories, but the primary one is for innovative architectural design or adaptation of hotels for people with disabilities. This year, two practices have shared both the architectural category, and the overall Celia Thomas prize.

Of the two winners, the most visually appealing and perhaps the most inventive solution was a radical rethinking of a hotel room designed by the Italian MNM studio architects. In this design, the bed area and bathroom were located centrally in the room linked a circular path, with the corner spaces used for activities such as dressing, or reading and writing. The judges felt that it “delivered a truly aspirational bedroom space utterly reimagined from the norm, combining a great sense of adventure with elegance and surprise.” Integral to the design was a hoist fitted to a ceiling track which is able to spin around the entire orbit of the room. As well as practical solutions, the architects also offered a creative approach to the interior design with giant Braille lettering emblazoned on the head and dashboards. Overall the design reminded the judges of something “straight out of a ‘Barbarella’ movie.”  It was judged “disability elegant”, and praised for its combination of style and “good substance”.  

This design would require rooms to be built - or re-built - from scratch - an excellent vision for future projects, but the judges were equally impressed by the second winning entry from the Dubai-based Brighenti and D’Orsi partnership which was much more straight forward to implement and aimed at improving the arrival process at hotel receptions. The solution involved installing touch points in lobby areas for three types of disability: wheelchair, partially sighted and deaf. The judges said that these were so obviously needed in all arrival areas that none of the them could understand why the combination had not been put in place before. “Making the availability of these functions overt rather than pretending they are never required begets ‘disability confident’ for both staff and customers.”