Travelodge London Docklands Central

Image Description: Emma sat in her wheelchair in the lift area of the Travelodge London Docklands Central. She is smiling broadly and wearing black jeans, a black Paddy Pimblett t shirt and a cap with a green underside. She has her usual red leather jacket around her waist.

Back with another hotel accessibility review. This time for Travelodge London Docklands Central. 

(Disclaimer: I’m aware “accessibility” means different things to different people, as I said before, these are MY views on my experience of accessibility at this venue as an electric wheelchair user, I obviously can’t speak for others experiences but feel free to add your experiences in the comments!) 

Booking 

The booking was simple and comparable to the standard hotel booking process as I could book an accessible room online just the same as anyone else books a hotel room online. 

Travel 

Travel to the hotel was a little complicated. The hotel is in Canning Town, so I had to get a train from Birmingham to London Euston, then a bus to Waterloo and then the Jubilee Line to Canning station. The Jubilee line always makes me a little nervous as the suspension on the line means the ‘step free access’ status of stations is hit and miss. However, I recently became aware that some Jubilee Lines stations, including Canning Town, now have bridging ramps to bridge the gap onto the trains. I hope this will reduce the hit and miss nature of the step free access at Jubilee Line stations. 

Experience 

The first thing I noticed upon entering the hotel was that they asked me to complete a PEEP (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan) form, which is not something I am asked to do often. My next observation was that there were a number of lifts available so I knew if one lift broke down, I would be able to use a different one. The room was a standard accessible room with the wheelchair accessible wet room with shower seat. There was a good breakfast buffet, but it was quite inaccessible as I couldn’t really reach the food and so had to ask my friend to get breakfast for me. There were also issues entering and exiting the hotel as those parking in the car park often parked across the paths leaving the hotel rather than in actual spaces. When I raised this as an issue, the hotel seemed to make out like they had no record of who was parked there and therefore couldn’t ask people to stop blocking the paths. 

Oh, and remember how I was so pleased the hotel had me complete a PEEP form? Yup, useless. When the fire alarm did go off, I went to the assistance point and used the assistance button as instructed but no one actually came to help. So, contrary to what I expected when I filled in the PEEP form, I was simply left to listen to the alarm destroy my hearing and to contemplate whether I was about to die in a fire (I wasn’t told whether the alarm was real or a false alarm). 

Given all the issues I’ve mentioned, I stayed at a different hotel during my last visit to Canning Town (where I often stay for UFC events at the O2). I will be reviewing that hotel separately. 

When all’s said and done, I expected better accessibility from what, when I first stayed, was a brand-new Travelodge hotel. 

Stay Invincible! 

Em (Invincible Woman On Wheels)