Nothing is perfect. Lots of rentals in my area are 3rd & 4th floor walk ups and get bookings.
My no steps-roll your suitcase in rental gets booked by people like me with bad knees & orthotics in shoes.
.
2 Likes
Many of my favorite places in Amsterdam, Berlin, Krakow had lots of stairs. It makes me sad to think of the places that will be literally out of reach for me in the future. Also reading on twitter vis a vis covid has made me much more aware of the “invisible disabled” than I ever was before. Many people of all ages can’t do stairs. When you’re young and healthy you don’t even realize a place has stairs.
2 Likes
What you said is so true.
2 Likes
My hair dresser is young—33. After her first vax (so not fully vaccinated) she caught Covid. That was 6 months ago. She still can’t work a 8 hour day & suffers from brain fog. I haven’t asked her about stairs
1 Like
Amsterdam stairs are notoriously bad, especially in historic houses.
We have seven flights of stairs although the guest suite is only one floor up from street level thankfully. Ams not super steep either. We are in our 50s and for now they help keep us fitter than we might be otherwise.
But early on I learned that I had to emphasise the presence of stairs to potential guests to make sure they had read this in the listing.
And in fact we have just had to install grab handles this past month. There has been a spate of elderly guests saying they could deal with stairs and then discovering that they were being over optimistic.
I suspect having not travelled for two years, people don’t necessarily realise that their mobility / fitness might have changed during that time and that something OK two years ago might not be great now.
3 Likes
Probably the main thing I worry about is not stairs, but bath tubs. With both knees being replacements, my knees only bend so far now. Grab bars are a real blessing when it comes to getting in and out—especially on tall tubs like vintage claw foot tubs. And especially when you are dealing with slippery surfaces and wet feet….
2 Likes
I understand this. Your comment helps solidify my goal of removing 1tub & replacing with a walk-in shower in the Master bath. This will leave the second bath (hall bath) with a tub/shower combination