How to Make Your Vacation Rental More Accessible with Lorraine Woodward

Alex Husner  2:33  
Welcome to Alex & Annie: The Real Women of Vacation Rentals. I'm Alex, and I'm Annie, and we are joined today by Lorraine Woodward, who is the CEO of becoming rentable. Lorraine, it's so good to have you on the show. I

Lorraine Woodward  2:45  
am so happy to be here. 

Annie Holcombe  2:46  
Well, it's been a long time coming in. Apologies, because I think we've tried to schedule this for quite some time, and I know you and I have been connected for, gosh, it feels a couple of years now. So I feel like I've been following your journey, and it's been pretty incredible. You've done some really amazing things for accessibility, in not just hospitality, but in specifically vacation rentals, but for the people who are listening who are not familiar with you, why don't you give us a little bit about your background and how you came to I guess, found rentable. Sure, I have

Lorraine Woodward  3:14  
muscular dystrophy. I use an electric wheelchair. It's been a way of life for me. I'm 63 and I've known it for 61 years, and so I have great experience in the area of disability. We also have two adult boys that have muscular dystrophy, 28 and 29 and it's amazing that I can say that they're 28 and 29 you know, I had hoped that we would travel more while they were young, and we didn't. You know, I love the vision of we have a van, we have four people, we have three wheelchairs, we have the luggage, we have the snacks. You know, we're busting at the seams, and even our favorite magical place was not accessible. You know, we tried everything. And at Disney, they have two tie downs per bus, and there's three of us. So we were back in the day where there weren't cell phones. So my husband and I had to divide and conquer, which is when with that. And then, you know, for my husband, it's like, Hey, Robert, can you lift me off the toilet, Dad, I've fallen and I need help, this constant need. And then it's like, all right, there's got to be another option for us. This is not working out. And so we looked into accessible, short term rentals, and that didn't, didn't happen. So boys are graduating high school, and I'm like, you know, I really want their adult life to be different and to have a safe place to go. So what's a mom to do? From Raleigh, North Carolina, we're three hours away from Wilmington, I go and I build a beach house, an accessible place for our family to stay, and I build it. Of course, with me in mind, the least amount of mobility got to pay for it, so that means here we come, accessible, short term rental. My boys were totally against it, Mom, what are you thinking? We can't get on the sand. We can't walk on the sand, our friends can't get us off the sand, and you're building a beach place? Well, you know, working what's been 10 years now, and we have Moby mats, we have curb cuts. You can go to the fat Pelican and choose from 450 beers. You can go to the sushi place. You can go to ice cream. We would like the best location. Of course, they love it now, yeah, and what made me create becoming rentable were my renters. I always say I have the world's best renters, and I do. They greatly appreciate our space. And we've had over 500 renters now, and their stories were all the same. I thought our family was pretty special. But you know what? In that regard, we worked? You know, everybody had a hard time finding a place that met their needs. And so it was turning 60, and I'm going, all right, I want to do one more gig before I really, really retire. And so I did that. What brings me joy, happiness, and it's like my renters. Why is this a problem? Why? I mean, here we are 2022 and this is a problem. Why? What's the solution? And that becoming radical got started.

Alex Husner  6:22  
Wow. And I mean, how much has changed over the years? I mean, I know, obviously a lot has changed more recently, and you've got some big announcements of things that you've been able to accomplish. But you know, when did you feel like the turning point started to change that, you know, people and companies started to take this seriously and actually put some effort to making it better for accessible travelers,

Lorraine Woodward  6:41  
my snarky added comment would be, I'm waiting for that to happen. I fit in the disability field professionally on a national and state level for 40 plus years, and I started a foundation in my early 20s called the National barrier awareness Foundation, and it was about attitudinal, architectural and communicative barriers. And here we are today, in 2025 and what are we looking at attitudinal, architectural and communicative barriers? And so honestly, it's been a really slow growth. Yes. Have we seen some pretty significant changes in our world, absolutely. But to look at today, in 2025 still having trouble finding a place to vacation. You know, still employers, you know, struggling and hiring people with disabilities. You know, still no curb cuts, and a number of big cities Disney still having two tie backs in their busses, you know, so we have a ways to go. That actually motivates me. It's like, okay, I love being 63 I love being a parent to my two boys, and feeling this anxiousness to move this forward. And it seems palatable to look at an industry like the short term rental industry, it's like, All right, we can do this. And I feel like in this industry, we are making strides, not as quickly as I want, but I don't think there's ever an industry that it can go as quickly as I want, but I do see movement, and that's exciting,

Annie Holcombe  8:26  
yeah, and I guess so many questions here. So you built this house, and one of the things that we talk about on the show is so many people created their aha moment. Came from something that where there was friction in their day, there was something going on. It's how they created something technology wise, or some new features. They just created something based on a need that they had. And so for you, I mean, this was, it must have felt isolating, because you were, again, you thought you were kind of unique in this, but to find out that there were other people that had this need. And I think, you know, I have a I have a niece that has Down syndrome, and she lives with her family. They actually live in the Raleigh area, up in the Raleigh area, up in Cary, so very close to you, and they've struggled with, like, where they go on places, because there's stuff that they need specific to her. And I think it's very easy when you're around people that have disabilities to understand, but unless you're in that situation, you don't know, like, what is the possible solution? So you're coming at it from a different place where you're not trying to solve for somebody else, you're trying to solve for your needs. So how did you how did you look at building a house and just say, like, Okay, I know there's five things I need, but there's probably 25 things that you actually put into this home. And did you find an architect that was able to help you navigate through these things and like, think ahead of where you were in terms of, again, what your experience had been, knowing what you needed, and maybe other things that you didn't know you needed yet.

Lorraine Woodward  9:46  
You know, fortunately for me, professionally, I had the opportunity to work with Ronald mace, who is the father of universal design, and back in the 80s, and so I had been around. Accessible design. In fact, our house is a model. Our Raleigh house is the model accessible house for national Easter Seals. So if you go to national Easter Seals, that house, our house has been on that site for over 20 years, and so again, it shows Universal Design holds its value, holds its prominence in building. And so I came to build our property with an understanding that we'd already built four houses, you know, that were and so for me, I really looked at and again, I have these really crazy ideas, and I don't know where they came from. One, I wanted end of life. I really wanted to look at so many people that want to be near the water during end of life. So what does that mean? So again, I'm thinking again, beyond my traditional mobility and in our bathroom, which my boys hate. It's really large, because in my mind, I wanted a bathroom accessible for a gurney and three attendants. Now I don't know who's going to have three attendants taking care of them in the bathroom, but three attendants. So instead, people put their cribs in there. Sometimes they put the rolling hospital bed in there. It's that big. Now I will say service dogs love this bathroom because it has a sliding door and they can take their snout open it, so mom or dad, if somebody's taking a shower, they run in and get all wet and run out. But it was that idea of looking at end of life, and what does that mean, and to whom is having that experience of end of life that really made me look at accessibility, very broadly, I'll tell you, in meeting my renters and before starting becoming rentable, I did have two aha moments that that have stuck with me to this day. One is a family from Canada, and they drove from Canada two and a half days to get to our property for a week's vacation. And I'm going, why did you drive two and a half days to get to our house? We're talking the whole east coast, they said, Lorraine, there's nothing that will meet Harrison's needs. It's like, no, no, no, no, no, there's got to be, you know, a property. And there wasn't. And so they drove five days round trip to stay at our property. Now, what was really cool, I was so nervous about this family coming because Harrison, at the time, was 19, non verbal in an electric wheelchair, and it's like, I really, how do I communicate with somebody that's non verbal? I'm a very horrible person, and want to be the best host. And so Harrison arrived with his mom and dad. Within an hour, I kicked mom and dad out and said, Go have a cocktail. Harrison and I have some things to do. We raised up and down the street. We went and got ice cream, and to this day, we're still friends and communicate. Is the second story that has stayed with me is a family in Durham, the female has a brother from Texas. He's 40. He was 48 years old, blind, autism and in a wheelchair. So and he in this was a way of life for their family. So when her brother was young, Dad had no problem, you know, hoisted him in and out of the car, in and out of beds. They traveled the world, and then, heaven forbid, he grows up. Now, he's 28 he's six foot two, 200 pounds. It took them 28 years, 28 years, to find a place that they could vacation, which, wow. I mean, think about you take your car in and you say, we need to fix Yeah, we'll fix it. It's going to take you 28 years, though, yeah, wow. And it those stories that you know I'm going, No, this is not right. This is this is not right, and, and that's what motivates me to is hearing these stories.

Alex Husner  14:25  
Yeah, now, a couple of things you said there about, like, you know, grandmas, or whoever it is in their family, their last beach trip, we get to see, or I get to see a lot of that type of content that a lot of the clients that I work with, we really push user generated content. And through that, we get amazing photos. And some of them are really emotional photos that, you know, they're the whole family down at the beach. And it's like, for me, it's like, you know, when you see those pictures and you know, somebody's in the beach accessible wheelchair, which, Thank gosh, you know, a lot of areas do offer them now, but it's, you know, it brings on a whole nother level of understanding that, you know. We're very blessed. We've never had to go through what you what you've gone through, and what you know many, many others across the world have. But until you understand it or see it, it's like, you know, it just it doesn't seem like it's something that affects you. And I guess that could be said against anything in the world right now. It's like, unless it affects you, you don't really think about it. But in our area. Here too are my areas, and I consider Annie and I together, we're just always here. But in Myrtle Beach, I'm sure you're familiar with the efforts that we've got going on here for autism and traveling on the spectrum, and they've just done an incredible job through the visitors bureau, of making Myrtle Beach a autism friendly destination, and they've got a TV show about it, and it's just been, it's been incredible to see, but in seeing that, what I've, you know, gotten to observe and hear similar what you're saying is just that these families, they, they just don't take vacations, right? I mean, like, they just, they don't go on vacation because they're too afraid of, you know, what's going to happen? There's not going to be places that are you know, conducive to what could go wrong, and it's and for that reason, they just don't go but I mean, to have to wait as long as some of the people you're talking about had to wait is terrible. But, you know, it's, it's just, it's such a bigger issue that I don't think that we really talk about enough. And you know, clearly, you've been huge in that respect, for bringing awareness to this.

Lorraine Woodward  16:24  
Yeah, well, a shout out to Becky large in Myrtle Beach. But you know, in the solution is so simple, 87% of families that have somebody on the autism spectrum do not travel, and one of the greatest fears is safety, and that is wonders, as we see with dementia as well. So for less than $10 having a secondary lock on door will provide that that extra safety part that would allow families to be more comfortable about traveling $10 per exterior door, and you open up your calendar to more families who can benefit. So the solutions really are, they're not always expensive. And I mean, again, yes, we have the fear factor. You know, it's like, I'm afraid we're going to get sued. I'm afraid it's going to cost too much money. So yes, we have to address those but you know the work that that we're doing with Expedia right now and VRBO, the great thing about this campaign and effort is it does focus on the broadness. It does include autism. It's not just about wheelchairs, which, again, historically we've seen. It includes vision and hearing and those small things that make a big difference and and I think it's through education and awareness that I hope we can move the needle. Then honestly, you know, we're into this four years now, and we haven't, as a company, move the needle, and it's like, what does it take? You know, it takes opportunities like this. We're very granular in our growth. We haven't we're not in a financial position to pay for advertising, and so we tend to, you know, pursue podcasts and other stories to get our story told. And so how do we move the needle? How do we make a difference? And you know, Alex, you're right. People don't unless it affects you. You don't think I'll deal with that later. I'll deal with that later. Are you going to deal with COVID later when you didn't know it was happening, that car accident, that hip replacement? You know, disability and needs are not always permanent, and they can be short term, but yeah, we'll handle that later. And when you talk about, well, this is your insurance for the future. Okay, great. Love it

Alex Husner  21:28  
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Annie Holcombe  21:49  
don't you tell us a little bit about what you're doing with verbose speed, because we've seen it all over the place and and obviously, to get a global brand to sit down with you and really have these substantive conversations about what you're trying to do and help you move that needle. And that's a big that's a big plus, but I'm sure it wasn't easy to get get in the door with them, so maybe tell us a little bit about that and what you're what you're trying to do with them. Sure.

Lorraine Woodward  22:13  
You know, we were really fortunate. Two years ago, we applied to their open world accelerator program, and they selected 12 companies around the world, six from the US and six outside the US, and a number of them you've heard, will the world be my eyes green book becoming rentable. And it was a very intense five months of weekly meetings and educational sessions and mentoring. In fact, our mentors, we still work with and meet with on a regular basis, but it was through that effort, at the end of our five month stay, we were really, really fortunate to get a letter of intent from Expedia to say, we want to work with you, and we were the first company that they released that to. And so what did that look like? Well, it ends up in May of this year, it looks like a focus on what is an accessible vacation rental. What does it look like? Who does it include? And again, it's that understanding. And you know, kudos to the staff over there. We have been working with the most amazing staff who believe in what we're doing. You know, as as a lot of businesses, lot of changes. Gross challenges have occurred, but the staff have been strong and go, Nope, we're going to take this forward. We're going to take this forward. So this this campaign is directed to their property host and managers. It is geared about what is an accessible vacation rental. What does that mean? And to who can benefit from that. And again, you know, from our perspective, there's there's two areas of focus that we have pillars of support. One are the benefit reaching people with disabilities and families who could benefit from these accessible features. But first, we need the inventory, and so that's where we need to educate our property host and our property managers on what does this mean. And it means walkers. You know, it's like, well, I have a step in my my house, so I guess we're not accessible. Well, you're not accessible to me in an electric wheelchair, but you are accessible, maybe for somebody with arm crutches, who uses a walker, somebody visually impaired, hearing impaired, with autism. You know, I talked with a group recently, and it's like, well, Lorraine, we can't be a part of this effort because we have gravel everywhere. And it's like, Well, you're right, I can't go and enjoy your facility. But you know what? My friends with autism, they don't have a problem walking on gravel. And I started broadening. Like, wow, we never thought about that, and that's what we want the VRBO host to look at. It's like, I had no idea. And so we address vision and hearing. We show somebody with an amputee, we show a child in a wheelchair, we show a senior using a walker and a chair lift. We show lighting for the visually impaired, we say the words you know, we actually you know, will use words of dementia and mental illness and address the features of accessibility that haven't been addressed before by a large booking platform, and the whole concept of what it means. And I haven't seen any numbers or anything. But of course, I go in and I do my searches, and I'm going, Oh my gosh. You know, we're seeing more and more and more properties with these features on it now. So I can't wait to to the middle of July when I learn more about the reach. I'm really thrilled with what I'm seeing online, and excited that a company has taken education first. You know, so many times it's like it is good business, without a doubt, recognizing this is good business. So how do you, how do you get your return on investment? Where do you at what point do you start? And I believe it's education. Unless you can share the benefits of accessibility, there's not going to be that understanding. And Expedia said, Yeah, we agree. Let's do this, and that's what we're doing.

Alex Husner  26:45  
Yeah, it makes sense. It's like, you know, bringing it more front and center, being more direct, showing it, saying it, like, actually explaining what this is, not just saying it's ADA accessible, right? I mean, like, actually, like, painting a picture of, like, who this is for, and you know what the experience is going to be that they can anticipate when they get there. But I'm curious, for you know, companies that you work with and just managers that you talk to, what's the biggest misconception as far as, like, what they need to change about properties, or that they should suggest to their homeowners that they change to become, you know, the full fledged version of accessible,

Lorraine Woodward  27:18  
as I said earlier, the fear factor of being sued and that it's expensive, I would say, you know, it's imagery. So many times, photographs are taken from the waist up, and they show the beautiful dishes and the birds outside. You know, if I want to see the topography of the environment that I'm going to go and visit, then I might look at it somewhere else. I want to see what do you have in your your house. I want to see what's behind that shower curtain. Is it a step in shower? Is it a roll in shower? Is it a bathtub? And you know, what's the transition from your carpet to the tile? How wide are your doors? And so it's a no cost effort that will make a huge difference in somebody booking your property. Secondly, is using your description and identifying those features that you have, and sometimes we don't even and that's where, again, education is important. Having a step stool. If you have a step stool, say you have a step stool. Why people of short stature can't see the mirror, you know, as well as for small children like they can be independent and go brush their teeth. You know, have your microwave, not necessarily above your your hood vent, you know, by $79 microwave at Walmart and have it on a counter. And one of my favorite stories is a family from Maryland, and they, they adopted nine children with this, oh my goodness, wow. And so they bring six at a time, and so I'm sitting outside at the beach, and this young man hit the time was 16, and he gets out of the van, he says, Excuse me, Are you the owner of this property? And I said, I am. He goes, Well, I want to thank you, because this is the first time on vacation that I'm going to get to take a shower, and so I'm so excited that I get to take a shower. And I said, Okay, that's great. I'm so happy you're here. And so I'm on the third floor. And so the next day, I go knock on the door and I go in. I say, hey, Gideon, Did did you take a shower? Did you love it? He goes, Yeah, it was fine. It's like, what do you mean do? Why is it just fine? You were so excited. He goes, guess what? I didn't I don't know. He goes, I made popcorn. He's I didn't ask my mom. I said, so Is that your favorite thing about the rental that you got to make popcorn? He goes, No. I said, Okay, what was it? He goes, I didn't find mom over the thermostat because I could. Reach it, change it. She wants it hot, and I wants it cold. And I said, all right. I said, that was your favorite thing. Then he goes, No. I said, What was your favorite thing? He said, the light switch. Mom would leave the room and the lights would be out. I didn't want to go to bed, so I had my gaming system with me, and I could go turn on the lights and play my games and turn it off. And so he said it was his favorite thing was that he could be independent. And that's why we do what we do. Those things have to cost a lot of money.

Annie Holcombe  30:36  
Yeah, well, and I was actually, you know, to the money point when I was in property management. We hosted a group. It was called the wasn't wounded warriors, but it was a local family whose son had been wounded in the Gulf War. He lost his legs and one arm, or something I can't remember, like but, but his the mother got this whole retreat together to bring in wounded soldiers who weren't able to go to places for the same reason. And so one of the things that we did the first year was we got partnered with a local hospital gear facility, like place that had stuff that you could get for your home, like the toilet seats and the stools and like, all the things that you would need to, kind of like, you know, temporarily make a make something accessible. And we did that for, I don't know, 25 or 30 condominiums. And, you know, they could get to the condos because the doorways were wide and they had the elevators, and so that wasn't any problem, but it was like getting in these rooms and talking with these people. It was the first time that they had been able to go somewhere other than a accessible hotel room on the interstate. Like they just like they, was the first time. And so we had owners that had donated their unit for this, this retreat, and every year they would donate it, but what they ended up doing was people heard about it, and they would say, Oh, we have, you know, an elderly person that's going to come with us. Can you help us get this? And so it started to be like a feature in our company that we had this to offer for reservation is to be able to tell them, like, we can call and we can make this, you know, get you this gear that you need. And it turned properties that had little to no accessibility other than being able to get into the unit, accessible Now granted, not to the level that you're able to, you know, when you build something, but enough for people to be able to moderately enjoy a family vacation. And I think that, you know, people are very hesitant about I don't want to do that, because it is very expensive, and there are things that you can do that are temporary, that aren't expensive, and if you just make it available, I think people that want to travel like they'll, they'll pay for that if they can get it and pay for that extra service, if it means that they can take the whole family on vacation, or they can participate in A family reunion. And it doesn't have to be daunting, but I think to your point, there has to be photos, there has to be documentation. There has to be an explanation of how it would work. So people can see and feel that, you know that in their mind, that this, this can be, this can be a reality.

Lorraine Woodward  32:57  
Well, you know, and one of the things we promote is what we call our able closet, just like your owner's closet. We encourage, you know, folks to have a shower seat, have a commode seat, have a reacher, and make it available upon request. It's like, I don't want that commode seat out there all the time. I don't want to. But if you have it, and that a ramp, a threshold ramp, a you know, so So again, for a few $100 you have now extended that reach, and it is on your website and available upon request. And so we're a huge advocate of looking. And you know, again, property managers that are managing many units, you don't have to have an able closet for every property but a general able closet that you pull from, and now you have five or six properties that can reach more people. The other thing that you know in the short term rental market, I do not profess to be a financial wizard or anything. But I will say, if you want a slam dunk, successful short term rental, there are key places with an extraordinary need. In fact, Mayo Clinic, a few years ago, when we were doing research, said, Hey, if you can get some accessible rentals near St Mary's Hospital will name a street after you. So if you are in the market and you want to reach people in need, I recommend hospitals, rehab centers that there is a real shortage of accessible places to stay that are not hotels, and then college and university campuses, you know, I think about Arkansas, where I'm from, and 76,000 people, you know, go to Fayetteville for a Razorback game, and yet, there's only three accessible short term rentals in Fayetteville. Wow. And you think about your alumni, you. Think about families that want to go and but yet they don't have a place to stay. And so my financial tip for any investor out there is, it are those two areas. It's just, you know, and, and one of the things that we've done at becoming rentable is worked with a company called evolve lodging, and we actually created a 400 square foot model mobile unit that's fully accessible, mobility, vision, hearing vision, hearing, cognitive mobility. And it's a base price of $145,000 and you can put it at RV places. You can put it in a state park. You can put it near you know, you have a large lot your house is in the front. You want to put a couple of these in the back, make them short term rentals. They're also ADUs. So there's a lot of ways in which you can tap into this market and look at your return on an investment and have great success that's

Alex Husner  38:10  
Click the link in the description to get a free growth hack analysis and a P L evaluation, and make sure to tell them you heard about this offer on the Alex and Annie Podcast. I'm curious too. I mean, I mean you're, so well versed in this. But from a technology standpoint is there, are there any tools or any platforms out there that you feel like are really helping with this beyond, you know, the actual furnishings in the home and how somebody can navigate within that? But what about the technology side? You

Lorraine Woodward  38:35  
know, I applaud Be My Eyes. You know, they are a very successful technology based company, where they have teams of volunteers. You're visually impaired and you can't see the expiration date on the milk. You can't smell it to see if it's rotten yet. But you call, be my eyes, and there's a volunteer, and you pick up the phone and they say, Oh, it expires in two days. You're good. So I, no, seriously. I mean, so again, from a travel perspective, you know, it's like, I, I'm going out here and I, and, could you tell me how far it is to the street or to the sidewalk? So there, there are technology based companies that provide that for the visually impaired, there are technology companies that are specific to like parking, accessible parking. Where can you find that, I think, from a technology standpoint, where we see the most change is the promotion of accessible travel again, like will the world. You know, their specialty is a booking platform in hotels, and they arrange tours and and accessible tours all over the world. And so again, we hadn't seen that before, and now we see that there are several companies that are. Addressing that. So I think technology has helped advance the whole tourism industry. You know, we're also seeing it in outdoor space and hospitality. I was sharing with Annie earlier that. You know, we worked with the Department of travel and tourism in Arkansas. We've just finished our second year with them. We went in to evaluate their cabin yurts and lodging units, increasing their accessible short term rentals by 843% Yeah, huge increase, and we are working with more parks and really looking at not just the traditional short term rental industry, but the outdoor hospitality world as well. And so we were excited about that, you know, in our roadmap we we see looking at midterm rentals, you know, and and looking at that space again, that would complement with what we've done and where we're going. So there's a lot of exciting things out in this space, and to my surprise, and in a way, I'm happy, and not happy, that we're still the only company doing this globally, which really boggles my mind. You know, why is that? And I should be thankful. And I am thankful because we are working with some great folks at the same time. I want to just kind of strangle folks and say, Come on, you know, let's do more. Let's work with, as I talked with Annie, you know, booking.com and their certification effort. You know, thank you Expedia for working with them. We've done work with Airbnb, but there's so many more groups that need to be reached. So, I mean, right now, we have 1.5 million short term rentals just in the United States, but less than 1% are accessible. That's 1000 Wow, 25 less than why? Why?

Alex Husner  42:08  
Unbelievable? And

Annie Holcombe  42:09  
I wonder, Is that, is that, do you know that for a fact, or do we think that there's potentially some out there that maybe they haven't listed on a site because they're afraid to put it on this like, you know, do you I wonder if there's actually more out there that maybe people just aren't renting. Challenge comes

Lorraine Woodward  42:27  
into places a we did know that for a fact, we had a team of volunteers who spent two years, and they we went to a large booking platform that had the most filters of anybody else, and we looked at every one of their properties. And our benchmark was, could Lorraine get in the driveway? Could I get to the front door? Could I go to the bathroom? Could I go to bed, and could I participate in a family activity? So that was our benchmark. And so on this platform, two years ago, we looked at every single one of the properties that they identified that were accessible, and we found in 26 states, there were less than 85 accessible properties, and there were zero for the balance in the United States, that was two years ago, and again, that was through our developing stages of what is the problem? You know, it's like. And so the problem is the evaluation of what is listed as accessible. Well, grandma can get on our property, we have that section, cup, grab bar, we're accessible. And so in somebody's mind, they're accessible, but you book it and go, Wait a minute. You know there's three steps to get into the bathroom. The bathroom doors 30 inches. And so nobody is going in to evaluate what you've listed, to validate that, yes, indeed, you are what you say you are. And that is the most significant part of the work that becoming rentable does, and that is, we do a certification for mobility and cognitive and we're finishing up our vision and hearing, because we've got to have that validation. It's not like we book a place, it's not accessible, and we can go down the road and get another place,

Alex Husner  44:22  
right? Yeah, exactly. They're really out of luck if they're at a place that happens

Lorraine Woodward  44:28  
1500 across the US, you know, you know, somebody said, Well, what is your goal? And it's like, we need 5000 50,000 per state. You know, we've received so many calls I want to go to Palm Springs, and I don't see anything you know. And why aren't we seeing anything you know? There are so many opportunities, and it's getting this information out, providing the education of what, what does it mean to be accessible? And again, like. Concept of going beyond the wheelchair, that's the biggest challenge, because it's like, I have three steps. We're not accessible.

Alex Husner  45:06  
Yeah. And I think it comes down to the education for the property management companies too. Because a lot of the companies that I work with, I mean, they have homeowners, whether they're buying a new property or they've decided they want to renovate the property, but I don't hear companies often saying, Well, have you thought about adding these certain things so that you would be more accessible and you'd open yourself up to a larger group of travelers? It's just not really a conversation that happens too much. But again, I think it does go back to the education that and you might have something like this, but if there was just an overall guide that property managers could have so that when they are having those conversations with homeowners, this is just something that they could be thinking about that, you know, from beyond providing a wonderful vacation for, you know, more accessible travelers. It also makes their unit more competitive and very, you know, competitive areas where there's a lot of inventory. So this gives them a little bit of a an advantage there.

Lorraine Woodward  45:58  
And really the key is the onboarding. So if you don't have the filters to have people select what they need, then again, what, what we see a lot of times is we're wheelchair accessible, we're ADA accessible. What does that mean? And so, but if you need that roll in shower, if you need blackout curtains, you know that that onboarding filters are what's going to be key to that property management company success? You know, yes, the education is, but what I'm you know, what I have learned over the last few years is, how do we get to the technology part of the business of onboarding? And when you do identify those features, what are the features that will create the most traffic and bookings?

Annie Holcombe  46:50  
So I think you were saying that you're you've got verbo, you've got Expedia. You said, Do you are working with Airbnb or you have already

Lorraine Woodward  46:58  
worked? We have we're not right now. No, do it. When we first started becoming rentable, they were the first to welcome us, and we did three different educational pieces with them.

Annie Holcombe  47:12  
Yeah, so I know I'm working. We talked off here. We're like, working really closely with booking.com they're trying to grow and, you know, really want to grow their footprint in the US, and they're actually growing faster than any other channel in the US that we're seeing right now, but they have a lot of lot of runway to grow. So I think, you know, certainly working with them as they're growing that footprint would be super helpful. And so I would challenge one of our listeners, Ian Auckland, who is also a guest on our show recently, he's head of the Americas for booking love to maybe talk to him and see if there's something that we can do to connect the two of you. Because I think that it not only helps the channel stand apart, but it's, you know, people are going to go to these sources to look for the information. And it's like, if you start to feel like you can't find anything, then you're just going to give up. And there's no reason that somebody shouldn't be able to go on vacation. I mean, it's just heartbreaking to think that these families are just not going anywhere and taking that time for these wonderful memory making occasions because they don't know where they can go. So it is on the channels. I think it's important for them to engage and educate their property managers. But also, I think, from you know, people who were property managers listening to this, you know, definitely connect with Lorraine and get the information. Because it doesn't have to be about completely gutting a unit and renovating it. It can be just, you know, accessorizing it, so to speak, to make some to make some changes and be more accessible. Right in last

Lorraine Woodward  48:37  
year, you know, we worked with Duke University in a capstone project, which was fabulous. And one of the things in the research, and that we found out, is people with disabilities who travel will stay, on average, one one day longer than somebody that doesn't have a disability. We tend to spend more money because, again, we're not traveling as much. So it's kind of like, Yeah, I'm going to give that pedicure. Yeah, I'm going to get that special trinket. And and we're, we're the most loyal customer. We found a place that meets our need. We're going to go back. We're going to share that with our friends. And so it's, it's a target that has really longing benefits for our industry?

Alex Husner  49:23  
Yeah, for sure. Wow. Well, so much information. Lorraine and just jam packed of things that I hope that anybody who listening, who hasn't really thought about this before is going to think about things differently, and hopefully they will reach out to you to get some guidance, and, you know, just follow along the footsteps and support this super important movement. You know, for not only the accessible community, but for our industry too. You know, it's just, it's the right thing to do, but what's, what's a good way? If people want to reach out to you, for them to get in touch.

Lorraine Woodward  49:57  
Lorraine, at becoming rentable.com. Feel free. Free to go to our website at becoming rentable.com we do offer a free listing on our platform. We have 111 booking platform that have their properties listed. We are not a booking platform strictly listing. I'm too old to deal with the booking side of the business. But what we wanted to do, and we have done, is to create a single source if you're looking for an accessible place to stay, we have 63 filters. We're overachievers, 43 in mobility and 20 in cognitive and so that and full of tons of great information. And so visiting our site or reaching out to me directly is the best way

Alex Husner  50:55  
to get with us. Sounds great. If anybody wants to get in touch with Annie and I you can go to Alex and Annie podcast.com and until next time, thanks for tuning in, everybody.

Unknown Speaker  51:04  
You.

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