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The guest bedroom and bath in my space is on the second floor which means stairs. I just had my 3rd inquiry asking if there are stairs, or if property is wheelchair accessible. It is definitely NOT. (Two of these inquiries came prior to me filling out the “Accessible” section.)
In the accessibility category, it just states the widths of doors and hallways. To get to the “Must Climb Stairs” section of the listing you have to drill down on House Rules, then scroll down to the bottom of those to get to the “You must also acknowledge” section.
Did I do something wrong? Why does the Accessible section not have a place to list stairs, or just click on “Not accessible”? I need to just figure out how to remove this section because who cares about hallways and door widths if there are stairs.(!!!)
I guess I need to add ‘stairs’ to the top of “The Space” description, hopefully that will help.
Just guessing here - only Airbnb know why they do what they do - but there’s a whole variety of accessible options and people who need accessibility. Accessibility has to cover someone who is an 80 year old paraplegic in a wheelchair AND an eighteen year old who is on crutches temporarily because of breaking a bone playing football.
ADA covers so many forms of disability including mental disorders, deafness, the blind/partially sighted, educational disabilities … there’s no way we as hosts can cover all these and more.
Our listing has a photograph of the stairs but we STILL get asked.
I would honestly click on ‘not accessible’.
Our ground floor rental, for example, is ideal for people with restricted mobility. There’s a ramp, there are double doors to the bedroom and plenty of space around the bed, the loo is an extra tall one, there are no rugs to trip a crutch-user, the shower is easy-access … BUT there is one step up to the apartment through the front door, there’s no way a wheelchair could get through the 31" front door, the bathroom is definitely too small for a wheelchair as is the kitchen - plus other things. It’s great for an elderly person who’s not too nimble or even an eighteen year old with a football injury but not what you’d really call ‘accessible’ and definitely not ADA compliant.
So the first line in my listing says walk upstairs to the entire 2nd floor. Then I have a picture of my staircase that says “May be difficult for those who have trouble climbing stairs” and I also checked off that it’s not accessible and I STILL I get guest who complain but since it’s so clearly marked in my listing so far Airbnb has not made me refund guests who complain or leave because they can’t walk up the stairs.
Don’t mark it accessible if it has stairs. I would also clearly disclose the stairs in the first or second paragraph of your listing. You don’t want anyone claiming you advertised it as accessible when it had stairs.
@Lynick4442 and @konacoconutz Where do you mark as NOT accessible? I could only uncheck all the stuff under accessible (hallways/doorways) and now the Accessible category seems to have disappeared, but nowhere in the listing does it say “not accessible”. (Unless I were to put it there, of course.) I changed the very first line in my listing to, "Large sunny 2nd floor private bedroom and bath…“must climb stairs” is buried deeper in the description, so hopefully they look at the photos showing stairs and don’t assume I have an elevator!
LOL - I have the walk up to 2nd floor as the first line in my description and they still miss it. My photo of the stairs says “may be difficult to climb for those who have trouble with stairs”. My warnings are more for Airbnb customer service reps. As for the accessibility, perhaps Airbnb removed it. It seems like things just show up sometimes on the website to check off.
I found this on the Airbnb Site:
How do I add accessibility features to my listing?
To add accessibility features:
Go to Your Listings on airbnb.com
On the listing you’d like to edit, click Manage listing
Next to Amenities, click Edit
Scroll to Accessibility, then click Edit
Select the features that are in your home, then click Save
Adding accessibility features to your listing helps guests decide if they can safely and comfortably navigate your home. Learn how to make your home more accessible
Yes, this is what I did, I saw that it was an area I needed to fill out on my listing so I did. I was looking for something to check that said “stairs” or just “not accessible “ but all the questions in that part of the form were just boxes to check about hallways and doorways. Not a well thought out form and rather dumb on air’s part.
I went back in and unchecked all the boxes which made the whole accessibility section in my listing go away. Better than nothing. Strange that there is not a main category/section in the listing wher you can post accessible/ not accessible.
Because my stairs make my rooms unsafe for children, I put the stairs in the House Rules as
“Not safe or suitable for children (0-12) and pets - The unfenced yard faces on a busy street with daytime traffic. Front entrance has 21 steps, rear entrance 28 steps. Not child-proofed.”
