Name: Paul
Date of visit: 10/23

My wife has high needs, is immobile and needs assistance to go out and about and we use a ceiling track hoist at home for all transfers.

We’re both big Abba fans and wanted to see the Voyage show in London and lived too far away to drive there and back in a day. I found the Premier Inn Stratford through this site and it has 1 room with a ceiling track hoist, room 104.

Booking it was a little complicated, I had to ring the hotel direct to see if that 1 room was available on the night we wanted. I was then told to book a disabled room on line and then ring back with a booking reference, they would then make sure I was assigned the room with the hoist. I did this a few months in advance (plus I rang the week of the event just to make sure as no hoist meant no trip!). The room itself was big, great for the wheelchair. The wet room is big, lots of rails, seat for shower and it even had a shower chair (non reclining), lowered sink, a good set up. The hoist could go through from the bed to the shower seat.

The hoist itself was ok, it was on charge when we got there and it did sound like the battery had seen a bit of action and we charged it when not in use, it worked ok. There was a sling in the wardrobe which was surprising but I’d always recommend taking your own (most places don’t provide them). As they had aligned the hoist to go through to the wet room it meant if you lowered straight down on the bed you were quite near the bottom of the bed, so some pushing as it came down to get the head on the pillow required, but we coped ok. I’d also say the bed was quite low which meant I was kneeling on the floor to roll my wife. We had other people in our group in a nearby non adapted room and their bed was higher which would have been better for the disabled room.

It’s a Premier Inn, so really clean, nice comfy bed etc. the room is on the same floor as reception and the restaurant (first floor), lifts to exit on ground floor. Staff were excellent, as was breakfast buffet, there were alarms in the room and bathroom which we didn’t use, but I assume a member of staff would come if activated. There was a bar near the restaurant and a couple of snack/drink vending machines. Check out was 12 which was great. The hotel is part of the Stratford shopping centre so shopping and plenty of places to eat, all great for the wheelchair, stations for tube etc. we drove there and parked in car park A which was easy access to the hotel, cost us £16 for just shy of 24 hours.

The Abba venue was a flat 1 mile walk, it’s also close to the London Stadium where West Ham we’re playing so busy on the Sunday as we went to the 1pm show, thankfully the football was still on when we left so we didn’t get stuck in football traffic.

We had a great time (amazing show), the hotel set up wasn’t perfect but we have high needs and we managed perfectly fine. Without this hotel and it’s hoist not sure we could have done the show so well done Premier Inn Stratford.