The world of short-term rentals is massive, but for people who use wheelchairs, finding a rental that is accessible can be difficult. While Airbnb and Vrbo do offer accessible rentals on their sites, their listings aren’t always 100% accessible, with many having tiny inaccessible nuances, such as a step at the main door or too narrow doorways.
The frustrating aspect for wheelchair users is that when Airbnb acquired Accomable, an old accessible rental site in 2017, they promised they'd maintain their standards, but that has not been the case. Instead, you'll find listings that aren't actually accessible, or worse, there will be no accessible listings available in the city you're traveling to. Frustrated with these sites, a brand-accessible rental site was born in 2021, Becoming rentABLE.
How It Began
Lorraine Woodward, a power wheelchair-user and her family (with her sons using wheelchairs as well due to Muscular Dystrophy), founded Becoming rentABLE after years of successfully renting out their accessible beach home, realizing there was a greater need for more accessible listings in the US. There were frustrated as well with the lack of quality of these listings.
While becoming rentABLE is still new, it has exploded in popularity and they have a full staff making sure the site’s listings maintain quality standards. Lorraine, her husband, and her son have all been deeply involved in the operations of the site, they have nearly a dozen employees making sure the site and its’ listings are accurate, plentiful, and professional, replete with quality photos and descriptions.
Why We Love It
What is especially impressive about Becoming rentABLE is its numerous accessible listings that can be found in several states in the US. Unfortunately, they do not have accessible listings for every state, but they do have accessible listings in dozens of states and we expect them to be continually adding new listings to more states over the months and years ahead.
Also, another aspect of Becoming rentABLE that's impressive, is that not only do they offer accessible rentals, but they're also helping the industry by providing hosts and short-term rental companies with the tools they need to offer accessible listings on their sites. They provide consulting services and they will be offering webinars and education modules in the near future.
Their Certification process however is especially noteworthy. If you want to truly ensure your property is accessible to the population you are hoping to attract, whether it is a walker-user or a wheelchair-user, Becoming rentABLE offers a thorough certification process for both types of mobility needs. Becoming “rentABLE Certified,” ensures possible renters that your property is without question accessible. They will evaluate your property, review your listing description and identify any accessibility features that should be added. This costs $300.
You did not however have to be officially certified to be listed on their site. Anyone with an accessible property can add their listing to their database. When searching through their accessible rentals, they have a powerful search engine that lets you search by state and if you want the listing to be Certified. You can also search by Feature, with dozens of accessible features to filter search results like “wheelchair van parking” or “Hoyer lift.”
And they offer picture representations of their accessible feature search filters so you can see exactly what a feature is before renting a property. There is also a rental map where you can click the state you will be visiting and zoom in to see if any listings are available.
With a TV show in the works, where they will be sharing accessible rental information with the world, and with a nod from the founder of Accomable Martyn Sibley, you know Becoming rentAble has a bright future ahead of them. You'll definitely want to bookmark this site if you haven't already. And since there isn’t yet an app available for Becoming rentABLE, this is a must.
— Visit the site: https://www.becomingrentable.com/
