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Wow. I didn’t think that was an option. I thought you had to say what size bed it was. Sometimes I have international guests ask about the bed sizes and I just send them the measurements in cm.
I agree that being able to search by bed size would be a helpful option. I’m surprised it’s not.
There is a place to put “must climb stairs” and it should be there if there are stairs but only listings without stairs would have it noted under Accessibility. However, I think it would be more helpful if the accessibility options noted what was there either way (e.g. no stairs, 3 stairs with dual handrails, 16 shallow steps with no handrail, etc) but I’m an accessibility professional so my view is skewed and it would probably be too much for many hosts to fill out/figure out.
I have a ranch-style home, all one level, but I cannot tick the “no stairs” box because there are three steps up to my front porch. It’s a shame because if you just don’t like traipsing up and down stairs (as opposed to being a wheelchair or walker user) my house would be great for you, but you wouldn’t find it if you were searching by accessibility features. I do warn people about the three steps in the “you must acknowledge - must climb stairs” section and I have a picture of them.
That’s interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a listing that didn’t have those little boxes showing the bed sizes by bedroom.
I’ve looked at your place and also because of the younger age of it, it would be a pretty minimal investment, both time and money, to make it accessible for most people. I see 4 minor things you could do that would increase it’s accessibilty by 100%. It may be worth thinking about and I would be happy to help, if you wanted any.
I really fancied having a fully-accessible STR. I work in the field and can do the work myself and also would be an ideal host in the situation because of my background and would be happy to assist those who needed it (don’t worry, I do have malpractice insurance and licenses for that ,). And other then hotels I don’t think there are many options in my older city. It’s excructiating because it just seems so perfect to me; however, we bought a home that is beyond challenging to add a ramp to. Most of the issue has to do with city parking codes and those seem to come before other needs here
The accessiblity filters should give you the listings that don’t have any steps. It’s a shame if some hosts don’t have any steps but aren’t documenting it under accessibility. I hope that when you find your step-less places that you encourage the host to document it under accessibility features so that others can find their place too.
Sure, I’d love to be more accessible. I am hearing impaired so I know how grateful I am when anyone makes the effort to make things easier for me.
I could put in a ramp so wheelchair users wouldn’t need to use the steps, but it is a moot point as the narrow doorways, small hallway, and small bathroom make my listing inaccessible for wheelchairs/walkers anyway. I would have to do major remodeling to fix any of those. When I lived in the house I used to have a ramp on my back steps leading to the yard for my senior dog.
I remember mentioning that to one host that I found through detailed scavenging and eventually messaging her with questions. We didn’t end up booking with her for another reason.
I asked her to add the appropriate checkboxes and to specify the details in text, too.
I’ve had the same experience as @RebeccaF re: accessibility filters on Airbnb. They’ve recently expanded the category so that’s it’s more relevant for typical ADA compliance. However, in 2018 I booked a house through Airbnb labeled as “fully accessible” except for two steps into the house through the back door. They neglected to state that to get to the two steps you have to walk through 30 ft of grass yard - not easy to do with a walker. You also couldn’t use the back entrance as your primary entrance because there was no exterior key. The front door had at least 10 steps.
To search for a king size bed you have to open every listing - a PITA.
I find that guests aren’t necesarily well versed as to what is “typical” in our regions, only what is typical to them. If your listing is clearly a private home, then I don’t think there is an expectation of an elevator.
@JJD, I still think it’s ideal for the text, amenities list, and photos to accurately reflect the conditions of both of your listings. Spell out the fact that there are stairs, show pictures of the staircases, specify which rooms on are which floors, etc. Make it easy for guests to find the right place.
I’ve made the mistake even with name-brand hotels (a Best Western comes to mind) of not asking the front desk before booking whether there was an elevator to floors above the ground level. Twice, I’ve ended up booked into a hotel that had only stairs, and even with a reservation request for a ground-floor accessible room, I didn’t get one.
After I got home from the very painful Best Western stay, I scoured their website for information on accessing the second floor. No mention of it.
If as a guest you are not sure about amenities, like the size of the bed, or number of stairs, you can always contact the host. If the amenity is unusual, you may want to send copy and paste messages.
They absolutely do. Under “Details Guests Must Know About Your Home” there’s a section for “Must Climb Stairs” and it is ticked and describes the stairs. Even on the 1st floor apartment listings, it notes that there are “6 steps to enter the home”. This is the appropriate place to note and describe stairs. It doesn’t need to be anywhere else. Guests are either going to read or they aren’t. You know where to find this section that notes and describes stairs, why would you want to have to read the text to find out? It’s much easier to just scroll down and look at this section.
There isn’t anywhere to list stairs as an amenity. You can only list lack-of -stairs as an (accessibility) amenity, so I am not sure what you mean by “amenities list”. Again, you only have to look at the one place that is provided for hosts to note and describe stairs. This is already working. If it’s not noted, it’s faster to “contact host” and paste a “hey do you have any stairs you’re not telling me about?” then it is to read all of the text of the listing. It is a shame that some people have accessible places and aren’t listing them with accessiblity amenities. Seems like a huge-miss on their part. I imagine it may get worse because Airbnb is now requiring hosts to upload photos of accessible features (though the ones that are still there should be more reliable).
If stairs were a barrier for me, I would never book without confirming the details about the stairs, it’s just not worth it. I tell my patients all of the time, “thinking it’s accessible isn’t going to get your ass in the door, call and find out” (about any place, not just airbnbs).
FWIW, I usually contact hosts prior to booking for my own specific needs, just to confirm that what I want (or don’t want) is actually there (or not).
AirBnB bedsizes are a disaster, it shows how US minded Air still is.
They only list US sizes. It would be a lot better if they would make it possible to list actual sizes in cm (or inches) this would make everything a lot easier and clearer.
I see lots of listings for a whole house with zero beds. Then they describe the beds and have pictures of them… And many of them are new so not sure how they managed to skip that.
And they still don’t have a listing for futon bed and they assume that a bunk bed has 2 twins…and they don’t have “loft beds” or “swing/suspended beds.”
Me too. So funny we’d never usually know that about each other from a forum!
They look like they are normal size - 32"? It’s at least as good as a most people have in their own homes (it doesn’t require public-buildings ADA measurements). It’s unfortunate that the bathroom door swings in instead of out but that’s not a huge project to switch it and some off-set hinges could be enough anyways and are easy to do. A pedestal sink may help a little but most people with a walker (we train them to go sideways in bathrooms) and a lot of people in wheelchairs (we train them to transfer and do a step or two and pivot) could access your bathroom as it is as long as you installed a couple of grab bars at the toilet and on the tub wall. A transfer-tub-bench would make it safer and easier for some and is removable when not in use. Surely you couldn’t convert the home to an assisted-living facility without some renovations but you could have it be accessible for a whole lot of travelers with some minor changes/additions as your home looks to be much more accessible than most that people are aging-in-place in. The ramp in front would be key of course but wouldn’t need to be very long or even a permanent attachment. FWIW.
And many of them are new so not sure how they managed to skip that. 
