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Hampton Inn At The Falls |
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Accessible entrance off parking lot
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Room 118
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Inside atrium looking up
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Number of rooms in hotel: 127 – number of accessible rooms: 1
This hotel is located just a short stroll to the fun-filled Clifton Hill entertainment district, one block from the famous falls, and offers economy room rates. Points of interest, just a 10-minute walk away, include Casino Niagara, Hard Rock Café, the Hershey Store, and Planet Hollywood, among many others. The hotel features a lovely New Orleans-themed six-storey atrium sloping to three storeys on the right side. The accessible room is number 118. It is, in fact, a two-room suite but the rooms are quite small making for tight manoeuvring.
PARKING: The free hotel parking is at the rear of the hotel and located off Walnut Street, which runs alongside the hotel. Although there are insufficient spots when the hotel is at peak capacity, management will pay for guest parking privileges at adjacent lots. There are two designated spots that would accommodate both side and rear loading vehicles. There are also several spots at the end of rows that would suit a ramped vehicle.
ENTRANCE & DOORS: Guests using a wheelchair or scooter would not be able to use the main hotel entrance on Victoria Avenue, as there are steps. However, seeing as the parking lot is at the rear of the hotel, it makes sense that the accessible entrance is at the rear. Entrance is a double manual door system. Once inside, guests using a wheelchair or scooter have to make a detour to reach the lobby. You turn right and go through a single fire door with a knob handle that opens out; travel down a hall, turn left at an Exit sign and go down a tiled ramp to the lobby.
LOBBY: The registration desk is 49” high, making it difficult for
staff to see someone in a wheelchair. There is a lovely pool area in the centre
of the atrium but it is not accessible as there are steps. The New Orleans Atrium
Café is located next to the pool and offers a complimentary continental
breakfast from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. seven days a week. The Bourbon Street Lounge
is accessible, off the lobby and open from 5-11 p.m. during the tourist season
and Friday and Saturday only during the off-season.
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Elevator inside atrium
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Cockatiel lives in atrium
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Breakfast is served here
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Rooms in tiers off of atrium
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There are Steps down into pool area
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If you like birds, then you’ll enjoy the beautifully coloured species chirping away in huge birdcages on the floor in the lobby. There is also accompanying information about the various species of birds. The gift/fashion shop located just off the lobby is not accessible, either from the hotel or from the main entrance on Victoria Avenue as there are steps. Two low pay phones are located just off the lobby on the wall of that tiled ramp.
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Lobby washroom very tight
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A small lobby washroom is also located off the tiled ramp but it is inaccessible for a scooter and barely accessible for a wheelchair, as there is no turning ratio from the outer bathroom door to the accessible stall door and only 33 ½” from the stall door to the sink. If, by chance, you are able to access it, the stall is quite large with grab bars on back and sides of the toilet. The twin sinks with lever handles are open underneath. There is also a nice low mirror.
ROOM 118: You would need to ask directions to the room, as once again you need a detour to avoid steps. Once you’re in the room you’ll find that your patio door opens onto the atrium area and swimming pool. We actually passed the patio door on the way to the room. The outer hallway is 52” wide and the door to the suite is 32” wide. It has a lever handle and a lower peephole. There is a full-length mirror on the right as you enter and a low light switch that operates the pot light in the hall. The bathroom is on your right in the hall. This hallway leading into the first bedroom is 42” wide and little over 9’ long.
The first bedroom has one queen bed on a platform, two night tables with phone and clock radio and wall mounted extension lamps above them. The lamps have twist knobs. A three-drawer dresser is at the foot of the bed with TV and Nintendo. There is also a desk and chair with coffee/tea fixings and a mirror above the desk as well as another wall mounted light with a twist knob. A second chair sits in the corner of the room by the sliding patio door. This patio door has a 3” lip down
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Space between bed and TV is only 28"
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One queen bed and door into second room
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Area opposite bed in first room
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onto the outer hall, but you can’t lock this door from the outside, so even if you could negotiate the lip you wouldn’t use it as an exit. It does, however, provide a nice airiness to the room, which is actually a smoking room, although we couldn’t detect any aroma.
The room thermostat is located on the wall to the right side of the bed, but it is 58” high.
As an indication of how tight the room is for manoeuvring, there is only a space of 28” from the foot of the bed to the dresser; 24” from the right side of the bed to the bathroom wall (no place for a scooter here as there’s no turning ratio); 6’9” from the left side of the bed to the patio door, which means that you would have to squeeze between the bed and the dresser to park a scooter in this area. There is a space of 10’4” from the desk to the door of the second bedroom.
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Bed and night tables in second room
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Opposite bed in second room
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Not much room around bed.
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The door to the second bedroom is 35”, opens into the bedroom with a knob handle and stays open. This room also has one queen bed, two night tables with wall mounted extension lamps and a phone on the night table near the window. The window opens, allowing for air circulation. There is a three-drawer dresser with TV at the foot of the bed and a wardrobe. The wardrobe has no lower clothes rack but it does have an iron on the floor and an ironing board. There is a space of 33” between the left side of the bed and the window wall and 33” from the right side of the bed to the interior wall. A door on the interior wall does not open and there is no adjoining room there. From the foot of the bed to the dresser is a space of just 23”.
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Tub area with bars and hand-held
showerhead |
As you go into bathroom
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Low towels and bath seat supplied.
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BATHROOM: A scooter can just fit from the hallway into the bathroom, as the turning ratio is tight. The bathroom door is 34” wide, opens out into the hall and stays open flat against the wall. High and low robe hooks are on the back of the door. The light switch is 46” high and on the wall on the left as you enter. There is no vanity and the large oval sink is open below and has a push/pull/turn faucet and a low mirror above it. The toilet is 15 ½” high with a toilet tank, a 2’ horizontal bar above the tank and a 32” diagonal bar on the wall beside the toilet.
There is a moulded bathtub with a bath chair. The tub is 17” high with a 4” outer lip and no inside lip. The depth of the tub is 13” It has a handheld showerhead that will lift off so you could place it over the grab bar. There are grab bars on all three walls around the tub as well as a built-in Plexiglas one above the J-shaped one on the faucet wall. It has a level handled thermostatic control. Multiple towel bars are reachable, with the highest one at 45”. A double plug outlet is on the back wall above the toilet and this could be used to charge a scooter or wheelchair battery.
There is a space of 54” from the door to the front of the toilet and only 11” from the left of the toilet to the wall, so transfer would have to be from the front only. From the wall to the tub is a space of 5’6”. The bathroom has moderate lighting.
As with many of the hotels in Niagara, this one has a novel approach to accessibility.
The accessible room is very tight. We could say cozy but if you can't move in
a room with your scooter or wheelchair you aren't going to be a very happy camper.
The bathtub will not take a bath board but it would take a bathbench or seat
and the hotel has provided one. The hotel is designed so that the rooms surround
the pool, cafe and front desk and are covered with a huge atrium roof. The hotel
is also within rolling distance of Clifton Hill and the falls which is a big
plus. Just down the street are all kinds of restaurants. The two room suite
situation would be ideal for a couple where one snores, a person with a disability
using a small wheelchair or able to move about a bit traveling with a caregiver
or a couple with children. Don't forget about the free breakfast that is included
in your room rate.
April 8, 2004