WWYD - Butlins - no accommodation for disabled parents so they had to come home

[JellyStarb]

I've just discovered that my parents have arrived home after setting off at 12pm to go to Butlins for the week.

On arrival, they were given keys to a third floor apartment. My Mum uses a mobility scooter and absolutely cannot do stairs. She was told if she wanted ground floor she needed to have paid for it. No ground floor apartments were available and so my parents returned home, a very long 9 hour round trip in the car in total.

They have said they would refund but were very blasè.

I dont agree that they should have paid more for ground floor accommodation as thats discrimination as its a need so yhe person who said that is likely ill-informed.

I've looked online to go through the booking process as my Mum and Dad have gone for years without issue and never had this. The website has a small link for accessibility accommodation but at 73 my Mum wouldn't have seen that when booking amongst such a busy page and trying to navigate the tech. My Dad is in his eighties.

AIBU to think they could have done more? But what? I don't want to be unrealistic but how can they just allow people who have travelled so far to have to leave?!

Is this tiny link on such a visually busy page really sufficient?! Its not at all inclusive or user friendly for older generations trying to live in a modern world, surely a page as part of the booking process to register any needs would make more sense and be a catch-all?!

I can understand missing the button. However I’d also think ‘I really need to make sure they know I need to book accessible accommodation on the ground floor’ and would email or phone to make sure this was sorted. How are they supposed to allocate the correct accommodation if they don’t know you need it?

Both my dh & I are blue badge holders and accommodation with lots of steps is a no- no .
Because of that I'm mindful of that when booking a holiday . I think it's unreasonable to expect any place to fulfil your room needs on arrival , they would have already allocated places to people including young families with pushchairs etc not just those with disability needs .
On this occasion I do think they were in the wrong , expecting a ground floor room without requesting one on booking ( if that's what happened )
It was their mistake , and sadly the company couldn't change the booking .

Gosh, you are all heart. Can you honestly say that unlike everyone else in the entire world you have never missed a detail ?

I think you are being massively unfair with your thread title, the customer is not always right!

If your parents have not chosen ground floor accommodation in their booking and therefore given a default room above ground floor, I am not quite sure what Butlins can do if all rooms are fully booked up.

In terms of higher price for ground floor rooms, I am not sure if this would be classed as discrimination. Perhaps price goes by room size or number of bedrooms. Same as hotels, the bigger the room, the more money you pay. Happy to stand corrected though.

Booking online can be unclear. I’d say that it’s kind of Butlins to reimburse your parents. Next time they have to get you to double check bookings. For the driving perhaps they could have stayed at night somewhere to be ok for the drive back.

if you need specific accomodation no matter what site its always best to mention at time of booking and perhaps follow up with a phone call a few days before the holiday

If you have a blue badge you can get £15 ground floor amount reimbursed on site.

That's two different things, though. As a wheelchair user myself, I understand it's upsetting, but I don't know of anywhere where you don’t have to book accessible rooms before going. It's not on if you have to pay more for it, however. That would piss me off.

OP I think the issue here is whether non disabled people are also charged more for ground floor accommodation, or are charged for pre booking ground floor accommodation, or whether Butlins are charging your parents more for ground floor simply because your mum is disabled.

If they have accessible accommodation specifically adapted and reserved for disabled people and are charging more because there are extra services that’s one thing, but charging a disabled person more for ground floor accommodation which would be available to others at a lower standard rate is direct discrimination. I’d make that the starting point and direct their attention to the Equality Act 2010.

But l think that aside, your title is unfair. It’s the responsibility of the disabled person to make sure the accommodation they’re booking is suitable for their needs at the tome of booking, and not just to assume that there will be such accommodation available when you turn up.

If you have a blue badge you can get the £15 back on site

I do think the onus was on your parents to be clear when boooking about need for ground floor and any doubts to double check via e-mail or phone.

However I do have experience of the dimissive attitude on site grating. They upgraded out silver accomodation to gold - this sounds fine but there was no cleaning materials and we had young kids who made a mess - they also weren't doing the gold cleaning. When we went down to customer services - they told us we'd have to pay more for the cleaning which was standard with gold booking at time - as we hadn't paid for gold and when we pointed out there was no cleaning material in flat like there was for silver got a shrug.

I kind of get it there was nothing they could do - but we had to then waste time on hoilday finding dust pan and brush to buy harder than it sounds - we didn't drive so were expecting to be on site all week.

The attitude just rubbed us wrong way - so that was last time we went there.

If they didn't specifically request ground floor accessible accommodation why did they expect it. Knowing they needed this then surely they would have checked the booking form more than someone else might and indeed called if they couldn't see where they expected such requests to be made.

It's their stuff up and unfortunate as it is if all ground floor accommodation was already occupied it certainly isn't Butlins' fault.

Even if they are marked as disabled a disability does not always need ground floor accommodation.

An expensive mistake they made and one I am sure they won't repeat again.

You have a point in that the link could be more obvious but if there weren't any ground floor rooms available I don't see what the staff could possibly have done? It's not like they can kick someone else out of their room half way through their holiday!

Plus even if the link on that page isn't as obvious as it could be, surely if your parents go away anywhere else they are used to having to specify they need a ground floor room?

Sorry but if they are capable enough to a)book online and b) drive 9 hours then they're capable enough to manage their own accessibility needs and it's a bit infatilising to suggest otherwise.

I can't believe you're asking how they could have "allowed" them to leave! You really think they should have somehow kept your parents there against their will? If your parents decided to leave there was nothing the resort could do to stop them. Your parents could have gone somewhere else , either for a few nights until a ground floor room became available or just for one night to break up the driving. They decided to come home instead and as independent adults that's their perogative.

But you shouldn’t have to. Unless the accommodation is specifically adapted and reserved for the use of disabled people, there should be no extra charge. And it shouldn’t be contingent on having a blue badge. Not all disabled people qualify for a blue badge - it depends on the disability, and not having a badge doesn’t make someone any less disabled.

If Butlins are charging disabled people more for standard ground floor accommodation (or for booking it) than they would someone without a disability, then it’s discrimination. The brochure does say ‘accessible accommodation’ but it’s not clear whether that means specially adapted and reserved for the disabled, or just standard ground floor rooms.

Perhaps they have been lucky before but if being on the ground floor is so critical they should have called to check this was possible if it wasn’t completely clear on the booking process

just having a disability discount doesn’t necessarily mean that you would need a ground floor room. Some disabled people would be fine with being higher up

with all the other rooms allocated it doesn’t surprised me that they weren’t able to sort something on arrival

being long term customers I’d hope butlins can either refund or sort an alternative holiday however I don’t think they are obliged fo’

I think you are misunderstanding. There is a charge for anyone to book ground floor accommodation in advance, but they reimburse disabled guests.

But they aren't charging them more than they charge others - anyone who wants to book a ground floor room pays more. Those who have a blue card can get this amount refunded.

No misunderstanding. I’ve never been to Butlins so just trying to clarify whether they’re actually charging more on grounds of disability - not actually saying they are. But if reimbursement is linked to having a blue badge then l would question that too because not all disabilities qualify for a blue badge.

I didn’t say they were. Read my first post - I was asking the question.

I can't believe they just turned up and expected to be given accessible accommodation. Is this really the first time this hasn't been possible? I call ahead everywhere to make sure I won't need to use stairs and I don't need an accessibility link to tell me that. It's common sense.

Am I understanding you correctly?
You're annoyed that Butlins had no accessible accommodation available, when your parents did not book accessible accommodation?

Even if the website wasn't clear, surely you'd make it your priority to contact the establishment and let them know your requirements? They're not mind readers how could they know your parents needed a ground floor room?
I think I'm missing something here

You're right. It always annoys me because my birthday usually falls over one of the tots weeks at one of the resorts. I don't really get it either because we're happy to just potter around the resort and then watch TV in our hotel room in the evenings anyway, so don't really care about the entertainment being mostly for the little ones!
I know that we're a bit weird in still wanting to go to Butlin's now we're in our 50s though! Ha ha!

Everyone is charged extra for booking a guaranteed ground floor at Butlins so its not discrimination. But they refund the extra on production of a blue badge or pip letter if a person needs ground floor due to a disability, rather than just preferring it.

Also, can enter resort at 1pm. But it sounds like they arrived at maybe 4-5pm, when most people would have already collected their keys. If they had arrived at 1 there is a decent chance Butlin's may have been able to swop their accommodation.

73 really isn’t that old as regards navigating tech!