Wheelchair Accessible Hotel in Milan

We reviewed the wheelchair accessibility of the Hyatt Centric in Milan during Summer 2022.

We stayed at the Hyatt Centric (Via Giovanni Battista Pirelli, 20, 20124 Milano MI, Italy). The hotel was an easy and safe walk from the train station, which made possible our multiple day trips to Lake Como and Venice. It was also within a few miles of numerous tourist attractions, including The Last Supper, the Duomo di Milano, and Teatro alla Scala.

There were good restaurants within a few blocks, although we opted for the room service’s pasta options more than once (it was that good). There was also a light rail stop within a block of the hotel, with many more bus and light rail options in and around the Milano Centrale train station (which is a hub of sorts). We did not have the best of luck with the public transportation, so this factor became less important as the trip went on.

Booking the Hotel

The online booking was not showing any availability for wheelchair accessible rooms. So I contacted the hotel directly via e-mail at info.centricmilan@hyatt.com to confirm whether there was availability. They said there were still wheelchair accessible rooms with roll-in showers available, and told me to book a room and then contact them to switch it to an accessible room. This worked without incident. I also called the hotel to confirm the accessible room, and the front desk workers spoke English and were very helpful.

Tip: Another contact is reservations.europe@hyatt.com. I believe this is a more general reservation account, and the response took longer. But they were able to offer accessible rooms as well. I should note that the prices quoted by this e-mail account were slightly higher than booking online and switching to the accessible room, so why I chose to pursue the latter.

Entrance to Hotel

The hotel has a grand staircase leading up to the front entrance. The accessible entrance is found by going through the surface parking lot to the right of the hotel, either through the manned security gate or through a pedestrian gate next to it. You then go left, and will find an alcove with an outdoor elevator going up to the hotel entrance landing. The elevator did not have power doors, and there were no call buttons outside the elevator–the only buttons to move the elevator were inside the elevator. As such, there were a few times I needed someone to go up the stairs and ride it down to me. Not always the most convenient, but it was reliable and we worked out a good system over the stay.

The hotel entrance has an automatic sliding door based on movement, and the reception area is flat and smooth. There were two elevators up to the rooms, both of which were big enough for my scooter, my wife, and our two carry-on luggage bags.

Hotel Room

The rooms are chic and modern. There were power blinds, multiple light switches, and updated features throughout. The wifi was good and consistent.

The entryway was lined with closets and drawers, most of which were at wheelchair height.

The bathroom was spacious, although the shower was the same size as my scooter–we had to tuck the curtain in around the scooter and also put towels down to stop any overflow of water. There was not an overflow drain, so water containment was imperative. The toilet has a fold-down safety rail, and also a hand-held bidet.

The bedroom itself was tight, but doable. I could maneuver with precise turns and sometimes multiple attempts at angles. We moved the wheeled desk chair into a corner to make passage around the bed easier as well. The bed height was around 20″, which was a little low for my scooter seat especially when I was in bed and my body weight was pushing the mattress down. So, transferring into bed was easy, but transferring out was difficult. Engineering was not able to raise the mattress height. There were lots of outlets and USB ports around the room, so charging equipment was not a problem. There were also multiple light and blind controls around the room, including by both sides of the bed.

Overall, the wheelchair accessibility of the Hyatt Centric in Milan was similar to that of an American hotel. The bathroom was spacious, but the shower a little small for my purposes. The main drawback was the lift outside the hotel to get into the hotel–it worked, but was an extra step.