I have an accessible space and have hosted 3 wheelchair users, a gal on crutches after surgery, and an unknowable number of folks who are attracted by the “No steps!” in my title. I put wheelchair accessible, and descripton of the ramped entrance, right in the short description.
Airbnb does it for you. There is a HUGE checklist of accessibility items on your listing, and they just added another HUGE section (may be experimental in my area) that requires (sometimes multiple) photos of every accessible bit that you checked “yes” on, from pathway to entrance to hand held shower sprayer. I think they’ve gone a little overboard, but as someone who had a personal bad experience in the past staying at an Airbnb the host thought was accessible just because it was a ground floor apartment, but turned out to be dreadfullly un-accessible, I see how they are probably responding to complaints.
My unit was designed in a hurry for a family member with motor neuron disease who was suddenly struggling to get to the upstairs single bathroom, and who eventually used a motorized wheelchair, and is not completely ADA compliant. Our architect friend and our contractor did not have experience with universal design so it was a learning experince for us all! (Like when rainwater came pouring into the no-threshold doorway because the contractor hadn’t installed a channel drain. OK, turns out my contractors weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.)
I am the only advertised wheelchair accessible Airbnb in about a 40 mile radius, although I think some of the (probably illegal) apartment Airbnbs could advertise as such if they thought to do so.
Here is my advice: Do it for YOU if you see yourself aging in place in the home. Disabled folks have a lot of challenges and uncertainties when traveling, and one way to address that is to stay in accessible hotel rooms where they KNOW the facilities are going to be ADA compliant. Airbnb is always a bit risky, isn’t it, and those risks of a bad travel experience are bigger if you need universal design. PM me if you want more info.
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