Holiday Inn 2 North Service Road St. Catharines, ON Tel: (905)934-8000 Fax: (905)934-9117
click on photos to enlarge	Seating opposite front desk

Web site: www.stcatharines.holiday-inn.com
e-mail: holiday@niagara.com

Your host: John Nitsopoulos

This 140 room hotel was built in 1968 and renovated in 2001. It has one accessible room.

The Holiday Inn in St. Catharines is located on the north side of the Queen Elizabeth Highway (Exit #46) and is surrounded by restaurants and big box stores and is right down the road from the St. Catharines Walker Family YMCA and shopping at Fairview Mall. It is 15 minutes from Niagara Falls and central to everything in St. Catharines. This is a high traffic area for cars and trucks and you don't see too much foot traffic here. It would certainly be easiest to have a car here but not impossible to walk around. .

PARKING: The entrance of the hotel faces the highway but the car entrance is off the North Service Road from the QEW. The parking lot wraps around the hotel and there is plenty to choose from for a side loading or rear entry van but there are also four large, designated spots right in front of the hotel. I used one that opened into an empty space for my side loading ramp.

It is clear sailing into the hotel except for a speed bump near the entrance that might pose a bit of a problem if you are using a manual chair and not very strong. There is also a bit of a join where driveway and entrance meet into the actual entrance ramp but again it is easily managed if you are strong enough to roll over it.

ENTRANCE, DOORS AND LOBBY: The entrance is covered and you can drive right under the entranceway. There is a set of double automatic doors and the front desk is to your right as well as a small snack, toiletries, newspaper and magazine sales area. I'm told toiletries are complimentary if they replace ones left at home. The lobby is new, bright and quite lovely.

To accommodate people using mobility devices the hotel has located a separate lower registration 32" high desk across from the higher 47" front
desk.

CONCIERGE: Staff manning the front desk will gladly look into getting anything you need.

Entrance to 175

ELEVATORS, HOTEL HALLS AND ROOM ENTRANCES: We visited room 175 on the main floor. Hallways are carpeted and there is braille on the wall outside the door of the room. Doorways are well-lighted and entrance is a lever handle and a plastic key card. There is no lip into the room and the door will not stay open for entry. There are two peepholes in the door, one at 36" for someone seated. There is a light switch in the room hall that operates the hall light and one that operates the light in the bathroom.

King bed in 175 and pullout	entrance hall	pants press	opposite bed/coffee station

BEDROOM: Room 175 has a king-size bed and a sofa bed that makes into a double and it has an adjoining room, #177, that also features a king-size bed and double pull-out. The room is 12'x18' in dimension.

The beds are open underneath for a Hoyer lift.

The hall into the room is 53 1/2" wide and there is a small closet area in the hall featuring a lower bar at 53" from the floor, pant and skirt hangers, an ironing board and iron and a pant presser. There is an armoire with a remote colour TV in it opposite the bed and 40" between the end of the bed and armoire. There is no minibar in the room but there is a fridge available for medical purposes upon request subject to availability.

There are bedside tables on either side of the bed and lamps operated by little push buttons on the tables. There is also a telephone and clock/radio/alarm on the bedside table. A wall switch by the bed turns on the hall light.

There is also a desk and office chair, a wing chair and sofabed in the room. Plus a floor lamp over the wing chair and one on the desk with a dataport connection.

Plugs for charging equipment are under the desk and behind the wing chair as well as in the lamp on the desk. Furniture can be removed from the room to facilitate better turnaround and movement in the room for mobility devices.

There is an alarm for the hearing impaired in the room.

A small table by the desk holds a coffee-maker, cups, glasses, ice bucket, etc. and a luggage rack by the door. There is room service from the hotel restaurant from 6:30 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Grab bars and edge of tub width	Hand-held Shower head	Sink open underneath

Toilet, bars and sink	Bathseat toilet and sink	Bathseat can be removed

BATHROOM: There is a 1/4"x5" lip into the bathroom on the room side but it is flush on the bathroom side. The 32" door opens into the bathroom and has a lever handle. The turning ratio into the bathroom is 53 ½½", the width of the hall. The bathroom gives you a turning ratio of 40" x 78" with 40" to the left of the toilet if the bath seat is not there.

The bathroom sink is 32" from the floor, has a large square sink and swivel levered handles on the faucet. The vanity is 33" long which is not large compared to most but it is adequate if you don't have a lot to spread out. It is open underneath to 28" to allow knees.

There was a bath seat in the bathroom when we looked at it and it took up a lot of room. It could be stored in the tub if a person was using it, to allow more space in the bathroom. It was a good sturdy one though and would work nicely. Lighting in the bathroom was good and the switch for it is outside the bathroom in the hall at a height of 53". There is a large mirror behind the sink. A hair dryer that comes off simply by lifting it away from its holder is to the right of the sink as are several plugs.

TOILET: The toilet is 17" high and the bath seat takes up a lot of the transfer room in the bathroom. It would be adequate at 40" if the bath seat were stored in the tub. (See pictures.) Grab bars are located behind the toilet and beside it. Toilet tissue is located on the wall with an extra roll on the toilet tank and facial tissue is on the wall as well...all within easy reach.

TUB/SHOWER: There is a bathtub with a shower curtain. The tub has a 5 1/2" edge on the outside and a narrow 2" lip on the wall side that would take a bath board if you couldn't use the shower seat supplied. There is a hand-held shower head and it can be tucked into the bars on the back of the tub to give better access to it. There is a 2' vertical grab-bar squarely over the knob taps. There isn't much room in the tub for soap, shampoo, etc. except perhaps for the corners. The bathroom is moderately lighted but not bright.

ROOM ENVIRONMENT: This is a non-smoking room. The heating/air-conditioning unit is beside the window and operated by a push button/dial unit. There is also a patio door that opens in the room. A small lip could stop wheelchairs from going out here but scooters could likely get over it. Once out though, there is a 4" drop that would mean you'd need help. The view is trees and other rooms and the pool area as the hotel is built in a square around a main courtyard featuring a pool and patio and some mature trees. An exit at the end of the hall has a smoother surface out to the back.

I'm told there is a room kit for the hearing impaired available.

Seating beside Vicera

LOBBY RESTAURANT: Just off the lobby you'll find Vicera, a restaurant that seats 60 and a totally enclosed lounge that allows smoking and seats 34. The seating arrangements are booths and tables and chairs.

Restaurant fare ranges from the Holiday Inn breakfast which is always reasonable and good to lunches of pizza, pasta and soup and sandwiches including steak sandwiches. Prices range from $8. to $17.00. The dinner menu features pasta, pizza, steaks, chicken and salmon from $14 to $25. The restaurant is open from 6:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. daily.

The restaurant is accessible from the front parking lot as well as inside the hotel.

WASHROOM IN LOBBY: The lobby washroom is accessible from the hall with a turning ratio of 83" to get in a very heavy door that swings in and then another heavy door. The larger stall is located first in the row of stalls but the 32" door opens out and you have to go around it to get into the stall. There is room for a scooter inside, also a wheelchair would fit easily. The door can be closed if you can reach it.
The toilet is 19" high and there is a back on it. Toilet paper is within easy reach and there is a 2' diagonal grab bar on the side of the toilet.

Sinks in the washroom are accessible at 30" high with a 26" cutout underneath. Faucets have levered handles. There is a huge low mirror over the sinks and the paper towel dispenser is reachable at 50" to the handle.

The washroom is bright and clean. I'd suggest you take someone with you though as the doors are very heavy and it is awkward to get into and out of the stall by yourself.

Hot tub - pool area photo too dark

POOL AREA: If you are staying at the hotel and want to use the pool, I'd suggest you take your shower in your room before venturing down to the pool area. The doors to the pool area are very heavy and you may need help to get in and the shower and change rooms are not accessible unless you have a tiny chair. That said, there are a great many people from the neighbourhood who use the pool for therapy. I'll venture to say that most of them can walk. There are five steps into the pool and the first one is 10" with the rest 8" after that. There is one railing in the middle of the steps. There is also a ladder with double hand rails on another side of the pool.

There is a hot tub in this area with an edge of 6" x!2" wide you could sit on to get in on and steps at 8 1/2" down into it. (See picture)

A temporary fitness centre is located in this pool area near the windows that look out into the courtyard area. A new Reflexions Fitness Centre and spa was being built in the hotel when we visited.

CONCLUSION: The hotel is moderately priced and provides an accessible bathroom that might work fine for you especially if that bath seat is something you can use. Having only one bed, an attendant could sleep on the pull-out and it would be fine for a couple and several children. The adjoining room also makes this hotel ideal for a larger party where one is disabled.