Hotel Urban is a five star hotel in the centre of Madrid with all the trappings of a perfect hotel, except for, it seems, perfect disabled access.
We were looking for a top Madrilenian hotel to stay at for when the BBS team shortly hit the Spanish capital for the final of the European Investment Bank’s Social Innovation competition and this seemed, on paper, to fit the bill. Stunning modern design, an incredible atrium opening up to the sky, distinctive sculpture and the amenities were spectacular too, including roof top pool (we love amenities). The hotel was listed in The Guardian’s top 10 Madrid hotels and is a Design Hotel hotel i.e. one of a select group of uber stylish boutique hotels around the world.
But we’re not going…
When we checked in with the Hotel Urban to find out about their accessibility they talked the talk at first, even telling us they had a “disabled shower” (we took this to mean a walk in shower rather than a shower which is permanently out of use). However, after a little digging around we found out that there was no accessible bathroom with wet room (a must have as far as we’re concerned). We were given the following apology:
“I am sorry to inform you that our rooms with shower have not the grab rails and are not big enough for the wheelchair. Our disable rooms have the bath tub without the glass and we have a chair inside.”
Based on that, plus the photo above, it looks like the bath would be very difficult to get into, especially as the one grab rail is on the other side of the bath. It seems like the Hotel Urban may think they’ve done enough there to help less able guests but in reality it’s not enough for our BBS standards.
Otherwise the hotel is accessible. Being a very modern design building there are none of the old fashioned quirks (or nuisances) such as steps and uneven surfaces and as a five star hotel this is going to be easy to get around via lift. Also, having been critical of the adapted guest room we should mention that the adapted toilet in that room is up to scratch.
Our big problem is the lack of a step free, wet room shower which means that you can’t go there if you want to wash. Ergo the hotel is not suitable for us – certainly not for our four night stay!
As a result, we have to knock down the beautiful Hotel Urban to a provisional 1.5 BBS Tick rating. Our search for a hotel in Madrid goes on. Less than a month to go…
