Airbnb buys UK website for disabled travellers

Saturday, 16 Nov, 2017 0

Airbnb has acquired a UK-based company which helps people with disabilities find accessible places to stay.

Accomable was founded in 2015 by Srin Madipalli and Martyn Sibley, two friends with Spinal Muscular Atrophy who had travelled extensively and who were frustrated by the difficulty of finding suitable accommodation.

The Accomable site will be wound down over the coming months and its information will be added to Airbnb listings in more than 60 countries.

The founders and most of its seven-strong team will stay on and help Airbnb make its community more accessible.

Airbnb said it had already been working on new ‘accessibility needs’ checklists for hosts.

"While Srin and his team haven’t been involved in the development of these new tools, we’re confident that they will improve the accuracy of its accessibility listings," it said.

The new features allow hosts to share whether their listings have step-free entry to rooms, entryways that are wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, and other features.

"We’ve already begun to roll out this new feature to allow guests to search based on accessibility criteria that is important to them on the web, and Apple iOS and Android will follow over the next few months," said Airbnb.

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Bev

Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.

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