Hearing loops for hotels
In a hotel environment there are many situations where communication is important: checking in and out, exchanging information at the desk, getting directions. Or larger conferences and events with many participants. Or safety issues like emergency and waking up calls. To include hearing impaired guest, hearing products are good to have on hand.
Desks and tellers
Welcoming your hotel guest should be easy and smooth. For a hearing disabled guest to be able to communicate, it is important to have an efficient and easy to use hearing system installed. An across the counter system at the information desk, ensures clear conversation between the guest and the staff, directly transferred via a microphone and a small hearing loop to the guest’s hearing aid.
Conference
For the conference facilities, both installed and portable loops are options for making your hotel accessible to all. The loops can be placed in meeting rooms with adjustable walls and in several adjacent rooms without interference.
Elevators
Make the stay even easier by installing loops in your elevators. Loops connected to the intercom system assist the hearing impaired guest both when using the elevator in normal circumstances and in cases of emergency, such as fire alarms.
Alerting
It’s important that emergency calls reach every guest in case of e.g. fire. Most hearing aid users turns their aids off while sleeping, which means they often can’t hear sirens or fire alarms at all. For safe alerting and also for normal wake up calls, an alarm clock with vibrations is recommended.
Scandic Victoria Tower, Kista, Sweden
In 2005 Scandic Hotels implemented a program to make their hotels completely accessible to guests with all types of disabilities. Some tasks were aiming at solving the problems for hearing impaired guests. They needed better audibility at the reception desks, audio access in the conference rooms and a safe way of being alerted both for waking up and in case of fire alarms. Together with Univox, all Scandic hotels in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland were equipped with cross the counter loop systems for the reception desks to enable better communication, and portable loop systems for their conference facilities. They were also provided with SafeWake clocks, which alert by vibration, also when the fire alarm goes off. Several Scandic hotels in Germany, Poland, Netherlands and Belgium have the same equipment. New Scandic hotels are ever since equipped with the same “basic kit”.
In 2015 Scandic Hotel won the World Responsible Tourism Awards in category: ”Best accommodation for disability access”