People First

The modernly renovated four-star Palatinus Boutique Hotel is located in the heart of Pécs, in the Mediterranean pedestrian street of the city, in the immediate vicinity of the Town Hall and Széchenyi Square.
The beautiful building is one of the oldest hotels in the city and even in the country, in 1802 its predecessor, the Aranyhajó (Golden Ship), was already mentioned as a hostel.
The historic building was renovated after three years of work, with a strong emphasis on quality, eco-awareness and modern solutions. It reopened in January 2023.
Many things from the past have been preserved, such as the special wooden cassette room doors or the wrought-iron railing of the staircase. A special experience in the rooms is provided by old beams and arches on the ceilings.
From the top level there is a beautiful view of the Mecsek hill and the TV tower, and from the terrace of the rooms to the lively downtown.
At the same time, the beautiful old Palatinus Hotel next door has closed. Now complete renovation work is underway there, so that it will also start a new life as a four-star hotel. (It should be mentioned that, the complete furnishings of the 100 rooms of the large hotel were donated to the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service. Beds, furniture, chandeliers, bathroom equipment, refrigerators, plastic window frames caused a qualitative change in the lives of many disadvantaged families).

The accessibility was monitored with the help of a specialist in the boutique hotel. Overall, it's pleasantly accessible. We had the opportunity to tour the hotel with the experts of the Pécs Tourism Roundtable and the management.

The entrance opening from Király Street is thresholdless, and its door is photocell. The part leading to the reception desk is a bit steep, with a manual wheelchair you need some help. The flooring in front of the reception desk is sloping, and the counter itself is too high from a wheelchair.
For the visually impaired there is no driver's lane and no Braille inscriptions. For the hearing impaired there is no induction loop at the reception, but in the accessible room there is.
From the reception opens the entrance to the building. The interior is elegant, pretentiously designed and comfortable. There is a floor mat everywhere, which is not the most optimal for rolling and navigating with a wheelchair.

The three levels are taken up by stairs and an elevator. We could fit a total of four people in the elevator, one of us in a wheelchair. The elevator is also beautiful and finally a loudspeaker indicates which floor we are on. There is no Braille inscription on the numberings, however, the numbers stand out tactilely.

The hotel has one specially accessible room. But the good news is that almost every room can be accessed by wheelchair, as the beautiful old doors are also wide enough. Thresholds are also not an obstacle, nowhere higher than 2 cm. The beds are high everywhere, you can comfortably sit through from a wheelchair. You can also roll into the spacious bathrooms. Guests whose condition allows and can take a few steps can use the bath of each room, since the tray for the shower cabin has a minimum height (1-2 cm). Bathrooms with bathtubs also have shower cabin.

The accessible room is located on the 3rd floor.
There is no threshold here at all, but we roll on floor mats here too. Both the entrance and bath doors are equipped with handrails. The room has two separate high beds,a desk in the middle and comfortable equipment.
The bath is spacious, comfortable, the shower cabin has no doors and trays, it is equipped with a removable shower chair. The toilet has a regular height with appropriate handrails. We had comfortably access to the washbasin with a manual wheelchair. Although the mirror is not adjustable, it can be fully used due to its large size. The emergency indicator in the bath was a little more difficult to find because it is part of the design.

On the ground floor of the hotel there is a breakfast room and a bar, both of which are also extremely demanding. Here, however, guests in wheelchairs are at a disadvantage, since for them both can only be approached from the outside, from the courtyard, on some inclines. Since the yard is not covered, if it rains this is certainly a problem. The hotel management promises to solve it in the near future.
The entrances to the breakfast room and the bar are accessible from the outside, the bar has sliding doors, and the breakfast room can be opened with a handle.
Here on the ground floor, opening from the courtyard, there is also a fully accessible toilet, which can also be used by the guests of the bar.

Website:
This still needs to be improved in the near future, it is not accessible now. Unfortunately, the hotel's website makes no mention of the accessibility of either the hotel or the rooms.
The menu system is not clear as a visually impaired person. Images and icons do not have captions, text and background do not have enough contrast, text size cannot be adjusted. Booking is also not possible as a visually impaired person. The page cannot be used with screen-reading software.

Getting there:
By car, the hotel offers its guests a private underground parking lot. This can be approached at Mária street 2, there are also accessible parking spaces in the underground garage. The hotel cannot be reached directly from the underground garage, the entrance can be reached via Széchenyi Square. Parking in the underground garage for the guests of the hostel is 3200 HUF / night.
the nearest disabled parking spaces on the street: next to the Mosque in front of the court building 1 piece. At the beginning of Mária street 2 pieces. Next to the Nagy Lajos high school the beginning of Janus Pannonius Street is 1 piece.

by bus, at the Árkád shopping center it is worth getting off. With an accessible walk you can reach the hotel in 10 minutes via Irgalmasok utca, Széchenyi tér, Király utca. The roadway rises somewhat. Guide lanes also help visually impaired people.