Few cities have as strong an identity as Oxford—or at least in one’s imagination. After many years of travel, I finally visited the city of dreaming spires this fall. As an academic, lover of Oxford mysteries, and an autistic...

Few cities have as strong an identity as Oxford—or at least in one’s imagination. After many years of travel, I finally visited the city of dreaming spires this fall.

As an academic, lover of Oxford mysteries, and an autistic traveler, I was simply overwhelmed by the architectural beauty and density of sights. On my sensometer scale, it rates a 4 out of 5 in visual intensity!

Like larger sister cities, Oxford has intensity and energy. But unlike larger cities, it’s easy to turn the corner and find yourself in a quiet, beautifully green space (thank goodness).

All this hustle and bustle demands a quiet, low-stimulation place to rest, doesn’t it? Fragrance free hotel rooms. Hotel rooms without visual distractions. In other words, autism friendly hotels in Oxford.

So I set off to find the best central Oxford hotels for autistic travelers (note: there are even more options outside the centre along the Thames River to the north and south).

Check availability: 1. Randolph Hotel 2. Malmaison Oxford 3. Old Parsonage 4. Head of the River

If you want the details, read on.

Autism Friendly Hotels: My Detective Method

It’s easy to label accommodation “autism friendly,” but it’s much harder to define it (see my article on Lidl and Aldi autistic shopping hours).

Here are 4 reasons it’s hard to truly define something as “autism friendly”:

Every autistic person has different sensory needs and triggers. Change happens quickly: a hotel room might meet sensory needs one day, but then construction starts on an adjacent building the next. Even within the same hotel, one person can have a wonderful night’s sleep, but another can toss and turn. Smaller budget hotels might be autism friendly but don’t have the staff to respond or can guarantee certain conditions.

Given these caveats, I decided to play detective.

Here are the steps I took to filter hotel options:

1. I narrowed the results with these filters:

Hotels Oxford city centre 8+ (very good and wonderful) Non-smoking rooms

The search produced 8 options.

2. Next, I sent the following booking email to the 8 hotels. The subject line read: “Questions about rooms.”

Hello,

I have a few questions about your rooms since I’m traveling with an autistic relative.

Do you have any of the following?

1. Ability to open the windows in a room (air circulation)
2. Fragrance free bed linen (or the ability to request it)
3. Low fragrance cleaning products in room
4. Extra quiet rooms
5. Rooms without lights flashing from outside (heavy curtains) or from inside (flashing electrical devices).

Thank you for taking the time to respond!
Rose

Results: 6 of the 8 hotels responded, and using other traveler reviews, I put together this guide.

1 of the 6 hotels could not promise a quiet room (both because of traffic and fans), so I left them off this list.

Another was very responsive (sad since they’re the best price per night option), but couldn’t promise anything regarding my questions.

Responsiveness is a key factor in making a hotel stay smooth. The hotel can have all sorts of amenities, but if no one bothers to answer your questions it can lead to anxiety and confusion.

4 Best Central Oxford Hotels for Autistic Travelers: Responsive & Highly Rated

1. The Randolph Hotel

Here’s how they responded:

Windows that open: “Yes, We can open the windows but [be] reminded that our windows have a system that does not allow to open the windows completely for safety. We organised this before the allocation of the room, to ensure that you are satisfied with the room conditions.” Fragrance free linen [fragrance free hotel guest rooms]: “Our linens are washed with fragrance-free detergents by [a] Linen company.” Low fragrance cleaning products: “Our chemical products have no smell, and we can be sure it will have no smell in the room.” Extra quiet rooms: “Quiet room[s] can be allocated upon request, the quieter rooms are on a higher level within the property.” Rooms without lights flashing from outside (heavy curtains) or from inside (flashing electrical devices): “There are no flashing lights in rooms, if you decide to book a club room, we can make sure you stay on the side of the building that does not face our car park or restaurants.”

Relevant Amenities:

24-hour room service + restaurant Breakfast (extra) Air conditioning Smoke-free hotel 24-hour reception Pet friendly Do have lifts/elevators If you're ready, book the Randolph Hotel here.

2. Malmaison Oxford

Here’s how they responded:

Windows that open: “Some of our standard rooms and club rooms have opening windows and our suites have balconies you can open.” Fragrance free linen: “Our linen is normally fragrance-free.” Low fragrance cleaning products: “We use ozone water in the room which does not have any smell, if you have booked with us, please let us know what name it is booked under so we can ensure that no other chemicals are used in the room.” Extra quiet rooms: “If you choose to stay with us, please again let us know what the name is booked under for the reservation, so we can make sure we give you a quiet room.” Rooms without lights flashing from outside (heavy curtains) or from inside (flashing electrical devices): “There are no flashing lights in rooms, if you decide to book a club room, we can make sure you stay on the side of the building that does not face our car park or restaurants.” My note: The hotel is set inside Oxford castle and a former prison, so although the rooms have plenty of light, you should be aware of this important detail.

Relevant Amenities:

24-hour room service + restaurant Breakfast buffet (extra) Air conditioning Smoke-free hotel 24-hour reception Pet friendly (extra charge) Do have lifts/elevators If you're ready, book Malmaison here.

3. Old Parsonage

Here’s how they responded:

Windows that open: “Our windows can be opened.” Fragrance free linen: “Our bed linen is fragrance-free.” Low fragrance cleaning products: “Our cleaning products have really low fragrance (CIF cleaning cream) and by the time you check in the fragrance will have gone. We do use a light fragrance room spray which if you don’t want we do not have to use.” Extra quiet rooms: “We can allocate you a room that is in a quieter part of the hotel.” Rooms without lights flashing from outside (heavy curtains) or from inside (flashing electrical devices): “Our curtains are heavy so you will not experience any flashing lights in the hotel.”

Relevant Amenities:

Room service + restaurant Breakfast buffet (extra) Air conditioning Smoke-free hotel 24-hour reception No Lifts/elevators If you're ready, book the Old Parsonage here.

4. Head of the River

Here’s how they responded:

Windows that open: “In terms of air circulation, all of our rooms have windows that open, but for most of these rooms, the windows are on the same wall, so I am not sure how much air circulation there will be.” Fragrance free linen: “All of our linen is fragrance-free.” Low fragrance cleaning products: “I can just request that the housekeepers use no strong-smelling chemicals when cleaning the room beforehand.” Extra quiet rooms & lights: “In terms of quiet rooms without flashing lights inside or outside, we have one room that would work for this.”

Relevant Amenities:

Restaurant Breakfast (free) Air conditioning Smoke-free hotel Pet friendly (extra charge) No Lifts/elevators If you're ready, book Head of the River here.

Additional Specifications For Oxford City Centre Hotels

Disabled facilities or accessible hotels in Oxford: look here. Look here for queer friendly hotels. For Halal hotels, look here. Oxford Chabad Society has information on Kosher accommodation.

Wrapup Of Central Oxford Hotel Options For Autistic Travelers

Finding a hotel that meets your sensory needs, let alone other kinds of navigational and communication issues can be challenging. But we all know the value of a place to retreat, relax, and regroup after even a short bout of sightseeing in a bustling place like Oxford.

If you need a place to rest in between the next walk you take through town and your hotel, find the lovely Vaults Café & Garden next to the Radcliffe Camera. Great food and a quiet retreat from the sensory feast of Oxford streets.

Enjoy your Oxford holiday!

The post 4 Best Central Oxford Hotels For Autistic Travelers appeared first on The Autistic Traveler.

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