Holiday Hiccups

When I’m away on holiday I use the commode on top of a lift!  

I should explain, that in our usual holiday cottage, a lift (called a Terry’s lift), goes from the lounge, up to the bedroom with the adjustable bed. Once it is returned to the ground floor, the top of the lift has the carpet on and is next to where I have the bed. So, because I have our commode next to the bed, it sits on top of the lift.  

This always gives me pause for thought on the first night we’re there. With my wild imagination, I can’t help wondering if it might, by accident, start going up with me on top of it! 

This particular cottage, I should point out, is very good for us. I couldn’t say if it would be for everyone, but the way it is set up makes things easier for us. Our commode is our own portable one, but they also supply one for us, which we use downstairs. 

The cottage is attached to what was once a Methodist chapel and is also rented out. The charity that run this are really accommodating. It’s not glamorous and doesn’t have a conservatory or anything. But the kitchen has been well thought out, with a ‘wind down’ sink and the cottage also has a wet room with a changing table/shower, as well as the adjustable bed. The chapel itself takes large groups and has marvellous facilities. 

However, we haven’t always been so lucky with trying to book a ‘wheelchair friendly’ holiday cottage with a wet room. To say there have been some slightly misrepresented ‘wheelchair friendly’ cottages out there, would be an understatement. To be fair, if we look carefully, we can see whether somewhere is suitable.  

The frustration is that we do get excited when we find, an apparently suitable cottage, in the right place, and available at the right time, only to discover that the wheelchair icon has been slightly randomly applied. 

One particular website has good resources generally and did have a filter for ‘wheelchair’ accessible cottages. It’s physically difficult for me to search the web, but I would scrutinise their website and get very excited at the nice old, quaint cottages available, despite my needing level access. Only after looking in detail, would I discover, that the cottage owners’ version of ‘wheelchair accessible’ actually meant ‘mostly on one level’. 

So, on looking closer I’d discover the wet room I’d be expecting to see, would be a bath with a shower over it, or a shower cubicle. Certainly, we couldn’t wheel me into it. This did apply to quite a few cottages that I looked at, and it’s not the only website to have done this.  

I wanted to ring them saying, ‘Oh, that’s okay’, somewhat sarcastically, ‘of course I don’t need to bathe for a week’. Now however, the website I’m referring to must have had a complaint as they’ve now taken out the ‘wheelchair’ section completely. So, I will have to just make a bigger search. 

I think sometimes it is possible that I’ve misread some of the write-ups or they aren’t written correctly in the first place. As, on one occasion, on another website, I came across one cottage with a good wet room downstairs. But after looking several times, I couldn’t find any downstairs bedroom! Or even a bed settee downstairs (although this would be no use to me). I didn’t even bother ringing them up. I think they missed the point! 

There used to be a very good charity that went out and visited accessible cottages, assessing them, and putting them on their website. But sadly, I think they ran out of funding - a great shame. This is where I found my Yorkshire cottage.  

However, on a positive note, there are some owner run (as opposed to agency let) cottages out there that give very good descriptions and seem to understand that accuracy is important. Of course, there are many issues with holiday cottages that I cannot begin to understand. All I can look for is somewhere reasonably accessible for wheelchairs and in my case, restricted arms. It’s also helpful when the owners are especially friendly. Oh well, time to start looking again! 

Written by Sue (Equal Lives Member)