Travel throws up challenges for everyone, but traveling while being disabled is a whole other kettle of fish. The logistics of ensuring a hotel room can accommodate you are often lost on the fully mobile. Accomable CEO Srin Madipalli launched a platform to change that. His "Airbnb for accessible travel" is starting to get noticed by big hotels—and is forcing them to change.
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Accomable is a platform for finding adapted hotels and vacation rentals for disabled and elderly people. The platform features more than 700 mobility-friendly hotels and guarantees the accessibility of every hotel room sold through the site.
It’s a growth market, Srin tells us. Elderly people are becoming an increasingly large segment of our population and their mobility needs must be addressed. Physically disabled people are also becoming a more visible segment that hotels and hosts need to cater to.
However, disabled travelers can’t rely on regular pictures of adapted rooms, Srin says. Every disabled traveler has experienced being disappointed—or just plain misled—about the size of the room, the turning circle radius and the overall quality of the adaptation to those with physical disabilities.
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Accomable corrects that with better photos and ensuring that the hotels’ info is 100% accurate.
Hotels are starting to see the value in Accomable’s service. The company recently partnered with London Hilton Bankside to showcase its disabled-friendly, accessible rooms. The modified rooms feature larger floor space, extra-wide doorways, lowered bed and bathroom facilities, and a roll-in shower with grab rails. Users who book a room through Accomable will receive a 12% discount.
Last month, Accomable entered a partnership with IHG, which will give disabled travelers access to more than 700 specially adapted properties worldwide, including iconic brands InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza.
Accomable anticipates this new partnership will push the number of accessible properties on its site to more than 2,500 by the end of the year.
Srin says collaborating with major hotel brands is part of his strategy to ensure Accomable can offer customers the biggest range of quality, accessible holiday accommodations worldwide. The company is already working with the sector to improve accessibility to hotel properties.
Srin tells Bisnow the company is working with smaller regional properties as well.
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