Looking for a London Hotel - peritoneal dialysis traveller needs room for supplies

The equivalent of 20 cases of wine is a lot of shipping... Presumably similar supplies are available in London if you can make the appropriate medical connections. Have you considered contacting the Embassy in London since they should have the ability to make medical connections if required. Also, haver you considered the Consulate in Vancouver? They might have suggestions for medical contacts in London.

Is your husband by any chance under Fresenius? They should be able to liaise with the UK branch and perhaps assist with obtaining local supplies.

Retired dialysis social worker here. I helped lots of dialysis patients travel successfully over the years. Your plan to stay in one place is a good one. Do you have a budget per night? I’m wondering if a chain hotel such as Premier Inn (which gets mentioned often) might work as they may have more experience with special requests. One thought is to see if the hotel could let you store some of the boxes in the hotel but not in your room just to give you a bit more space. Baxter, the company that provides most of the supplies, has years of experience at this.

Thanks for replies so far. Thank you @Claire, I will be working with Baxter and I appreciate the Premier Inn suggestion!

Baxter will get your supplies to you from their UK/Europe base. Once you decide on your hotel I suggest trying to find out what closest hospital has a dialysis unit, ‘just in case’. Even if it is only a hemodialysis unit they will be able to tell you where PD is done. That way if you do run into any minor glitches you know where to call for support. The dialysis community is small but helpful!

I was also going to suggest a Premier Inn. Rooms aren't palatial, but they're a decent size, especially if you book one of their bigger categories. Amd they're reasonably priced IMO. And they have many locations all over London. You'd definitely need to contact the hotel directly to solidify your storage concerns. You could check Google images to see what the rooms look like.

I must warn you that while Premier Inns are well-managed from the inn-keeping point of view (and very fairly priced, especially if you reserve early), it is quite difficult to make contact with a hotel by phone or by email. If you call, you are highly likely to hear a brief recording, be placed on hold for a minute or so, and then get a second recording saying the equivalent of "We're busy right now; please call back later." There is no option to remain on hold or to request a call-back.

As for email: Good luck with that. I have been unable to find email addresses for individual hotels on the corporate website.

What I have had some success with (for some branches of the chain but not all) is Googling for a Facebook page for an individual branch. They aren't all on Facebook, and the existence of multiple hotels in London with similar names makes things tricky, but if you find a Facebook page, there may be an email address there. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee an email will be answered. I sent either 4 or 5 and received only 2 responses. And mine was a very simple question, not at all like yours.

This email address for the London-Holborn hotel worked for me recently:

LondonHolborn.pi@premierinn.com

The response came from LondonHolborn.pi@whitbread.com. (There was an actual human being involved!) This is a well-located hotel in central London. I haven't stayed there yet.

On my most recent trip I stayed at the County Hall location, which has especially good Underground connections but is on the south side of the Thames.

My travel mate was given a business card for Premier Inn Guest Relations when she had a billing question. She never needed to use it, so I don't know how responsive they are to emails and phone calls, but it's something else you can try. The email address is guest.feedback@premierinn.com and the telephone number is 0333 003 0025.

I have often recommended Premier Inns on the forum, but in your situation, I'm not sure it's the best choice. PI keeps its rates low (for what you receive) by managing costs, and one way it does that is minimize staffing. It's not an accident that you can't get someone at a PI hotel to talk to you on the phone. I'm afraid special requests such as yours will not be handled as seamlessly as they would be at a more upscale hotel. I'm just guessing, obviously.

Look for an apartment rather than a hotel e.g. https://aplacelikehome.co.uk/

About 5 years ago, I stayed in an Executive room at the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury which was quite spacious by London standards. Similarly, I have stayed in a suite room at the Hotel Indigo Kensington which was large and had an extra living area. I think you will have better luck with one of the full service hotels (e.g., Hilton, IHG chain, Marriott, etc.) than at a place like the Premier Inn. I’d call (or email) whatever hotel you identify and discuss your special needs to see if they have a room of appropriate configuration and if they can work with you on receiving the shipment of supplies.

I agree that Premier Inns is not a good choice for your needs. This is a limited service hotel and you're asking for special services I don't think they would be able to offer.

You need a full service hotel with staff capable of bringing up all the equipment you need. You also need a hotel that is easy to contact.

The idea if staying in a large chain, while not popular to many here, will probably be better for your needs. They can set up the room with anything special you need or know if the room is big enough for your needs. They would also have the ability to store your supplies for a few days.

A hotel that has large meeting spaces can store things.

Try the Hampton by Hilton Waterloo. Only block and half from Waterloo station and bus stop right out front. Fantastic breakfast and nice restaurant attached. Being part of a chain as said earlier they may be able to meet your needs. They let us check in early the morning we arrived and gave us a room away from the elevator so it was quieter. Great service.

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to contact the UK National Kidney Foundation. Their website covers travel and PD. Someone in their office may be able to suggest hotels that will have the facilities and support you need.
m https://www.kidney.org.uk/pages/contact.aspx

Hope this helps and that you both have a great trip.

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I will definitely reach out directly to the hotel once we reach that point. Gone are the days when we were happy to sleep in the train station! Thanks again.

I'm the OP on this post, thought I would circle back with a quick follow up. I emailed several hotels. Some did not respond, and some said they would not be able to accommodate us. I did get 2 very positive responses from both the Strathmore and Queens Gate hotels, both in south Kensington, which conveniently was our preferred area. After a follow up phone call with each of them to ensure they understood our unique needs we settled on the Strathmore. We will follow up with them again right before we leave for the airport to ensure the order has been received.

Thank you to all of you who provided responses. And to any PD patients who may be "lurking", I'd be happy to connect via PM.

Good for you, Kathleen, and it is wonderful it looks like it will work out for you and your husband!

We will follow up with them again right before we leave for the airport to ensure the order has been received.

Good to see you were able to put a plan together.

I will play the part of the pessimist and ask, 'what do you do if they report the order has not arrived' ?

Wishing you all the best

@joe32f - good question! You are HIRED as my assistant! We will be able to call either the London hospital where the supplies will be shipped from (we will have that info in advance) or Baxter, the company in Canada that arranges the shipping. We've allowed 1 extra day in our planning to accommodate this possibility. As we are travelling mid week from the west coast and our flight leaves in the evening we will have an opportunity to correct this. And if we arrive and the supplies are still not there we will go straight to the renal ward of the hospital for treatment, and then start playing hardball with all concerned!

Excellent plan, Kathleen! You know we are going to want to know how this works out. I'm glad you've got a hotel that is willing to accommodate receiving the supplies!

Kathleen, I am so impressed with your "can-do" attitude. For hotels to agree to accept your medical shipment and accommodate your husband's needs is highly commendable. Some of my faith in humanity is being restored at this moment.
Furthermore, for a dialysis social worker to show up here is definitely serendipitous.

Many of us have a health issue that almost precludes us from traveling but we persevere. Please do let us know how everything worked out. Here's hoping you and your husband have a wonderful, uneventful vacation.

this is a very very positive post

as the OP on this thread, I wanted to circle back following our wonderful visit to London. Everything worked out PERFECTLY, other than the fact that we did not receive our checked bags until 4 days into our trip! There is no more travelling light for us. The good news is that our carryon bags contained the bits and bobs required for my husband's treatment. The suitcases had our clothes and toiletries etc - easily replaced. The supplies were there waiting for us, which I was able to confirm before we left home. I wanted to thank all of you that provided suggestions and other thoughts. We stayed at the Strathmore Hotel in Kensington and they were very, very accommodating, even upgrading our room to a larger room. I had brought the staff some Rogers Chocolates from home to thank them. It will be easier making further travel plans now that I know it can be done! Thanks again to you all.

That is wonderful! I know you planned extensively but probably also a bit nervous till you could actually see it would all come together. Congratulations!

Thank you so much for reporting back. I'm so glad everything turned out well for you both.

Wonderful news, Kathleen. I'm glad that you have the memories and, hopefully, can look ahead to another trip!

I was a bit nervous when we started this thread some time ago. I'm glad that everything worked like clockwork and you could relax and enjoy the trip. Too bad about the checked luggage though. Sounds like that eventually worked out. Good thing you had those carryons!!!

So glad this worked out!

Fantastic! thanks for reporting back. My father resisted dialysis, and one of his worries was not being able to travel. I'm so glad it all worked out so well.

Kathleen, thank you so much for posting. We'll be traveling with PD, too, & every bit of info/experience/advice is hugely welcome. May you both have many more bon voyages!

Very glad your trip was a success. I’m sure too that you have helped many others with your experience. Thank you.

Kathleen,
Thank you for coming back to update your post.

It’s amazing that you and your husband were able to travel (despite the need for PD) and enjoy a beautiful place such as London.

I had a relative who required hemodialysis and as far as I know he was not able to travel.

It sounds like you did extensive research in order to make this trip possible.
Kudos to you and your DH!

Congratulations on your success of managing PD with your trip. Getting the first trip out of the way is very confidence building. All the best with future travel.

Priscilla, folks on hemodialysis can indeed travel but their destinations are more restricted to locations with dialysis units set up for travel (which exist in many countries around the world). There is also a home hemodialysis option that allows for independent travel and doing your own dialysis in your hotel just like PD.