Yes I am, I really am.
I have booked our room for our mini break in York and September. After much ringing around and a few weird experiences I'd narrowed things down to the Marriot, Novotel and Holiday Inn. In the end I chose the Holiday Inn simply because they couldn't do enough for me.
I explained my health situation to the receptionist and she set about solving every little problem I brought up. I will have a reserved disabled parking space right next to the door. I have an wheelchair accessible room with a space to park and charge my motability scooter, not really necessary with my type of scooter but I went along with it. The room has an en suite walk in shower/wet room and, most important of all, a fridge. To be fair I could have had a normal room, as I had last year, but they only supply fridges in accessible rooms so I really had no choice as I do not want to be spending a precious hour of every day making up meds.
So what did they charge me for all these extras? Well nothing. I paid the standard room rate with breakfast which came in as just under £300 for three nights, which is pretty reasonable. Also if I have to cancel because I get my transplant they will refund me the full amount unless it is within a week of my stay when they will take a small booking fee. Again, perfectly reasonable. So I am one happy bunny.
So if anyone else disabled fancies a trip to York anytime soon these are the hotels I rang an the responses I got.
Mercure - This sounded like a good deal initially. The hotel normally charges for parking but not if you have a blue badge. It has limited disabled facilities. However this was a no go for me as the rooms did not have a fridge but 'I could leave my medication in the bar fridge behind reception.' No way, so that was out.
Novotel - Again sounded good on paper, it had everything I required fridge, lift, parking but the accessible rooms were not available for the dates I wanted to stay.
Marriot - Sounded good but no fridges in the rooms. They said they could arrange one for me but were unclear if this would mean an extra charge. Again free parking for blue badges.
Royal York - Possibly the worst of the lot. The bloke I spoke to was so heavily accented, not an English accent, that he was practically unintelligible. He seemed to be fixated on getting me to book and kept giving me the hard sell. In the end he said he couldn't give me any information until I'd booked. I decided to give up on that one.
Hilton - Oh my goodness, expected more form this considering the name. I was told quite curtly that the charge for parking was £18 per day but as I had a blue badge this would reduce to £5 per day. Or I could use one of the free bays outside the hotel. Not wanting to risk parking my car in a strange location over night we scratched that one before asking anything else.
Hotel 53 - Parking here was £10 a night or I could use the free council car park across the road but that was locked at eight every night. Pity really as it looked really good.
Best Western - Well the least said the better. The receptionist really didn't want me to book and didn't seem at interested in answering my questions. I've stayed at a Best Western before and was surprised because my last stay was brilliant. Of course I was able bodied then so maybe that's the difference.
There are many more hotels of course but I had to narrow it down, which I did by going for hotels which I'd heard of. Clearly sometimes they only rely on their name and not their service. Still I'm all booked now and really looking forward to it. I'm now looking at what we can do there and what attractions are wheelchair friendly. Time to start counting the weeks off. Six weeks and counting.
My delivery from H@H finally arrived at 1340 yesterday afternoon. I could moan but to be honest I'm just glad I've got everything. They did listen to my pleas to overstock on the drug and delivered a full two months worth. So it seems things might be looking up, however it could just be a one off and next month will be horrendous.
It is so much cooler today, thank goodness. As I result my breathing as eased and I'm feeling more like me. Long may it continue.
Right I'd better get lunch. More on Friday.
I have booked our room for our mini break in York and September. After much ringing around and a few weird experiences I'd narrowed things down to the Marriot, Novotel and Holiday Inn. In the end I chose the Holiday Inn simply because they couldn't do enough for me.
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| The holiday me. |
So what did they charge me for all these extras? Well nothing. I paid the standard room rate with breakfast which came in as just under £300 for three nights, which is pretty reasonable. Also if I have to cancel because I get my transplant they will refund me the full amount unless it is within a week of my stay when they will take a small booking fee. Again, perfectly reasonable. So I am one happy bunny.
So if anyone else disabled fancies a trip to York anytime soon these are the hotels I rang an the responses I got.
Novotel - Again sounded good on paper, it had everything I required fridge, lift, parking but the accessible rooms were not available for the dates I wanted to stay.
Marriot - Sounded good but no fridges in the rooms. They said they could arrange one for me but were unclear if this would mean an extra charge. Again free parking for blue badges.
Royal York - Possibly the worst of the lot. The bloke I spoke to was so heavily accented, not an English accent, that he was practically unintelligible. He seemed to be fixated on getting me to book and kept giving me the hard sell. In the end he said he couldn't give me any information until I'd booked. I decided to give up on that one.
Hotel 53 - Parking here was £10 a night or I could use the free council car park across the road but that was locked at eight every night. Pity really as it looked really good.
Best Western - Well the least said the better. The receptionist really didn't want me to book and didn't seem at interested in answering my questions. I've stayed at a Best Western before and was surprised because my last stay was brilliant. Of course I was able bodied then so maybe that's the difference.
There are many more hotels of course but I had to narrow it down, which I did by going for hotels which I'd heard of. Clearly sometimes they only rely on their name and not their service. Still I'm all booked now and really looking forward to it. I'm now looking at what we can do there and what attractions are wheelchair friendly. Time to start counting the weeks off. Six weeks and counting.
My delivery from H@H finally arrived at 1340 yesterday afternoon. I could moan but to be honest I'm just glad I've got everything. They did listen to my pleas to overstock on the drug and delivered a full two months worth. So it seems things might be looking up, however it could just be a one off and next month will be horrendous.
It is so much cooler today, thank goodness. As I result my breathing as eased and I'm feeling more like me. Long may it continue.
Right I'd better get lunch. More on Friday.
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