East Hotel, Kingston, ACT (Ngunnawal Country)- Accessibility Review

Looking inside a dining section of the East Hotel

I have always enjoyed visiting our nation’s capital and have explored it with our young children and sans wheelchair a few times over the years. Canberra’s political and cultural history, the planned beauty of the city and suburbs, the symmetrical town planning of buildings and spires and gardens is enjoyably unique.

We chose the East Hotel nicely located in the Manuka Shopping Precinct through recommendation and proximity to the central city location. Of course, everything’s close to Civic in Canberra.

WEBSITE | BOOKING:

WEBSITE: https://easthotel.com.au/rooms/

STRENGTHS:

This contemporary and progressive hotel includes their Luxe Easy Access room description including some measurements on their website. What joy. We booked in person but the online booking process looks to be pretty simple and they have a very responsive live chat function. Refreshingly there is also the option of a good old fashioned phone call.

WHAT’S INSIDE:

STRENGTHS:

·       Restaurants, separate bar and a bookshop

·       The East Hotel boasts what I consider to be definitively the BEST Italian restaurant outside the old boot shaped peninsula herself. Agostini’s was so good and so well priced we dined there for each of our four nights stay. The place was always busy and serves locals dining in and taking away as well as those of us who are visiting. The service was efficient, friendly and professional . Access is super easy as it is located on the ground floor just off the foyer and through a wide walkway. I can’t rate it highly enough.

·       Breakfast was equally as impressive as we mixed with a heavy patronage of locals ordering takeaway coffees, enjoying business meetings over delicious meals or selecting their latest novel from the Muse Book Shop. The vibe of Muse is one of laid back coolness with contemporary varied and healthy options of many dishes. The restaurant is licenced and open til late. Although not accessible by the front door there is a platform lift from inside the foyer of the East Hotel that takes you to the Muse level with a standard width heavy push door to enter into the restaurant.

·       East Hotel boasts a book shop, Chapter one, with new and used books on offer in a relaxed contemplative setting with beautiful floor rugs and low hum of voices it’s a cosy place to be. It’s very Canberra and I mean that in the most affectionate and literary sense.

·       The Hotel has a wide open foyer with a lower reception desk at the end of the traditionally high counter top. The lifts are highly responsive and quite spacious to access the 140 rooms; 4 of these rooms are their Luxe Easy Access Rooms. This is a great number compared to some other hotels.

·       Spacious area with power points for wheelchair and other AT charging

·       Front door opening 900 mm

·       Bed clearance either side is 1.4 m and 2.4 m

·       Roll in shower 2.2 m x 2.7 m

·       Bathroom cavity slider with width of 930 mm

·       Toilet height 450 mm with adequate clearance for a hoist or toilet frame

·       Sync dipped to the wall is 450 mm and 630 mm clearance from under the sink to floor

Opportunities

 ·    It is lovey to have a balcony but the entry onto the balcony is through a 600mm sliding door and over tracks. This could be achieved in my manual chair with a push and a tilt but not my power chair at all.

·     Entry door has no electronic push button auto opening which would be a great addition for independent wheelchair users.

ACCESS TO VENUE | PARKING:

Parking is underground parking which is easy to access. However the height limit is 1.9m which didn’t suit our Kia with attached storage pod. We were not only able to park in the 5 minute parking strip at the front of the hotel but were happily surprised to see that a thoughtful staff member had placed a pole behind our rear entry van to enable me to have uninterrupted entry.

OTHER COMMENTS:

In case you haven’t picked up on it yet I loved the East Hotel.

We took both manual and power wheelchairs, stand hoist and shower commode. We had plenty of room to store them all including easy height power point’s in convenient locations to charge the power chair.

IMPORTANT FOOTNOTE:

I look at the ways in which businesses present an overall inclusive experience for their patrons. While I focus on mobility access I hope to get ideas from you and others to add observations relating to other disabilities. I take a comprehensive look at everything from initial website experience to staff attitudes. I do not comment on food (except sometimes if it’s super fab I might not be able to help myself) as you can have the joy of making up your own mind on that.

Happy accessible living and playing,