Old Stone Inn 5425 Robinson Street Niagara Falls, Canada L2G 7L6 e-mail: info@oldstoneinn.on.ca Web site: www.oldstoneinn.on.ca Fax: (905)357-9299
	Old Stone Inn covered entrance	covered walkway to accessible rooms

What does accessible mean at The Old Stone Inn?
The hotel is a mixture of accessible and not accessible areas. The lovely dining room is not accessible and has four steps up to it. Staff will gladly carry a person in a wheelchair up the steps if requested. The dining room menu is available for room service when the dining room is open. The lounge off the lobby is accessible and guests in wheelchairs may eat there but it is a smoking area. The six rooms deemed accessible are, for the most part, accessible (see further details). The accessible rooms front onto the outdoors pool area which is quite lovely although the pool is not accessible. When we visited, the pool area looked almost Japanese with the rain on the pine tree needles and fall foliage in the gardens around it.
The hotel does not use braille and there are no visual aid equipment available for people with hearing impairment.

Parking lot
There are two dedicated parking spots in front of the main lobby area marked with posted signs. They are 13 feet 4 inches wide and both rear and side opening van ramps would work in them. There is also big parking lot at the side of the hotel where a van could be unloaded. The parking area adjacent the accessible rooms is on the Clarke Street side of the hotel and there are no designated or wider parking spots there.
The entrance to the lobby is protected but you cannot drive under it. It also has a steep ramp with a four inch rise ramped to 14 inches. This ramp was impossible for me to get up by myself in my wheelchair and difficult for my assistant to pull me up.

Entrance & Lobby
The hotel lobby and accessible rooms can be accessed from the public street.
The entrance to the lobby is tile underfoot and double out-opening manual doors with 64" between the two so there is just enough room for the wheelchair to stay in the airlock when you open the inside door. The front desk is 42 inches high with carpet underfoot and signing can be done on a flat surface supplied. Sitting in my chair, I could see and converse with the man at front desk but I'd not be able to sign anything up there.
There are two wheelchair accessible pay phones in the lobby area. The floor under them is a ramp out to the side entrance of the building that unfortunately doesn't have a curb cut at the end of it so you'll be sitting on a sideways slant while talking on the pay phone and, if you happen to take the ramp you'll no be able to get off the sidewalk without help once you get to the end of it.
Ice and soft drink machines are in the main lobby away from the accessible rooms.

Entrance to Rooms
The sidewalk to the rooms is flat, well lighted and covered once you reach the building from the parking lot. Keys are metal and knobs everywhere are round. There is 3/4" lip into the room through a 35" wide door. The door is self-closing and has a high and low peep hole. The light switch at the door turns on a lamp on the dresser at the far end of the room.

Bedrooms
Rooms are alike except the ones with two beds have a little less furniture. There are no adjoining rooms and no pullouts but a cot can be brought into rooms 140 and 142 (the ones with the Queen beds) for an extra $10 a night. Beds are on platforms so a portable Hoyer lift cannot be tucked under them. There is a bedside table between the double beds and the queen beds have a bedside table on one side and a desk with a chair on the other.
Rooms are fairly well lighted with a lamp beside the TV, one on the bedside table and a floor lamp near the window. All lamps turn on with round twist switches.
Extra pillows and blankets are available on request from front desk.
Electrical outlets - three in bedroom, all behind furniture but there is a high one in the bathroom that could be used by a caregiver and another by the bathroom vanity that takes the hair dryer.
There is a color remote TV opposite the bed on the dresser and a telephone and alarm clock and radio beside the bed. There is no telephone in the bathroom. There is no minibar. Internet connection may be had through the telephone wall jack.

Two doubles	Queen room	Bathroom counter	Bathroom counter	Tub and toilet area
click on pictures to enlarge

There is a closet in the bedroom but the door is very narrow and there is no lowered rack for hanging clothes from a seated potion. There is another clothes rack in the bathroom but again it does not allow someone in a wheelchair to hang clothes. Clothes could be stored in the dresser. An iron and heavy bath mat will be supplied on request do you can iron on the dresser if something needs to be pressed.
The rooms with the Queen bed are easier to move in.

Bathroom
The doorway to the bathroom opens inward and is 31" wide with no lip. In room 134, the beds are longer so the bathroom doorway is tighter. In all rooms there is pretty well a straight shot into the bathroom from the bedroom. Bathrooms are quite large with a 61" x 91" area in front of the tub and another area in front of the 66"x 22 1/2" wide vanity with a full width mirror behind it. The switch to the bathroom light is on the wall just outside the door in the bedroom.
The sink is 32" from the floor and the knee cutout 23" from the floor. My knees barely fit under it. It would not allow a grown man to put his legs under the sink.
The square sink is 4" from th edge of the counter and there is 15 1/2 " from the counter edge to the centre of the single turn, push/pull faucet. Soap, lotions, bath and hand towels and face cloths are on the vanity. Lighting is good over the sink. There is a hair dryer supplied. There is a plug to the right to the sink that could take a charger and another three prong receptacle to the left on the back wall pf the bathroom 69" from the floor.
The toilet is beside the tub and the top of the toilet seat is 17" from the floor. There is room in front of the toilet for transfer but not beside it. There is 15" between the toilet and the tub in one area but 61" further right. This is an odd-shaped bathroom. There is toilet paper beside the toilet on the right if you are seated and a vertical bar on the back wall also on the right of the toilet. This bar might help a man balance while urinating but it is doubtful if it would help anyone get up from the toilet. There is an extra toilet roll on the back of the toilet, tissue built into the vanity and a garbage receptacle under the vanity.

Tub/Shower
There is a tub with a single shower head and shower curtain. The tub has short lever handles and there is a ceiling light above the tub. There is a 1 3/4" lip on the far side of the bathtub that should take a bath board. There is a 33 1/2 inch grab bar mounted horizontally on the wall behind the tub that might help someone get up out of the tub if you can grasp and pull. There is no hand-held shower head. A fairly large soap dish built into the far wall of the tub area would hold soap and shampoo. A bath towel and soap are on the edge of the tub.
A Versamode, bathboard or bathseat can be rented on request when booking.

Room environment
The air conditioning/heat unit is under the front window and difficult to reach without moving furniture. Front desk personnel or maintenance will be available to change temperature in the room if needed. A heat unit in the bathroom is opposite the tun but again the grooved knob is very low and not easy to reach or see. The front window opens into the room. The rooms are nonsmoking.

Overall impression of entire room/bathroom, etc.: Typical mid-priced room with a good-sized bathroom, clean, well-used.

Lobby Restaurant
The Old Stone Inn Millery dining room
Restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Room service is available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays;
Winter: Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Summer - May 24 - mid-October. 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
If you don't mind being lifted you can eat in the lovely dining room. The menu sounds fabulous and prices are midrange to high. If not, you can try the lounge but the smoke might put you off. Room service is available but the restaurant has such a lovely ambiance I think I'd venture in and be lifted at least once. I know it's not the way to go but this place is historic, built mainly of stone with high ceilings and a lot of character.
Lounge fare is moderately priced and features soup, sandwiches, wings, pizza, steak and prime rib at the highest price of $14.50 fully Lounge hours are Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to midnight; Friday and Saturdays slightly later.
Fine dining prices go from chicken at $19 to Chateaubriand for two at $58 and lobster tails at $48. and salmon, pork chop, halibut, scallops and tiger shrimps, filet mignon and tiger shrimps, prime rib, sirloin steak, tiger shrimps, pasta dishes, lamb and calf liver priced betweeen. Dessert prices range from vanilla scented creme caramel at $5.50 to Cherries Jubilee or Banana Foster prepared at the tableside for two at $13. Selection and prices may vary slightly.

Reviewed Oct. 31, 2002