The historic hotel on Bournemouth’s Eastcliff is introducing WelcoMe, a disability-aware customer service tool, designed to make face-to-face transactions between disabled people and staff teams as informed, anxiety-free and friendly as possible.
WelcoMe allows users to set up a personal accessibility profile which is shared with the hotel, along with information about the visitor’s needs and reasons for visiting. The team gets notifications and also in the moment training.
That then allows hotel staff to ensure they have everything in place to support the guest in the best way possible when they arrive and throughout their stay.
Rosie Radwell, whose family have owned the Marsham Court Hotel for more than 30 years, said: “A huge amount of work goes into preparing to welcome every visitor to the hotel, but we are especially mindful that our disabled guests will have additional requirements. We want to make sure we meet their needs in a discreet and efficient way, so we can ensure that every guest’s arrival and stay is seamless and relaxing as it should be. We also understand how frustrating it can be to have to ring ahead and ask the same questions and put in place arrangements wherever you go – this app makes that process much easier, and still allows us to understand our disabled guests’ individual needs and assist them in the way they prefer. They can communicate everything they need to at the click of a button, and then relax, knowing that our team will take care of it all.”
This is the latest in a series of steps taken at Marsham Court Hotel over the past two years to make it much more accessible – a new direction inspired and motivated by the owning family’s first-hand experience of supporting a loved one with limited mobility.
Marsham Court has already made more than £170,000 of improvements including a wheelchair lift, levelling access across the ground floor, creating accessible rooms, installing a ‘Changing Places’ toilet and shower, adding a sensory room, and investing in a pool hoist – and is continuing to invest more.
It was heralded as ‘trailblazing’ by judges at the Annual ‘Cateys’ Hospitality Awards in July where the hotel won the Accessibility Award 2022.
Adds Rosie Radwell: “When we nursed our mum through the latter stages of her battle with cancer, it really opened our eyes to the challenges facing someone with limited mobility, and the types of changes which can make their life easier. Adopting WelcoMe is the latest step to us on our journey to making our hotel as accessible as it possibly can be. It makes communication and the exchange of information very straightforward, and helps us to provide the best possible experience for disabled guests.”
For more information about the hotel visit: https://marshamcourthotel.co.
Find out more about how to use WelcoMe at Marsham Court Hotel: https://marshamcourthotel.co.
