Premier Inn has apologised to a Paralympic medallist and her father after they could not access their hotel room because of a broken lift.
Swimmer Ellie Challis, 19, and Paul booked a room at a branch in Romford, east London, for December 2, only to discover the lift was not working late in the evening.
They said they waited at the hotel for two hours before being told no other accommodation could be found.
The pair eventually decided to just make the 200-mile trip back to their home in Manchester.
Premier Inn has since apologised and offered a refund and a complimentary stay.
Ms Challis became Paralympics GB's youngest medallist at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympic Games, in the Women's S3 50m backstroke.
The wheelchair user booked a standard ground-floor room because she finds the wet rooms in accessible rooms uncomfortable.
She told the BBC: “If I was on my own, I would have been left at 19 to find myself with somewhere to stay at 1am."
Her father added: “There is no point in saying 'sorry' if you're not going to do something about it in the future.”
The hotel chain’s full statement said: "When a guest books an accessible room, this automatically triggers a pre-stay call to make sure the room booked is the most suitable for them.
"However, we understand some people with accessibility issues on occasion do prefer to book our standard rooms.
"Where this is the case we have an accessible email helpline, which again helps ensure the room allocated is the best fit for individual needs.
"In this instance for example, we would have prioritised this booking as a ground floor room so that in rare event an issue with the lift did arise, access would not have caused a problem."
