Having short notice that I would be attending Comic-Con in Telford, you can imagine all the local hotels were booked solid. Having to look further afield, we settled on the Spread Eagle Inn in Gailey. Approx 20 mins from Telford city centre. We managed to book one of their accessible rooms. This is my honest review of our stay.
Spread Eagle Inn
As a full-time wheelchair user, I have to have a wheelchair accessible room when travelling. If I am unable to book an accessible room, then I simply can’t travel! Accessible rooms are far and few between so you have to book them very quickly. When we have taken a cruise holiday, we have to book almost 2 years in advance or you have no hope of booking one.
As you can imagine, ALL local hotels were fully booked so we had to look further out for an accessible room. We chose Spread Eagle (part of the Marston’s group) as we have stayed there once before. Although, I wish we hadn’t (more on that in a bit).
Spread Eagle has 4-5 disabled parking bays and a ramp-up to the main doors of the restaurant/reception. You book in at the desk by the side of the bar. To go to your room, you can travel down the ramp inside the restaurant and make your way to the side entrance where you walk/wheel over to the hotel building.
The hotel building has an automatic door entry that is operated by your room key card. You hold the card to the box at the side and the doors open. You do the same for the next door inside that leads to all the rooms. This door is very heavy, presumably a fire door. My accessible room was about two rooms on my left after entering. Again, the room door is operated by holding the card next to the electronic fob box. Your room door is also very heavy.
Accessible Room
There’s literally nothing in the room apart from a bed, a small desk in the corner with a mirror above. There is a TV on the wall opposite the bed. You have what is meant to be hanging space beside the bed, again in the corner. The hangers are fixed in place. You have to unhook the pin from the part of the hanger that slides on the rail. From a wheelchair user’s perspective, I feel it is unusable. The hangers are very high and very fiddly to use. My suggestion is to bring your own hangers. If you are able to reach up to high places, you may be able to use it. There are a couple of shelves below but really not enough for two people if staying more than a night or two.
There is a tea/coffee facility available in the room by the means of a kettle and sachets. Only full-fat milk is provided in the room though. You can ask at the bar for semi-skimmed milk which they can provide. You only get provided with two tea bags. We had a cup of tea before going to bed on the day we arrived but didn’t get a refill of tea bags the following day. Not a problem, we just went back to the restaurant and got some from the tea machine. They supply sugar/sweeteners and a couple of wrapped biscuits.
I mentioned a TV on the wall. The remote control for the TV is sat on a little ledge directly under the TV. Due to my dexterity, I found this very high and very very difficult to grab hold of due to not being able to get my hand in under the TV to get a grip of the remote.
The Bed
I’ve slept in many different hotel beds (even a broken one) and I have to say this was probably the worst by far! The bed was so hard that it caused pain in both of my hips and back. The severe pain I was in from the bed, made my weekend more difficult than needed. My husband had to do all the driving, transferring in/out of my chair was painful. I took my own specially designed pillow last time but stupidly forgot to bring it home. I rang the hotel explaining the situation and asked if I paid for the postage, could they post it out to me. They refused, saying they didn’t have the means to post stuff out!
With this in mind, I left my new one at home but found their pillows to be too soft and flat. They slid up the wooden headboard throughout the night which caused me neck pain too. So all in all not a great night’s sleep!
There is an emergency alarm on the right-hand side of the bed by the lamp.
If you request a double accessible, don’t expect a double bed. You are given two singles pushed and locked together! This (in my opinion) is why the mattresses are harder and you also have to deal with the rope-like rim that goes around the edge of each mattress making it double trouble down the centre of the bed.
No Subtitles
The TV’s remote was kept on a ledge underneath the TV, I found it very difficult to reach and grab the remote. Every day the cleaners would put it back. I found it impossible to switch on subtitles as I couldn’t find this facility anywhere in the TV’s settings. Being partially deaf, this meant if I wanted to watch TV I had to sit underneath it to hear it or turn it up loud and run the risk of annoying other guests. Yes, I could have asked staff for help but I didn’t want to bother them, so just left it.
Accessible Wet Room
It’s a fairly functional wet room, shower, toilet, shower seat, sink, grab rails and two red alarm cords. Although the one at the entrance is far too close to the light cord so could be pulled by mistake. That’s it though! No extra bins, the small bin provided was a pedal bin? My pet hate, the sink was too near the toilet and I almost fell twice while transferring. (I know the sink has to be close but this was almost over the toilet itself). There was no shelf provided so nowhere to put a wash bag, brush or anything at all.
The toilet roll was so thin and cheap feeling I’m glad I take my own. On the plus side, the toilet chain was on the right side of the toilet and there is a mirror over the sink, for what use that would be without a shelf. Plenty of space to swing your chair in a full circle.
Restaurant
There are two entrances to access the main building where the restaurant is. Both are ramped. The restaurant is not always a table service. It has one unisex disabled toilet.
Breakfast – Either continental, which is buffet style or cooked breakfast which is ordered at your table. Be careful though, it is not obvious that they have two types of cooked breakfasts. You have the Classic & The Works. Hubby ordered a full English not knowing there were two kinds. Classic gives you one of each item of food but the Works gives you two of each item. He was given the second and charged accordingly.
Evening Meal – You decide what you’re having from the menu, find your table number and go to the bar to order your food. There is no table service so if you want something else or more drinks, you need to visit the bar. You also have a carvery (buffet style) but both I and my daughter found this to be rather poor quality and cold.
We were told a new menu was in place since our last visit. Hmmm, not much choice outside of steak & burgers and what we did have was not very tasty and cold like it had been made at the same time as our starters and left to sit!
Staff
The staff as a whole are friendly and very helpful. On our first visit last November we found what seemed to be mould on our bedsheets & pillows. We went to reception and within minutes the manager came to change our bedding. (This was approx 11 pm).
On our second day of this visit, I asked the room maids if it was at all possible to have a quilt put under our sheet as the mattresses were causing me pain. She said this would not be a problem as she has had many requests for this before. Why don’t the hotel do something about their mattresses then? It helped but because I was already in so much pain, unfortunately, it wasn’t perfect.
Worth The Stay
If you need somewhere overnight, then it’s probably one of the better places to stay. The price of a room is reasonable, the food price is average but the quality could be better. Rooms are very clean if somewhat minimalistic.
The big question is, would I stay here again? If I could find somewhere else, I would not stay here again. Unfortunately, we go to Telford for one reason, Comic-Con. So unless we could book an accessible room early enough before they are all sold out, then we probably wouldn’t have a choice in the matter and I would stay here begrudgingly!
Deals & Offers
At the time of writing this review, Spread Eagle have a 20% off main meals if you book directly with them. Full terms & Conditions.
Related Blogs
Cruising As A Wheelchair User: Is It The Best Holiday?
Travel Agents: How Helpful Are They For Disabled Customers?
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About Cazbarr
Cazbarr is a full-time wheelchair user, who was born with a disability called Arthrogryposis. Primarily she blogs about her disability, her experiences holidaying as a full-time wheelchair user, along with honest products & service reviews.
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