Capital of Scandi-cool, the home of ‘hygge’ Copenhagen has a lot to offer but not a trendy accessible hotel…………..

An upcoming business trip has meant a search for an accessible hotel in Copenhagen. This is as a result of our membership to the EIB Alumni for Social Innovation, having won the award in 2014 and an annual meeting to discuss  how we may have impacted society. So a good accessible hotel in the centre of Copenhagen was required. Conde Naste calls Copenhagen the ‘undisputed capital of Scandi-cool, the home of hygge’. However, finding a cool hotel with accessibility was not as easy to find as you might expect and none but two had access information on their website. To save anyone else from the necessary laborious phone calls here is what we found out about the hotels in Copenhagen:

Nobis Hotel  was a first choice as it’s a member of Design Hotels and they recommend some of the most stylish hotels around the world but………..

‘Our toilet has grab rails on both sides, and the bathroom is a wheel in shower. We do not have any rails in the shower however we do have a shower chair that can be placed in the room’.

The Telegraph review gave them 8/10 and reported the following accessibility:

‘There’s ramp access from the street and a lift to all floors. Several bedrooms are wheelchair accessible and have adapted bathrooms. Vibrating pillows are available for the hearing impaired’.

This a very scant review as we need to know how ‘adapted’ the bathrooms are especially as further questions revealed no grab rails in the shower!! The cost for October was DKK 2650 per night per room without breakfast (£310 approx). This was a tad expensive so we continued to search.

Alexandra Hotel

Wallpaper magazine recommended this hotel as the

‘Jens Risom room at the Hotel Alexandra, in what perhaps is Copenhagen’s cosiest (or as we say in Danish, hyggelig) place to stay’, Jens Risom being the famous ‘Mid-Century’ furniture designer that everyone wants to now emulate in their home. He also famously partnered with The knoll Furniture company.

However, not so hygge if you’re disabled as they told us

‘We are very sorry to inform you that we don’t have any rails in our hotel.’

71 Nyhavn Hotel

Looked interesting as it’s  a conversion of two 19th-century warehouses into a boutique hotel. They didn’t reply to our questions on access but according to the Telegraph it is ‘not suitable for guests with disabilities’, surely it should be called a hotel with disabilities??

Hotel SP34

Was another trendy hotel choice located in the bohemian ‘latin quarter’. They host DJs and poetry readings in the evenings and again feature ‘mid-century’ danish furnishings – a 4 star boutique hotel. With regard to accessibility it too is ‘mid-century’……..

‘We do have rooms with bigger bathrooms, and close to the elevator, but we don’t have special made rooms for disabilities.’We’re going to check this out as maybe just a few grab rails would help??

 

The Square

Calls itself a ‘trendy design hotel’. it’s quite reasonable at £150- £200/night and only serves breakfast. Located in the centre of Copenhagen it’s also very convenient but yet again not so convenient for a disabled guest…….They told us,

‘Unfortunately we are unable to offer rooms suitable for disabled people, but we recommend our sister hotel Tivoli Hotel & Congress Center’.

Rather than go on another search we decided to go for a Scandic hotel who always detail their access on their websites – a step forward but still no pictures. The Scandic Palace looked interesting and in the centre of town but it’s in  an old building recently refurbished. Looked good and Telegraph gave them 9/10 but with no photo it was difficult to judge the access.

They did say,

‘We do have grab rails around the toilets and grab rails in the shower. The room does not come with a connecting room.’

Without photos we were concerned about the suitability of the Scandic Palace and we finally chose the Scandic Copenhagen near the river estuary. It’s modern and they sent photos of the bathroom the only hotel that did what we asked.

 

Scandic Copenhagen Adapted Bathroom With All The Rails and a Wall Mounted Shower Seat
Scandic Copenhagen Adapted Bathroom With All The Rails and a Wall Mounted Shower Seat

The Scandic Copenhagen was also quite reasonable at DKK 2,365.00  per night incl. breakfast for a double room.

We’ll let you know how it is after the trip…………….but so far we’re not impressed with Copenhagen’s trendy/boutique hotels. It just shows how well the UK adapts for disability, not perfect and not everywhere but in a capital city London does fare well!! If anyone knows any different regarding Copenhagen, let us know and contact here.

NB : Getting wheelchair adapted taxis pre-booked for the airport has also been a trial, we will update this in the next few days but so far we’ve found none!

 

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