Staying away from home when you have accessibility needs is definitely challenging and not all hotels are able to offer the same standards when it comes to making spaces welcoming to everyone. However, Scandic Hotels has worked to make their properties accessible to people with disabilities. This is good business sense as people with disabilities are travelling more and no longer constitute a niche group. And since there are about 80 million people with some kind of disability in Europe alone, the market is huge.
Scandic is the leading hotel company in the Nordic countries with 57,000 rooms in more than 280 hotels. The group is a leader when it comes to accessibility and appointed an Accessibility Director, Magnus Berglund, who has been an ambassador for the company since 2003. They were the first group to develop an Accessibility Standard which was developed in cooperation with guests with special needs, employees and associations representing people with disabilities. It was created by carefully following people as they move from the parking lot and through Scandic’s hotels.
Guests enjoy solutions from vibrating alarm clocks/smoke detectors, safety info in Braille at reception, desks, peepholes and doorbells at wheelchair height and hearing loops to mobile lifts at some hotels. As a result, the Scandic Hamburg Emporio in Germany, for example, was able to host 300 athletes who use wheelchairs during the 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championships.
Today, the standard covers 159 points, 105 of which are mandatory at all hotels. New this year are Scandic’s “allergy rooms” with wood flooring rather than carpet, hypo-allergenic skincare products, bedding made from synthetic materials and special laundry and cleaning procedures. Scandic’s allergy standard is the next step, following the successful ‘Breakfast for All’ concept.
Information about accessibility is on the individual hotel website so it’s easy to see what facilities are available at each property.
Not so long ago, hotel rooms for guests with disabilities looked like hospital rooms, Scandic’s “Design for All” means that an accessible room is designed just as well as any other room, with smart solutions that are barely noticeable except to the people who need them. “Making hotels accessible to more people needn’t be expensive or compromise good design,” says Berglund.
The company regularly carries out accessibility training for its 18,000 staff, through practical exercises and online courses. As a result the company has won numerous awards in recent years. Scandic was recognized for “Best accommodation for disability access” at the World Responsible Tourism Awards 2015 and for having “one of the most innovative practices” in the Zero Project 2018.
“Some 70 percent of all disabilities are invisible, which we take into consideration when developing accessibility solutions at our hotels,” says Berglund. “Our goal is to create fantastic hotel experiences for everyone. What makes us most proud is when guests say that when they stay at Scandic, they’re treated as hotel guests, not people with special needs. We are constantly developing accessibility at our hotels since it’s such a complex issue. We never consider our work to be done.” he concludes.
Fun fact about accessibility at Scandic:
Four-legged friends are always welcome at Scandic and the hotel also has its own service dog, Dixi. Dixi is well-loved and very popular on Scandic’s social channels and on Instagram @dogatwork.
For more information about special needs at Scandic Hotels: https://www.scandichotels.com/specialneeds
