Hillscourt Hotel

A very welcoming hotel, with staff who are very professional, friendly, and provide a high level of service. Step free access is good in all buildings, however the grounds/car park are a little uneven in places. Accessible Room was comfy, however small, and may not be suitable if you are not a part time/ambulatory chair user. Lunch dinner and breakfast were VERY good - fresh cooked dishes with only desserts being bought in. Conference facilities are modern, and have step free access via a platform lift, and has its own accessible toilet on the ground floor. Would happily stay again. Disabled Access In and Around: Automatic doors to buildings everywhere that was wheelchair accessible - however reception is accessed by a large glass door that requires you to open manually. Accessible facilities: Lift to some areas, Step-free entrance, Step-free access to most areas. Parking & Transport: I travelled to this place by car. The venue is a hotel and conference centre split between an older converted school building and newer accommodation and conference blocks in separate buildings. The carpark/property has parking with barrier entry. To enter or exit you are required to press and hold a 1cm button on the buzzer panel until the barrier lifts. This requires moderate pressure, and some hand dexterity. Two large car parks are available - both with a 100-200m walk to the entrance, which includes approximately 20 steps of stairs. Three reserved blue badge parking spaces are available next to the main building - however they do not have any marked areas to each side or behind the spaces. The car park is tarmac and brick tiles. There are undulations and slopes throughout the outside areas but navigable by my power chair. Wheelchair access to the reception is via a dedicated sloped pathway. Double doors to the building open with a push button. Accessible Toilets: The accessible toilet in the main building also doubles as the baby changing area. The door does not fully open due to a doorstop in the floor. A moderate sized power chair still fits through okay. On the left as you enter is a light pull to turn off the light. A large baby change bin takes up a lot of space that makes turning a wheelchair in the space difficult. The transfer area is quite small and has a narrow sanitary bin. The sink and mirror are at wheelchair height. I struggled exiting the room as I could not easily turn my power chair around to open the door. The emergency cord was hanging to the floor to the correct height and had both of the grab pulls at the correct heights. Staff: Staff were all superb - friendly, professional and always offered help with doors/getting food in the restaurant etc but never overstepped/forced help if you declined. MAIN BUILDING - RECEPTION, BAR, RESTAURANT Reception is on the right hand side as you enter the building in a separate room. You are required to open a wide glass door to enter the reception room - this opens inwards. Staff will open this door for you if needed. I was not provided with a PEEP to complete despite being a chair user, and had to prompt the staff for one. The form had been photocopied so many times it was impossible to read most of the text indicating what information went in each box. There is a lowered check in desk. In the main building there is step free access to the bar area (the door is fairly narrow), restaurant, and accessible toilet. The bar area has a narrow door to enter, from the building however there is a ramp to the fire door which can be opened for access from outside. There are men and women’s toilets off of the bar - both have a step up to enter. The restaurant is large and has plenty of space to navigate in a wheelchair. Lunch is served from the hot counter which is not lowered for wheelchair use, however staff are present to assist with serving, and offered to carry my plate to the table for me if I wished. Dinner is table service, and everything is brought to you, with the exception of dessert which was self serve from a table next to the hot counter. This was accessible from my chair. Breakfast is just like lunch - served from the hot counter and chilled counter - both not at wheelchair height, but helpful staff on hand. ACCOMMODATION: I can only give information about my room in the accommodation block, which is in a separate building to the main building. To access this, required exiting via the main buildings entrance/ramp, and wheeling outside over to the accommodation building through the car park (tarmac and brick tile). The door to the accommodation block requires a 4 digit code provided when you check in. The panel to enter the code is on the wall to the right of the door, and the buttons are 1cm and require little pressure to push. The door opens automatically outwards (towards you when entering the building). To exit there is a green push button on the right hand side of the door as you exit. As you enter, on the left is the stairs to the upper floors. Directly in front of you is the corridor with the three accessible rooms on the left hand side (rooms 1, 2 and 3). Two are single rooms, and one has two single beds. I stayed in room 1, which is pictured. ROOM 1 - SINGLE ACCESSIBLE BEDROOM The main door to the room is a standard modern door width, but still narrow compared to many accessible doors. There is no self closing mechanism and the door was only a little heavier than a standard internal house door. Access to the room is via a keycard you tap on the lock. The room was fairly small, but I had plenty of room to turn the chair around. The carpet was fairly thick, and my power chair struggle to reverse on it due to the low speed/power in that setting. The light switch is on the right as you enter the room (left hand side of the room door as you look at it from the inside). The light is a cold daylight colour temperature, so if you are sensitive to aritificial lighting or prefer a warmer light, I would recommend using the wall/side light which was sufficient to light the room but quite a bit dimmer. The single bed is a standard height bed - it is slightly higher than my power chair, but quite a bit higher than some manual chairs. The bed was medium-soft, with two synthetic pillows. There is a shelf to the side of the bed with a phone, tissue box, and a double socket with two USB A charging ports. Above the shelf is the wall mounted lamp, which has a small tactile button to turn on and off. The tea and coffee making facilities are on a deep floating shelf for use from a power chair. A small TV is mounted above the tea and coffee shelf. The wardrobe has two sliding doors - on the left hand side there is a hotel safe at a chair user’s height, and the right hand side has lowered clothes rail and hangers. **SAFETY WARNING** The emergency pull cord in the bedroom hangs next to the headboard/bedside shelf and is hard to grab because of this. It also does not have looped/plastic pulls at all. I would not rely on this for assistance because of this. ROOM 1 - ACCESSIBLE WET ROOM The wet room is fairly small, containing a lowered sink, tap and mirror. The toilet is standard height, with a seat and no lid. There is no backrest. A drop down grab bar is on the right hand side as you look at the toilet. There are grab rails around the sink. The area between the wall and the toilet is very narrow - this is how you access the sink. Even a manual chairs may struggle to fit. I sat on the edge of the toilet to use the sink. The wet room has a small shower cubicle with a wall mounted shower seat. Control of the shower is via rotating dials, which needed a moderate force to turn, however there are sticks on each dial to aid turning. The shower head is mounted on a rail and can be adjusted up and down. It is fairly powerful, and a good shower! There is a hairdryer mounted to the wall by the sink - simply lift and it turns on. It is lightweight but can only be used in situ. **SAFETY WARNING** The emergency pull cord in the bathroom hangs next to the towel rail and is hard to grab because of this. It also does not have looped/plastic pulls at all. I would not rely on this for assistance because of this.

A late last minute stay which we booked whilst travelling to the area, arriving at 10pm. Our room was on the first floor and was in an older part of the building, no lift. A good sized room which had been modernised, but with only two double sockets at the side of the bed and one above the tv which we used for the room fan as it was exceptionally hot. The condition of the fan was poor with a cracked casing, but it worked. Breakfast was hot buffet, but it wasn’t hot. There was plenty of food and also cold food options. The car park has excellent security barriers and CCTV. Reception staff were helpful and very accommodating.

A wake for 60 people. Good atmosphere, bright and airy room. Spacious, food very good. Staff polite and helpful. Facilities for video and music.