Park Inn & Suites, By Radisson

 

Type: Hotel

City: Vancouver, BC, Canada

Address: 898 West Broadway,  V5Z1J8

Website: http://www.parkinn.com/vancouverca

Date Visited: December 2014

 

General Hotel Rating:

3-Star Rating

Travel Advisor: 4/5 (71% recommended)

Enuresis Friendly Rating (1 to 5): 4.5

 

Details of Stay and Recommendation:

This hotel was one of the most proactive ones I’ve stayed at, and the booking person was very helpful in arranging a solution after my short query. The solution demonstrated a desire to accommodate my needs and was initiated hassle free. I should also add that the hotel is well placed with lots of amenities, restaurants and access to public transit for those interested in exploring the lovely city of Vancouver, which can still be lovely, despite it being a rainy December weekend. I stayed in this hotel for three nights while in Vancouver for a work-related meeting.

After learning that I was booked to stay in this hotel, I e-mailed the person who handled the booking and asked my usual question regarding whether the hotel had waterproof mattress covers that could be placed on the bed. The prompt reply I received was something along the following lines:

“Yes, we do have mattress covers that are water resistant, but not waterproof exactly. The hotel has tried waterproof mattress covers in the past, but guests found that they were not comfortable to sleep on.”

The customer service representative ended with: “What is your concern? I’ll try to come up with a solution for you.”

A very good proactive and positive response. I then explained that I would appreciate “mattress protection as a precaution against bedwetting,” and whether some sort of solution was possible.  

The response I received was a clear simple: “No problem, we will come up with a solution.”

When I arrived in my room, I found that I was booked into a room with two queen beds (a rather common occurrence), and I checked the beds to see what kind of solution had been arranged. One of the beds had been equipped with a good quality waterproof mattress cover, the kind with plastic covered in quilting, which had been placed underneath the beds usual mattress cover, which was the water resistant variety, but could have potentially leaked through given a good soaking.

It seemed as though they had run out waterproof covers for the second bed, and on this one had instead improvised. The bed had the (apparently) usual water-resistant cover, on top of this had been laid two towels, and a second water-resistant cover had been placed over top this.  

I appreciated the effort and problem solving, and that the hotel made sure to offer protection on both of the beds, regardless of which one I would end up using. To stay on the safe side, I opted to sleep on the properly protected bed and had an excellent stay. I did wake up wet the first and third nights, and the protection I wore only leaked minimally on the third night.

I have awarded this hotel with a 4.5 as they were very prompt in accommodating my needs, and very proactive in coming up with a solution when it was clear that they only had one properly waterproof mattress cover in the hotel. I have not given them a full 5 as I was a little surprised that a hotel of this size would not have more than one mattress cover.

Chain and Loyalty Program?:

Club Carlson

 

Hotel Evaluation Form

This is the form I will be using to evaluate hotels. If you would like to submit an evaluation of your own, and this would be great as I can’t visit every hotel after all, then please include the following information (or as much as you can) in an e-mail and send it to:

bedwettingtraveller@gmail.com

Thanks!

 

Hotel: Name of Hotel

Type: Hotel, B&B, Hostel, Other Accomodation?

City:

Address:

Website:

Date Visited: Month, Year

General Hotel Rating:

Use ratings from places like the Hotel’s website (any star ratings), Tripadvisor.com, and so on.

Enuresis Friendly Rating (1 to 5):

See the Enuresis Friendly Rating System Explained.

Details of Stay and Recommendation:

Please provide details about your stay to further elaborate on from the rating system. Was a staff member particularly accommodating to your needs? Was it difficult to get in touch with someone to arrange to your needs to be met. Was a member of staff rude or unhelpful? Any humorous, embarrassing, or inspiring situations occur?

Chain and Loyalty Program?:

For those who travel a lot, is the hotel part of a chain and does this chain have a loyalty program, cause you know, some of us like to get collect our points.

My Usual Procedures for Staying at a Hotel

Booking

I thought I’d share with readers the general procedures that I follow when booking and staying at a hotel. As I usually travel for work, I don’t often have a chance to pick the hotel I stay at, it is usually for a conference or meetings and the hotel is part of the deal. When I travel alone I may contact a couple of places in advance to ask about their accommodations for bedwetters, but again I usually don’t have much choice, as I pick places based on price and location above other things.

The first thing that I do after booking (or after a booking has been made for me), is to look into a way to get in contact with the hotel. Most confirmation e-mails will have an e-mail address to contact, or the e-mail or phone number for housekeeping will be on the hotel website. I prefer to e-mail the hotel, as the written word is less prone to misunderstanding, and it is far less embarrassing. A typical e-mail message send reads as follows:

Hello there, I have just booked a room (Confirmation Number ########) under my name for the Dates (#####). Regarding this booking, I would like to request that the bed be equipped with a waterproof mattress cover (if one is available). Please let me know if this is possible. Thank you and I am looking forward to my stay.

E-mail is not always an option and housekeeping (or hotels in general) aren’t usually very good at replying to these types of messages. As a result I will often need to make a phone call. These are a little more awkward, and usually involve getting passed around between various people at the hotel. Unless a number for housekeeping is posted directly on the hotel website, I will call the front desk and ask to be put in touch with housekeeping. They will usually ask why (as I am calling from an outside number), and I will often be required to explain the situation in varying degrees of detail; sometimes the person at the desk will accept that I have a housekeeping request regarding my stay, other times I will have to spell out that I am looking for a waterproof mattress cover.

I then have to explain the situation to the hotel housekeeping person on the other line and they look into whether they can accommodate my needs. Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes it is no. Sometimes the answer is that they do not know (see my reviews). Sometimes I get bounced around in a short game of client hot potato.

The Stay

When travelling I always bring protection to wear. I have a number of different incontinence products/adult diapers that I may bring along with me. I do not have a usual brand or type that I wear and I have worn a large number of brands over the years, starting with Goodnites when I was a teen, Depends Fitted Briefs when I outgrew these, and I occasionally experiment with different brands as new improvements and changes are made. I will do other posts exploring and reviewing different bedwetting solutions, as I find many of the options out there tend to leak when used by side-sleepers like myself. I currently rely on Tena Flex Super, which I find work really well when worn with a tight fitting underwear over top to hold them in place. I try to bring enough diapers for one for every night of my stay, plus one extra just in case.

If I am unable to ensure that my mattress will be protected, I may also being disposable bed mats to put down. I use Goodnites Bed Mats, as they are the most reliable and pack flat and light.  I usually only bring one or two as these are just in case of leaks.

Given the bed mats and diapers. My luggage is often pretty bulky. If I am travelling for more than three or four days, I have been known to gamble with the number of products I bring, hoping for one or two dry nights. The one good thing with packing bulky is that as these are disposable products, it means I have more room for shopping/souvenirs on the way home.

After making sure the mattress is protected, I will try my best to follow my usual pre-bedtime routine, even when on the road. This means limiting fluids before bed time and not drinking as much caffeine. As I’ve noted in another post, this isn’t always possible, and the success or failure of my efforts to stick to this regime tends to have a direct impact on whether or not I can expect to wake up dry.

If I do wet the bed during the night, I will of course shower in the morning and dispose of the wet diaper as well as I can. I try to be courteous to housekeeping and roll up my wet diaper in a tight ball, and then put it in the trash in a tied up garbage bag. I’ve noticed that not all places have bags in their trash bins (particularly after my visit to the Delta Bow Valley Hotel in Calgary), and I am going to start bringing my own bags as a result. If there were any leaks, I will take any of the bedding that is wet and put it in the shower/tub.

I try to leave my room as tidy as possible to not make even more work for housekeeping, and I always put the little door hanger on the door to let them know my room needs servicing. When I check out, I always leave a tip in the room and am always as polite as possible to the staff.

Is there anything that you do as a bedwetter when staying in a hotel that I’ve not mentioned? Please let me know in the comments.

Delta Bow Valley – Calgary

Type: Hotel

City: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Address: 209 Fourth Avenue, S.E.

Website: https://www.deltahotels.com/Hotels/Delta-Bow-Valley

Date Visited: November, 2015

 

General Hotel Rating:

• Trip Advisor: 4/5
• Yelp: 3.5/5

 

Enuresis Friendly Rating (1 to 5): 2

Details of Stay and Recommendation:

Overall this hotel was not equipped for bedwetting guests, adult or otherwise, and once we had jerry rigged a solution over the phone, they failed to follow through with that solution. The hotel only provided my room with a spare set of sheets after my second night, and only after I had left a set of wet sheets in the shower. The hotel seemed about three steps behind, despite my better efforts.

This hotel was booked through work and I stayed for three nights. It is a nice place good and central in Calgary, good for those attending meetings downtown, however I found it completely ill-equipped to accommodate bedwetters. After getting the reservation confirmation from my work, I decided to call up housekeeping, as the booking was last minute and I didn’t want to faff about with e-mail. I called up the hotel and was put through the housekeeping without the need for too much explanation (“I’m calling to speak with housekeeping about making accommodations for my upcoming stay.”) So far so good.

Once I was put through, I asked the person on the woman on the other line whether they had waterproof mattress covers for their beds. Sounding incredulous, they said they would check and put me on hold for a short period of time. After some inquires, the woman came back on the phone and abruptly said: “We don’t have anything like that.” This was all, no request to see if other steps could be taken. I was a little taken aback and thanked them and hung up. I then sat mulling over the conversation in my head as one sometimes does, and wasn’t entirely happy. I decided to call back, partly out of curiosity and partly because I was planning on setting up this blog and I wanted to know more.

So I called back and asked to speak with housekeeping. This time it was a man on the line, and I said that I had just called and I wanted to follow up on my call. He immediately something along the lines of “Ah, you are the person who called about the mattress cover,” which was rather embarrassing as it was now clear that the whole housekeeping staff was aware of my situation. I replied yes, and asked “So I was just wondering what you did for guests with small children who were visiting.” And his reply was that “guests take care of that sort of things on their own.”

It was clear that I would have to do the same. So I asked that they provide a spare set of sheets in my room, the person on the phone confirmed that they would, I gave them my booking number and rang off. This was my way of encouraging the staff person to be a little more proactive with requests of this nature. The sheets were just a back up, but would be useful to put over the disposable bed mat I was now planning on bringing.

Fast forward to my visit, I arrived, checked in, and went up to my room. I found that a second set of sheets was not provided. I didn’t mind much, as this was only a back up after all, and went about installing my Goodnites bed mat under the sheet on the bed.

First nights in a hotel are always the worst for me, and this stay was no different. The next morning the sheets were wet (featured in the cover photo of this blog in fact). Before going out for the day for a very early meeting, I bundled up the wet sheets and left them in the shower. I also disposed of the bed mat and the wet diaper I had been wearing in the trashcan in the washroom. There was no bag and so I wrapped the diaper up inside the bed mat.

When I returned from a busy day, I saw a spare set of sheets sitting beside the television, better late than never I suppose. My second night was relatively better, no leaks, and I once again left the wet diaper in the trashcan bundled up. That evening when I returned there was a garbage bag in the trashcan, and a spare bag sitting on the bathroom counter.

This visit taught me something new at least. I have never had the problem of needing to bring a bag for the trashcan, and a bag is always a good thing as it is a courtesy to hard-worked housekeeping staff. So after this visit I decided to pack a couple of spares as part of my usual travelling kit.

I have given this hotel a 2 rating due to their lack of follow-through in coming up with adequate accommodation for my needs and overall the attitude of the staff in this respect.

Chain and Loyalty Program?:

Mariott Rewards and Aeroplan Miles.

The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver

Hotel: The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver

City: Vancouver, Canada

Address: 1601 Bayshore Drive, Vancouver, BC V6G 2V4

Website: http://www.westinbayshore.com/

Date Visited: November, 2015

General Hotel Rating:

• Hotel’s own evaluation:3/5
• Tripadvisor: 85%

Enuresis Friendly Rating: 4.5

Details of Stay and Recommendation:

All in all it was a pleasant stay. I have given this hotel a 4.5 because while they did have the mattress cover in the end, arranging for it was rather complicated and involved unnecessary steps.

I stayed at this hotel for three nights. My usual procedure is to contact the hotel where I am staying in advance, usually by e-mail as it is less embarrassing than doing it over the phone, and ask them to outfit my bed with a waterproof mattress cover. Unfortunately I was unable to do this with this hotel due to circumstances and because it was booked through my work. As a result, I had to make the blush-inducing call to housekeeping and ask if they had a waterproof mattress cover for their beds. The person on the phone sounded surprised and unsure and said that they would check, but that she thought she had something.

I made this call before leaving my room for dinner, as I always find it easier to not be there when housekeeping drops off a waterproof mattress cover, which would be an unnecessary embarrassment. So I called, they said they would check, and I went out to dinner.

Now, due to room availability restrictions I imagine, I was placed in a room with two queen-sized bed.  This is rather common and I don’t mind, I like having a second bed to leave my things. A second bed can come in handy should one wake up in the middle of the night, wet and find out that their protection has leaked.

Anyhow, when I returned from dinner I checked under the sheets for a cover and didn’t find one. Then I saw that the message light was blinking on my room phone. I checked the message and it was from housekeeping, informing me that they did have a cover, and that they had not installed it because they were unsure which bed to place it on. This made me laugh a little because it seemed like a rather silly reason to have not installed the cover on one (or both) of the beds. It somehow assumed that I would be unable to check which bed had a cover. Anyhow, it also required that I call housekeeping back, explain the situation again, and ask that they come and deliver a mattress cover. I did and after explaining who I was and what room I was in, the lady on the phone confirmed what was said in the message, and asked if I would still like a cover, but that it was not quite what I had asked for. I said yes, and she said someone would be right up.

A short while later a young lady from housekeeping knocked on my door with a folded up green bundle. She asked if I would like her to install it, and blushing, I said no I could do it myself and thanks her. I took the bundle and found that rather than being a plastic mattress cover, or a quilted mattress cover, it was one of those hospital re-usable waterproof pads, this one very large, enough to cover a queen-sized bed. It was actually easier to install than a fitted-waterproof mattress cover, as I just needed to lay it over top the mattress.

I wasn’t sure if it was waterproof, I could not feel the plastic inside of it, it felt like a green quilted mattress topper that would absorb but not necessarily protect the mattress. I didn’t want to take the risk, so before laying it down, I put down a couple of large towels down first in tactical locations just in case it leaked.

In the end I was worried for nothing, I went out again the first night for a drinks reception, and the next morning woke up and found that the protection I was wearing had leaked significantly, wetting the sheet and mattress cover, but it did not go through to the mattress.

Chain and Loyalty Program?

Starwood Hotels: Starwood Preferred Guest

Enuresis Friendly Rating System Explained

The first thing required in comparing hotels ability to accommodate bedwetters is a good metric. This is a very rough and subjective 5-point rating system. An evaluation of a hotels treatment of bedwetters is very much subjective, and I should say that these categories are not totally exclusive. For example, it is entirely possible that a hotel with friendly and understanding staff and which is prepared for bedwetters may still charge punitive fees should in the event of a mattress cover leaking, or may charge for the mattress cover. Another hotel that is equally equipped for bedwetters may have rude or judgemental staff. So please treat the rating system as a beginning, with greater details elaborated upon in the comments.

1 – Unequipped to accommodate bedwetters. Not only is this hotel not aware that it is conceivable that a person may wet the bed, be they a child or an adult.  They may charge a guest who is unfortunate enough to wet the bed while visiting a punitive ‘mattress or room conditioning fee.’ Staff may also be rude, judgemental, and/or lacking in discretion.

2 – Unequipped to accommodate bedwetters. Service at this hotel is unaware that adult (or child) guests may wet the bed and has absolutely no provisions should a bedwetter wish to stay at their hotel. Staff may be judgemental, or simply clueless. Upon discovering that their hotel is not equipped to accommodate your needs, the hotel staff do absolutely nothing to rectify this situation.

3 – Some accommodations are made after considerable effort on the part of the guest. The hotel may be set up to accommodate children who wet the bed and adapt something to suit the needs of the adult bedwetter. The hotel may even be set up to accommodate bedwetters of all ages but only accommodate a guests needs after repeated and difficult (or embarrassing) inquiries. Staff may be apologetic but unhelpful, or helpful only after the guest is forced to go into embarrassing detail as to the nature of their needs. Staff may or may not be discreet in attempting to accommodate a bedwetting guest.

4 – Hotel may not be totally equipped to accommodate adult bedwetters but staff quickly and with little prompting work to find a solution. Staff are understanding, friendly, approachable and discreet. The hotel may be fully equipped to accommodate bedwetters of all ages, but only provide accommodation after lengthy, awkward or embarrassing inquiry.

5 – Equipped, prepared and quick to provide all that is needed. Service at this hotel is friendly, non-judgemental, and staff discreetly accommodate requests. This may also include a hotel where beds are equipped with waterproof mattress covers by default, or which have simply ways of discreetly requesting these necessities which are then provided, hassle free.

I should also note that for me, the provision of a high-quality waterproof mattress cover with very little hassle, is the gold standard for accommodating a bedwetter. I would imagine this is similar for other bedwetter. However there are other things that hotels can do to help make your stay more comfortable. For example, for those who wear protection (or use disposable mattress covers), having garbage cans with bags (strong, plastic and opaque) is another thing that a hotel can do help make ones stay less embarrassing, as well as help cleaning staff.

If there are any ways that you like to have your needs accommodated, please share them in the comments or through an e-mail (bedwettingtraveller@gmail.com).

Introduction and First Post

 

Background on Me

I have been a bedwetter all of my life (primary nocturnal enuresis), and have had my ups and downs with this medical condition. Growing up there were plenty of difficult times with siblings, going on school trips and of course sleepovers. As a kid, my family tried all sorts of things; from limiting fluids before bed time, changing my diet, a moisture alarm, getting up in the middle of the night, various medications, even acupuncture and hypnosis. Unfortunately none of these things worked very well and I continue to wet the bed to this day.

As an adult, I continue to wet the bed. On a good week I may wake up wet once or twice, on a bad week, this could be almost every night. There are some things I do that increase my chances of waking up dry: I still limit fluids before bedtime, and in particular caffeinated beverages, and this, coupled with getting a good night’s rest and not being too stressed out in general. At home my bed protected with a waterproof mattress cover, and I usually sleep wearing protection – absorbent undergarments, adult diapers, call them what you will.

If I am being careful with my fluids and caffeine intake, and stay relaxed, the chances of me wetting the bed are relatively low. Unfortunately, doing many of these things is next to impossible when I am travelling, something I am forced to do for work. When you are on the road you are seldom relaxed – travel is stressful. Your internal clock gets all confused from jetlag and strange weather. Time zones, weird hours, jetlag, and work related social activity make limiting fluids before bedtime near impossible. And long hours mean that you may just need a little help from our helpful, albeit diuretic friend, caffeine.

For me, the result is that when I’m on the road (for work or otherwise), my chances of wetting the bed go way up. On a three night trip, I’m lucky if I’m dry on one of those nights.

The Idea Behind the Blog

So I travel a lot, which has given me the ‘opportunity’ to wet the bed in hotels all across the world – from Europe to the Middle East, Canada to Australia. I’ve left damp sheets in five star hotels and wet blankets in B&Bs. I’ve made the walk of shame to the front desk of a hostel at 4 in the morning to ask for new sheets, and I’ve had embarrassingly long conversations with motel staff about ways to avoid otherwise inevitable mattress cleaning fees.

In my time since becoming bedwetting traveller I have been a little surprised at how few hotels, B&Bs, hostels and motels actually take bedwetters into consideration. You would think that a five star hotel with pillow-topped luxurious mattresses would have a couple of plastic sheets to throw down to protect these beauties when a guest mentions that such protection might be necessary. But alas they do not.

I have found that very few hotels are aware that nocturnal enuresis is actually not uncommon amongst adults, affecting around 1 in 100, or that 15% of children continue to wet the bed after the age of 5, and around 5% after the age of 10. One would think that over a short period of time, the chances of a hotel encountering a bedwetting guest of any age would be 100%.

Sadly, bedwetting remains a taboo subject, and many people keep this medical condition private for fear of embarrassment. As a result, it is entirely possible that hotel guests may make their own, private accommodations, taking such measures as bringing their own mattress protectors, or wearing protection to bed. However, this may be impossible due to the strictures of travel, or a weary or wary traveller may simply wish to have a good night’s sleep without worrying about a soggy, and possibly costly, mattress in the morning. Or put more simply, diapers leak.

In my experience, hotels in general are not very good at dealing with bedwetting. I have searched the internet in vain for website that lists hotels that have such simple things as mattress protectors on request. I have sifted through hotel websites trying in vain to determine whether their beds come equipped with mattress protection. I have struggled through lengthy and embarrassing phone calls with housekeeping staff, explaining at first euphemistically (‘do you happen to have waterproof mattress covers for your beds and could my bed be equipped with one please’) and then with increasing directness (‘I occasionally wet the bed and unless you want your mattress ruined, could you please find something, anything to help?’).

I have therefore started this blog as a means of partially remedying this situation. I wish to share my hotel experiences with fellow bedwetters, and in so doing help identify hotels that may be more friendly to our particular needs. Additionally, there is the hope that in drawing attention to the needs of bedwetters, that more hotels will take measures to ensure that these needs are met.

I also hope that this blog will serve as a place to collect other people’s experiences as well.  I may be well travelled, however one can only visit so many hotels, and I would love to be able to pick a hotel knowing that it is bedwetter-friendly, rather than throwing the proverbial dice with each booking. So please feel free to message me your hotel experiences (see Contact), and evaluations.

Finally, this blog is a place to vent. For me and others to share our sometimes embarrassing, sometimes inspiring stories of travelling with nocturnal enuresis.

Enjoy,

The Bedwetting Traveller