Quite disappointed with this hotel. We stayed 2 nights, Friday and Saturday as we had a rehearsal dinner and wedding to attend at the Arlie and didn’t want to book a room there since it was NOT accommodating for my husband who is handicap.
He is 61 yo, and had a stroke 4 years ago which has left him with having his entire left side compromised. He is a 6ft 4in man who weighs about 255lbs. He is in a wheelchair and sometimes uses his walker when needed.
We are Hilton Honors Members who have booked Hilton rooms over the years. We travelled from Florida for the wedding and made the decision to book at the Hilton Hampton Inn because of location to the venue and because we have stayed at different Hilton’s over the years, booking handicap rooms.
We decided to book this room which had 2 full/queen beds with a roll in shower. The Hotel is well maintained, but here are the issue we encountered...
(1) Being in a wheelchair, my husband could not open the door and enter the room because the door would not stay open (perhaps a magnet to keep the door open to enter would have helped). It was also difficult for me to enter using the luggage carrier and dealing with him.
(2) The room was quite large and the bathroom was easy to maneuver in and out. However, as in most hotels, your Handicap Toilets are very low to the ground. He has issues with Balance and cannot stand easily over the toilet so he must sit. Being so tall, after he sits, he cannot get himself up from the toilet when the grab bars are ONLY low and horizontal. There are no vertical grab bars and the toilets are very low.
(3) The biggest issue were the beds. Both beds were only 9” from the floor with a mattress of 10”. Again, because they were so low, he could get in the bed but not easily. I had to help him get out of the bed with a gait belt and this is difficult for me as I am only 5 ft tall with back issues.
Around 5pm, I came to the front desk to ask about the possibility of getting a different room with higher beds. Teddy at the front desk apologised to me that the entire hotel was booked solid and couldn’t help me. I asked if something could be placed under the legs of the bed to raise it up, but he again apologised, and said nothing could be done. His only suggestion was to come back in the morning and see if anyone was checking out to get another room.
At this point, I was quite frustrated and considered calling another hotel in the area, but we had to be at a rehearsal dinner in the next hour.
When we returned to the room in the evening, I looked at both beds and decided to move the mattress from one bed to the other to raise up the bed for my husband.
The mattress was not light, but I was able to place it on top of the other mattress to make the bed higher for him.
This worked for him to be able to get in and out of the bed, but was incredibly uncomfortable for me sharing this bed because he is so tall and full/queen beds are just not comfortable for the 2 of us to sleep in.
I did not have the energy nor the time to switch rooms the next day as we had to be at the wedding, but I did speak with Angel at the front desk who totally understood my concerns and mentioned I should email the manager to let her know about the situation and i sent her an email the next day. This was over 3 weeks ago. I have yet to hear back from her.
I never encountered this issue in other Hilton’s with the beds being so low to the ground. The bathrooms are always an issue, but some hotels have both horizontal and vertical grab bars which help.
Perhaps on the website when booking something should be stated about the beds being so low.
I did speak with another lady at breakfast who was in a wheelchair at the hotel and she did mention to me that the beds were much too low as well, but she was not 6ft4in tall.
Even at breakfast, they ran out of coffee at 9am and had to use the coffee by the front desk which was not very hot. It was definitely not an enjoyable weekend for us to be staying at this Hilton and we couldn’t wait to get back home.
My 2 night cost was $490 and I can honestly say I was quite disappointed with paying this money and having to deal with all these issues.
I could have stayed at a less expensive hotel in the area, but chose the Hilton because in the past I have been quite happy with them.
I even called the corporate number to discuss this situation with them on Friday and they put me on hold and hung up. At this point i will probably not stay at the Hilton again because of this weekend.
