dektyrella
Google
This was my second visit to Valencia. I am a severely disabled manual wheelchair user and, if I go again, I will stay in this hotel. Its central location is absolutely fabulous and the room adequately met my needs for a four night stay. ||ENTRANCE|I'd looked at the hotel on Google maps before I booked and could see it was flat in from the street but had no automatic doors. However, as it turned out, its doors were nowhere near as heavy as I had feared and were easy to open and, actually, quite often there was a concierge there to open them anyway! Once inside, it is completely flat to reception and then flat to a lift - just a few feet away. The hotel has two lifts - which was just as well as one of them was out of service for the entire duration of my visit - I could not have stayed here if both had been broken! Once out of the lift on my floor, it was then flat along to my room (although the carpet felt a bit lumpy and was quite difficult to push through). I recommend putting one of your tyres on the laminate floor at each side - the carpet is an annoying inset taking up most of the width of the corridor. |FIRST IMPRESSIONS| Like many city centre hotels which basically occupy practically a whole block, most of what used to be its ground floor is now used by other businesses. As a consequence, the reception area is very small for the size of the hotel - just the reception desk, two lifts, a few chairs, a coffee table - and that's about it. The area around reception looks a little tired so the overall first impression is disappointing. My adapted room was some distance from the elevator - this would be a problem for anyone with a walking problem. Since I'm on wheels, this didn't particularly bother me. What did bother me was the shocking state of the carpet in the corridors. Tired, old and very stained. It is the worst hotel carpet I've ever seen and created a really bad impression of what to expect from my room......||ROOM |Fortunately, the room bore no relation to the corridor. It was well appointed. It was certainly small for an aparted/ disabled room but I could get my manual w/chair around both sides of the bed. I don't think an electric w/chair could manage this though so if you are in one, do ask the hotel for measurements before you travel. The bed was a little high for me to transfer onto but I managed reasonably well. There is no room under the bed for a hoist. The hotel has 2 adapted rooms - one with a balcony and one without. I had taken the former. The balcony (as is usual in Valencia) was a Juliet one. It had a small step out and a high double track ridge for the French door. I did manage to flip my manual w/chair out over it but it felt quite precarious reversing back in as the castors went parallel with the twin tracks and I got a bit stuck. However my stay co-incided with the second batch of floods that Valencia has endured in the last few years so the French doors were usually very firmly closed!||BATHROOM|This is critical for me. The loo was a manageable height for me to transfer sideway onto it, the basin was easy to use and the shower was a proper roll in one. I can't remember now if there was a shower seat - I think there was a flip down one but it was too low for me to use. I was able, however, to roll into the shower and lean forward to wash my hair under running water and to, at least, shower my feet and lower arms. ||RESTAURANT|Everything was within reach except for the coffee pods which needed a member of staff or another guest to pass down. Not the most brilliant self service breakfast I've ever had in a Spanish four star.....but you won't starve!||All in all, a pleasant stay in the One Shot Reina with helpful staff. I would go back because of its so central location and the fact that - unlike other hotels - the One Shot responded willingly when I asked them detailed questions about heights/ widths etc before I booked.