[Heather Bayer]

In today's show, I'm talking to Lorraine Woodward from Becoming rentABLE. Lorraine's been on the show a couple of times, but she's got some big news to share on this occasion. And we're going to be talking about how creating accessibility in your property, or within your company is not difficult and it's not going to break your bank. So listen in, this is a great show. 

This is the Vacation Rental Success Podcast, keeping you up to date with news, views, information and resources on this rapidly changing short term rental business. I'm your host, Heather Beyer, and with 25 years of experience in this industry, I'm making sure you know what's hot, what's not, what's new and what will help make your business a success.

Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast. This is your host, Heather Beyer, and as ever, I'm super delighted to be back with you once again as we come into black fly season here in Ontario. I was talking to somebody in Maine this week and they are also experiencing the black fly. If you don't know what black flies are, they're just a big nuisance. They're tiny little flies that come out over the course of about five or six weeks. They don't last for long, but they come before mosquitoes and before the deer fly. And they're a real nuisance because if they bite you, it bleeds. And you don't actually know that they've bitten you until you sort of look in the mirror and you've got little rivulets of blood coming down your face, which is really annoying. And then it becomes itchy.

So there you are. That's a little bit of a lesson on Bugs of Ontario. So Bugs of Ontario, part one, there you go. I'll come back in a few weeks and talk about mosquitoes, although those are a bit more well known across the country. So that won't be so new. Maybe I'll bring you another type of bug. Oh, I don't know. Anyway, rambling here. 

So if you've been with me for a while, you might remember some incredible conversations I've had with Lorraine Woodward, the founder of Becoming rentABLE. She's been on the show a couple of times and every episode strikes a chord, and rightly so. She's been at the forefront of driving accessibility in the short-term rental business, and today, she's back to share what's happened since we last spoke. And a lot has changed. The conversation around accessibility is no longer just about ramps and wide doorways. It's evolving. And it's evolving to include accommodations for vision and hearing impairments and autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities. And it's becoming something all hosts and property managers need to understand.

So in this episode, Lorraine's going to bring us up to speed on her growing platform, Becoming rentABLE. And she's going to talk about an exciting new partnership with..... Drumroll..... with Expedia. Through their Open World Accelerator Program, Lorraine's mission is now getting global attention. And that could mean real opportunities for short-term rental owners who are willing to make small, thoughtful changes in order to welcome a whole new guest demographic. So if you've ever wondered whether accessible accommodations are just too expensive, too complicated, or just not relevant to your market, think again. Lorraine's here to show us how accessibility is not only good for people, it's really, really good for your business. So in the words of ChatGPT, let's dive into this inspiring catch-up with Lorraine Woodward. 

Well, I am so excited and delighted to have Lorraine Woodward back with me again. This is your third time, I think third time now? You did a solo, then you came on with Scott last year and here you are back solo again. So it's lovely to see you, hear you.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Thank you. I'm happy to be here.

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[Heather Bayer]

For those who don't know who you are, can you give us a little bit about your background and how you got to creating your company Becoming rentABLE?

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[Lorraine Woodward]

So, I always, I don't know why I do this, but I start with my age. I think it's because I am 63 now and there's a pride in having a company that's four years old that I started when I was going to be 60. So yeah, I'm a 63 year old. I have muscular dystrophy, grew up with it. It's been a way of life for me. I'm a mother of two fabulous adult boys who also have MD.

Traveling was not an active part of our life. One because it was hard, and imagine a van. And if you'd imagine our van if we were with our dog too. So there's two kids, two adults, three wheelchairs, luggage, a cooler of food. And then if we were to bring our 86 pound dog, Jake with us, now that would have been a sight to see. And so long story short, built a property that would meet our family's needs somewhere that we could drive to in three hours. 

I had to pay for it so we added an accessible short-term rental to it. It was designed for somebody, of course, me and mine, somebody with the least amount of abilities and somebody for the end of life. That was important. But again, what I was surprised about, not only its success, but how all the stories were the same. We've now had over 450 families with disabilities stay at our property. They continue to say how hard it is. And that was the drive that started Becoming rentABLE and identifying what the problem is, coming up with the solution and building a company where we're a listing platform to find accessible short-term properties.

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[Heather Bayer]

So how does it become easier to bring properties on board? Are there more out there now than there were when we first spoke?

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[Lorraine Woodward]

You know, we have added, we have a little under a thousand properties on our site, which I'm proud of. But we should have a thousand properties for every state in the country and not across the globe. We go back to education that again, somebody says, you know, Grandma or Mema, Mema can come to our house or our vacation home. We put one of those suction cup grab bars in the bathtub, she can get in the bathtub just fine with that. I think we're wheelchair accessible. And so it's education and then the validation. That is what is so critical is going back and looking at what has been identified as accessible and confirming that it is, because if you are a guest that has a need for no steps and then you get to the property and there are three steps, there's no ramp. You didn't bring your ramp. It's not like you can go down and book a place at another short-term rental or even a hotel. 

So that is what's important. We're seeing growth, but we're not seeing as much as I had hoped. Two reasons, fear of the ADA and being sued. And secondly, 'Oh, to be accessible has to be expensive.'

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[Heather Bayer]

Yeah. And I know we talked about this before, but I want to step back a bit and just deal with that sort of the elephant in the room about what does accessibility actually mean. And I think for most people, it means a ramp and somewhere for a wheelchair to get in. But I know from our previous conversations, when you started talking about all the different types of disability that can be helped by people doing simple things in their properties and it was things like people with cognitive difficulties, people who are just the older population.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Well, you know, when we first talked about three years ago, we talked about this niche community, the niche of disability. But guess what? We don't talk about that anymore. 

And why? Because it's finding what are your needs today and my needs today are different than they were three years ago, maybe for you too. And so as an industry, in the short-term rental, the lodging community, what is accessibility?

For me, yes, I am looking for wheelchair access. My boys are not actively in a wheelchair all the time, so they could do one step with their dad's help. They could do a step-in shower. And then friends with walkers and crutches and canes again have specific needs, but maybe not the same needs as I have.

And then for how we advocate accessibility, it's really looking at, as you said, the cognitive community. And it is autism, it is sensory, it is dementia, it is anxiety. So, as our society grows and more features of access are being presented, we want to look at those and carrying those needs of access to the short-term rental and then our vision and hearing.

So it really does encompass those long-term disabilities like I have, or if you were to have a knee replacement, a hip replacement, the short-term, and then the unforeseen, you get hit by a car, you're in an accident, you have COVID and complications, you have cancer, you know, and so we're not always prepared ourselves for what lies ahead. And so for us, as we look at accessibility, we look at identifying what are the needs for people who want to travel and that does include the area of access.

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[Heather Bayer]

Yeah, there's some very simple things. I know that as I'm aging, my eyesight is deteriorating and something that's really, really important to me is good lighting for reading.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Yes.

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[Heather Bayer]

I love to read, and I've been in so many rentals where I've looked around and they've got ceiling lights, but there's no dedicated reading lamp. It's so simple.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Under counter lighting, you know, and that's the aha moment for some people. I'll ask them, do you have under counter lighting? And it's like, well, yeah. And I said, well, that's an important feature. Why? I said, For people who have vision and for our hearing community, and they're like, What do you mean? And it's like, Again, for somebody who maybe not be deaf, but has hearing issues, better light allows them to read your lips.

And so again, and as we look at these things, it's like my favorite always is, do you have a hard surface driveway? And they're like, Well, what do you mean? I said, Do you have like concrete or, you know, non gravel or dirt? Well, yeah. And I said, Well, that's a really great accessible feature. I said, For me, I know I cannot go to a rental that has grass/gravel/sand. I need something hard that my wheelchair can go on. And it's like, Really? That's an accessible feature. And it is and so I love the aha moments of going, I didn't think of that and you have it. Or I was talking with a group yesterday and they really want to look at our cognitive community and being able to advocate for people with autism or sensory issues in the lodging environment. And they were going over all these. I said, honestly, the number one feature that people look for costs less than $10, and it's a secondary lock on your exterior doors. And they're like, What? And I said, Well, A, it's for wanderers and B, if you have small children, grandchildren it's also a great thing for them, a lot of people can benefit. But what I found out in talking with our autism community in particular, is that that secondary lock is key.

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[Heather Bayer]

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you know, we've talked about this before that I have a granddaughter who is severely autistic and I know when I go to my daughter's house and there are locks on the inside of every exterior door because she will head out. She just wants to get out. But of course, it's also for the older community. For those who are perhaps with Alzheimer's, you want to take your grandparents off on vacation, but there's a risk that somebody will go out of the door. They're in a strange place and they just wander off. And yes, we had this at a property where a guest wandered off and was lost in the woods for two or three hours before she was found. But that simple, simple thing that you can put on a listing that says, hey look, we've got locks on the insides of our doors to stop people and not easily accessible. So that they're higher. So children can't reach them. Right? But it's just a simple thing, as you said, it costs a few dollars. But anyway, we're going to come back a bit later on to some of those specific things.

I always get so excited talking to you, Lorraine, you know, this is the stuff that everybody should know and should talk about if they're in this industry, and as we've discussed prior to pressing the record button here, we beat this drum a lot. You certainly do.

And people like Bob Garner doing it for sustainability and Justin Ford doing it for safety and Chris Maughan doing it for trust. These things are fundamental to this business. And this along with accessibility has to be at the forefront. So I'm hoping that everybody listening is really going to pay attention. And I am going to be asking Lorraine a little bit later about specific things that you can do. So do hang about for that.

But I want to talk about Expedia because you made this announcement, the partnership with Expedia Group's Open World Accelerator. How did that come about? And what does it mean?

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Okay, guys. So two years ago, believe it or not, we applied for an accelerator to be a part of an Accelerator Program put on by Expedia Group. So we applied. We're very fortunate to be one of 12 companies selected. We worked with staff. We went to Seattle twice for five months. It was really intensive. It was a lot of time, energy and work. And again, being an entrepreneur, helping to guide us to be successful in our business.

And the selection of participants dealt with the underserved; so it was disability it was LGBTQ+, it was the solo traveler, so it was a green book with the black travelers. Again, they dealt with a diverse area of underserved companies.

And so I remember in May, two years ago, we were ending it and we had to give a presentation. The chairman of the board was there, the past CEO was there and there were 12 of us. Everybody did a great job, and then there was Lorraine. And I was just like shaking. And we're supposed to read our, you know, go to the monitors, you know, if you forgot where you were in your presentation. I couldn't even see the monitors I was so nervous. So I ended up bringing my papers there. It was a security blanket, but I'm going, Oh my gosh. 

Well, after the presentations, different groups went in and had small group conversations with folks. And in my session, the head of the Accelerator Program said, We have an announcement to make. And Becoming rentABLE, we'll be receiving a letter of intent. And we were the one company that they submitted a letter of intent to work with. I was amazed. It's like, Oh my gosh. Well, I was amazed. 

Throughout the last two years, because that's how long it's taken to get where we are. And I say that in a..., Oh my gosh, it was so hard. But I say it in that the support of the employees is what has given us this opportunity to have a launch with Expedia. Leadership has been changed. Senior management has been changed. Budget cuts. People, you know, a number of people that we worked with in the beginning are no longer there. But there was always a core of people who stood up and said Expedia, this is what we need to do as a company. And so two years later, here we are. We launched a partnership on May the 2nd of this year and I am so proud to be a part of it. And that pride comes from Expedia looking at what does it take to make a difference in the area of hospitality.

And I preach, I say, I advocate for education. And it's like, I hear the phrase, you don't know what you don't know. And guess what? You don't know a lot about accessibility. And so they're going, All right, you really think this is what we need to do? And it's like, yes, I do.

And so we put together educational modules and Code and Theory, it's a group that I was not familiar with, took our content and created this great informational graphic that is on a landing page. And on the landing page at Vrbo is also education that we put together. But another aspect that's so special about what Vrbo is doing is that they've embraced this broadness approach.

So from a language standpoint, we address mobility in walkers and crutches and canes. We address dementia and Alzheimer's and sensory issues and autism. We address vision and hearing. So in the words of our education, you hear that. But in the informational graphic, you see it. You see an amputee in the bathroom. Not naked as a jaybird, but you see him holding onto a reacher and his crutches here. You see a young child in a wheelchair. You see an older person with a walker. You see somebody going up on a chairlift. So again, they show, they use words. They have broadened what does it mean to be accessible. And it's not about this niche, you know, it's about the humanity. And I applaud them for that.

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[Heather Bayer]

It's absolutely wonderful. And when you emailed me and told me this, like, oh my gosh, this is just such a wonderful partnership to have. What do you think it means for the wider recognition of accessibility in the travel industry?

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Well, obviously, again, in the travel industry, we want more heads on beds. How do we reach people? Well, you reach them by information.

Okay, I need king-size bed, two twin beds, a queen bed. I need these different elements. Well, elements that haven't been exposed has been accessibility.

So that means more people have an opportunity to book that rental where they want to travel. But if you don't provide that information, then you're not going to reach that audience. So they have added more filters.

But even before we get to all of that, you know, for Vrbo, they have over two million listings, right? So we've got this huge population of host property managers. And so it's like, all right, we want to get into this area of accessibility, but we don't know....

So this effort is really targeted to those hosts, to say to the host. And it's not always..., it's not the big step either. It is those small things like a hinge on the door that allows your door to open up an inch and a half wider.

And we talk about size. And we talk about knowing how many inches underneath the bed that you have is important. When I went to Seattle for an Expedia event, they put us up in a hotel. And they thought there was space underneath the bed, but it was a platform bed. And there was only a few inches. And I use a Hoyer lift. And this is a device that's on wheels, that like a hammock on wheels. And it lifts me into and puts me down in bed. But the wheels have to go underneath the bed, so my butt lines up with the bed and not to the edge of the bed, right? And we couldn't get my Hoyer lift where it needed to be, because there was that platform there. And we see a lot of platform beds in the short-term rental industry, in addition to the hotel. And that information is important.

So you have a platform bed, that's okay, because people with walkers can maybe use a platform. They don't need the open space. People with autism, vision, hearing. And there's a lot of people that don't need it. But if you put that information in there, it makes it easier for all of us to find what we need. Because when you're, like me, in a wheelchair and have a variety of needs, and information isn't out there, it's laborious, it's not fun. And most of the time, I just say, forget it. After eight or six, you know, six, eight hours later, I'm like, you know what? I'm happy just being at home. Think of the money I'm going to save. I could go shopping at McKinsey Childs and buy me something really fun for the house, you know? And so that's why it's important.

It is good business. I mean, yes, there's a lot of information. This is important. This is about philosophical reasons. Yes, it is. But as we look at the industry in a whole, and you look at what you're going to do to advocate, to reach your budget numbers, it is about business. And this is good business. I mean, 26% of our U.S. population is identified as having a disability. You know, we're four and a half years away from an influx of baby boomers - thank you, Lorraine Barry Woodward - that are going to add to the 70 million seniors that we're going to see.

So, you know, the audience is huge as we identify disability. But if you look at mankind, what are we, close to 300 million in the U.S.? So you look, all of us can benefit at one time or another from these features, these amenities.

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[Heather Bayer]

That's, yeah, massive numbers there. And I think, you know, we were doing this three years ago, sort of banging the drum of, this is a market. It's a market you shouldn't be missing out on, because there are some small changes that you can make. One of them, I think, we've talked about, I mentioned this before, staying at a property in Cyprus a number of years ago. And this property was custom built. And when the owner built it, he built it with his friend in mind who was a quadriplegic.

So it was the most amazing property for anybody that was quadriplegic, paraplegic. You know, it had absolutely everything, the turning beds, the hoist and the ramp to get people into the pool. It was beautiful. And the owner even went to the extent of buying a vehicle that was able to pick people up from the airport and bring them to the house. And then they could rent that vehicle too. So he went to town on it.

But one thing, so that was huge expense at the outset. And I'm sure you wouldn't advocate that people do this, you know, retrofitted their places at huge expense. But one thing he had was on his website, he had his accessible pages, which listed the heights of the beds. Yes. It was a once and done thing. He probably took some time, but listed the height of the kitchen table, the height of the counters, the height of the beds, the width of the doors. And he went room by room by room and everything had all these measurements. And for us going, apart from the fact that I broke my arm just before we went there, so to a degree, I actually needed some of those facilities. But for a lot of people, they didn't need that. But for that section of the population that were going to stay at this house, or at anybody's house, just having those pages from what you just said about the platform bed, just that bit of information could be a huge game changer. It's the difference between having a great vacation or just wanting to get home as fast as possible.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Absolutely.

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[Heather Bayer]

And that costs nothing. That's zero cost.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Information, right? But we don't know what to include. And that's what I like about what we're doing with Expedia.

The other aspect that I think is important that we don't always talk about is visibility. You know, one of my favorite things that I don't honestly get to do at all is go visit a friend in their house. Go to that neighborhood backyard party. As I'm getting older, it makes me sadder that I'm not able to participate in these activities. Now, when the boys were young, Robert would commonly be the one that took them. He would hoist them up the steps so that they could go.

Now the boys are older and it's time to date. And, you know, college and the high school, they couldn't climb the steps. And I don't even know if boys come to the door anymore and knock on the door. That may be way before my time. They, text him and say, Hey, I'm out front.

But that's a whole other discussion of how all of that. But this ability is important and how nice it is when your property, you have family staying there. They may not, they may benefit from the access that may not need it.

But you know what? Aunt Jane lives 30 minutes away and now she can come over and visit and be a part of that dinner gathering, that afternoon visit, you know, seeing family that they haven't seen before because that rental property, you know, met her needs to come and visit. And that is very important.

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[Heather Bayer]

OK, so one of the big hurdles for those listening is they just don't know where to start. I mean, we've touched on a few little things. So let's just be really practical, small cost-effective changes.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

When you drive up to the property, what is the surface that you're driving on? Is it concrete? Is it stone? Is it pavers? Is it solid? If it's solid, say it. Because for particularly mobility, we want to know that we can get out of our vehicle, get out of our Uber and get to the front door. So no cost there. Take a picture of what your driveway looks like. If you want to add how wide your driveway is, or look at the end of the driveway. I've been at a number of properties where I haven't been able to get off the driveway because of the curb from the street. But that's secondary. So there you go driveway.

Do you have TVs anchored to the wall? And it's like, OK, why is that important? Well, for our cognitive community, particularly children and adults that have autism who like to watch TV, a lot of times like to go and touch it, feel it. And so by having that TV anchored to your wall allows for it not to fall over. It's also just good practice and safety. Justin Ford, I got you on that one. It's a safety measure to have your TV anchored to the wall. Again, I bet a lot of people have their TVs anchored to the wall. It saves space, right?

Blackout curtains. That's another one. My husband loves blackout curtain. Heaven forbid we get a sliver of sunlight that comes into the room and wakes him is something that, again, when we're looking at our cognitive community, that's really important. 

Oh, the placement of your mirror in the bathroom. So for those people who are small, of short stature, for those of us sitting in a wheelchair, we commonly see in the short-term rental that everybody must be six feet tall. You know, on a good day, I used to be five two, you know, now, I don't even know how tall I am, but I don't have to worry. But I'm in my wheelchair and you know, I want to wash my face. I want to brush my teeth. I want to put on eye makeup, you know, I'd like to have a mirror. So let's say that you've got a mirror that is not butts up to the countertop, go to Walmart and buy, or a thrift store and find a floor-length mirror, put it in the bedroom and lean it against the wall. But look at your mirror placement. That's an easy one that people a lot of times, you know, forget about. 

You had mentioned measuring your bed. And why that is important is if your bed is too high, the transfer for somebody in a wheelchair can be difficult to do. Somebody that stands up and the bed's too tall and they can't lift their heinie up to the bed is another reason. But if it's lower, then it's easier for somebody to access it. And knowing, do you have seven inches of cleared space underneath your bed for that Hoyer lift?

So there's another one for you. Shall I continue?

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[Heather Bayer]

Oh, yes. Yes. Keep going. I mean, it was interesting. You're talking about the height of beds. And I remember my sister getting this new bed and it was really, really high and she's quite short. And she's 80 this year. So it's a little bit more of a challenge for her. But it was even more so of a challenge for her husband when he had a hip replacement. And that was almost... and they had not even thought about that. And there was that bed at that height. And for a good three months after his hip replacement, he was.... they've made a step stool for him to get into bed. But getting out in the middle of the night and where's the step stool? To get out and back again. Some of these beds are just massive.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

It's like a running start, you know? And the dogs can't even get on the bed. They need their own step stools.

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[Heather Bayer]

So, yeah, I mean, those things that to me really, really important. I remember years ago talking to a stager, and we'll come back to...., you're going to the VR Design Summit in High Point, North Carolina at the end of June. And I know you'll be talking about all these things design, because people..... and I don't know how I got around to that sort of..... That was a little senior moment. But anyway, we'll carry on with this topic of the Design Summit.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Yes, we will. And, you know, a lot of these features do have an impact on design and have an impact on the cost of the change that you might make. One of my favorite things that I do, I don't put doors on closets. So you just save money by not putting a door. Doors that open are really hard when you've got your bed. Let's say you have your 48 inches, but then you're going to go open the door to get into the closet.

Well, you've just got to back your wheelchair in and you got to finagle this and it's a pain. So I don't do doors. And then I use wallpaper. I use..., I did wooden scallop trim for the shelving in my closet to add a little personality. And I made it fun and decorative. And people love it. You can have your suitcase in there and it's kind of tucked away. You don't have to worry about always opening and closing doors. So I love that.

Dimmer switches. In fact, you know, it was funny when we, when our boys first went to our beach house, Alexander's like, mom, why don't you have a dimmer switch? Not everybody likes a bright light. And, you know, dimmer switches are a great asset to our cognitive community. And so we're a huge advocate of having a dimmer switch. And some people like that mood lighting. So, you know, that's another one that we talk about in design. 

We don't talk about this in design, but again, people don't think about a blender. And, you know, you think, all right, we're going to have a margarita. We're going to have a daiquiri. And it's needed for people who maybe have dentures. And they haven't had dentures long and it's kind of hard to chew. Or you have a feeding tube. You have a child with a specific diet. And that's one less thing you have to bring, you know, particularly when you have small children.

Think about back in the day when you're traveling and you brought the play pen and you brought the high chair. Well, the same thing is true for people with a lot of different disabilities. They're bringing the wedges. They're bringing their Hoyer lift. They're bringing the blender. So one of the things that, you know, we advocate for, we call it our able closet. And basically it's kind of like the owner's closet. It's a space where you have your extra sheets, your paper towels that the owners kind of put away, but there's access to it if it's needed. 

So we advocate to say, you know what? Have a shower chair in there. Have a reacher in there. Have, you know, different aspects that benefit people with disabilities. You're not really comfortable in having them out. Some people think about the hygiene of it. They may think, oh, somebody's going to take it with them. All of these reasons, but you want to have it available. Well, put it in your owner's closet, you know, and you can use it and you can also share it. So we advocate for property managers.

It's like, okay, you have a front desk. You have somebody that is managing these properties. So now you buy it once and you can use it for those 10 properties that you have there. And so it, you know, so now you're reaching 10 different units of different types of access to broaden that scope of who can stay there.

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[Heather Bayer]

So you've talked about a lot of things here.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

I always do. 

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[Heather Bayer]

And, you know, people are sitting out there right now just scribbling like crazy. So what if they haven't been? I mean, they can obviously go back. I'll tell you what you can do. This is me with my AI hat on now. If you have not done this before, is take the transcript of this episode, put it into ChatGPT and ask ChatGPT to pull out a list of all the things that Lorraine has suggested. So, that's...

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[Lorraine Woodward]

I have never done that. I'm going to do that. That's awesome.

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[Heather Bayer]

And it will, it will pull out everything that you said. And you could, you know, you could even ask it to rank it in order of importance as to, you know, how excited Lorraine got about it. That's going to go wah! But if they're not doing that, do you have education material that you share?

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Yeah, we do. Thank you, Heather. Go to Becoming rentABLE and that's becoming B-E-C-O-M-I-N-G, R-E-N-T-A-B-L-E.com.

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And we do, we have 10 things under a hundred dollars. We have, you know, information for how do you make your house accessible for people with cognitive needs, mobility needs. And you know, the key for us is we're a listing app. We list short-term rentals that are accessible and we certify them, which means we go in, we evaluate and validate that information to be true. But guess what now? We also have a free listing. You can go on our website. You can identify those accessible features. We will evaluate to make sure that they are what they say they are and we'll put your property online.

Now, when properties populate and you go to our website and you want to go to Charleston, South Carolina, and you need this, the ones that raised to the top are certified properties. So that's the different mechanism there is, certified goes first and then the freebies go underneath. But we now have a tool to say, you know what? We, we are a listing platform. We're not a booking platform. We want to be the single source. You know, you want to find a place for Aunt Jenny. You want to find a place for yourself. And you have these, we have 63 filters now. However, I think when you and I first talked, we had like 36. And so I just tell everybody, hey, we're overachievers. And so now we have 63 because we, again, we focus on this broadness.

And this year we will be adding two new certifications, either two or one. I haven't decided. I would love to hear from people if we do one for vision and hearing together or if we do one for vision and one for hearing certification. I don't know. So 'inquiring minds want to know', so please, if you all have opinions, reach out to myself or to Heather.

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[Heather Bayer]

Well, Lorraine's information is going to be at the end of the Show Notes. So go there and, and take a look, take a look at that. 

Have you noticed any particular markets or regions that are showing stronger momentum in accepting or embracing accessible rentals?

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Yes. To answer that question, one is destination locations. So you are a skier, you are a beach person. If you want to be near Disney, you want to be near Anaheim. So we do find that destination piece a driver of meeting people's needs. 

But the second area that we, again, well, there is a second area in that state parks. We've had our first year. We're in our second year of working with Arkansas Department of Travel and Tourism. We went in and we evaluated their cabins, yurts, and lodge units. And we increased their accessible short-term rentals in the state by 843%. And I know it was very exciting. And now we have that proof of concept and we are hoping to be able to reach more and more states, particularly as we're seeing people want to be outside.

So the short-term rentals around parks, because not every park has lodging, in some states none of the parks. And when we say state parks, a lot of times we think of singularly one park. No, Arkansas has 52 parks that equal their state parks. Pennsylvania, I think is 138 parks that equal their state parks. And so we are seeing that. 

The third area that we're starting to see momentum in is the business travel component. And we're seeing it because that we do and are able to work remotely. And some people take advantage of that for family opportunities to go visit family, you know, the wife and the kids or the husband and the kids are out doing their thing by somebody else working. And so we're seeing that.

And then we're seeing business travel because employees are going, wait a long time. And we're seeing that opportunity now to hire more people, retain more people, promote more people because we're not just looking at hotels. And so we're seeing that now.

The fourth area, and if we stay on longer, I'm sure I'll go to five and six too, but we're not seeing this, but I want to see this and I want to, you know, I don't always say I have a guarantee for you, but I have a guarantee for you.

And I'm not one of those salesmen, but you know, by today, but the guarantee is if you are an investor, if you are somebody interested in having an accessible short-term rental, put it near a hospital or rehab facility. There is not a day a week goes by that I don't get a call or reach out to say, my husband, my family member has cancer. We  live six hours away from the hospital. We have to be there so many hours, days a week and we can't afford.... And I guarantee it, it will be booked. We did research three years ago. We should maybe do it again, but we found out there was a huge need. St. Mary's Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, they'd name of street after me, if I could get some short-term rentals there. I mean, it really is a dire need. And so investors, if you want to give a donation to Becoming rentABLE, please do. But I tell you, that's the tip of the day right there.

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[Heather Bayer]

That is amazing. I mean, I think we've mentioned this before, you know, buying or investing in properties near colleges and near hospitals are just great opportunities. But to actually invest in something and then turn it into a really accessible space near a hospital. That is, that's gold.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

I tell hospitals. It's year round. It's year round and I'm going to hospitals. You have foundations and you're looking at where to invest your money to do good. Well, there you go. You know, I look at, you know, I'm a huge Duke fan, Coach K who's no longer a coaching basketball, but I still bow down to him and Oh, Coach K, if anybody's listening, I want to build a little blue house with you in Durham that's fully accessible. I've got it. Hey, you have to dream. I tell people all the time, if you don't share your dreams, they won't come true. 

And so my first dream came true. I worked with Charles Schultz for two years. He did the logo of my first foundation and there you go. So that was 30, 40 years ago, but that happened. Now it's Coach K and accessible, totally off track there. So they have fun with that one. 

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[Heather Bayer]

I was just thinking exactly that. 

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[Lorraine Woodward]

How many times did Lorraine go off script?

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[Heather Bayer]

Off piste! 

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Right. But I know when I'm in Arkansas, where I'm from and our little yellow house is there, that 60,000 people go to a Razorback game, 60,000 people go into Bentonville or Fayetteville, Arkansas, this small community and your alumni, you know, your students, their families. Again, this is a huge opportunity, but if you have a disability, do you know how many accessible properties are available in Fayetteville, Arkansas? Two, two. That's it.

60,000 per game. Football, basketball. Think of Tennessee and Knoxville, Tennessee, their football stadium holds 125,000 people. You think of concert halls and how many people want to go there? I don't know Brooks and Dunn. I don't even know if that's a big group or not. I'm still a James Taylor girl, person. I go here, James Taylor. But anyway, people come from all over to see Lady Gaga. There's one. And no, no, no. It's Taylor Swift. That's the one. You know, people were flying in across the world to see her. Now, if you have a disability or family member, you never gone to the game. You want to go. Yeah. I want to be a part of this. And, but, but where are we going to stay?

I mean, come on. I mean, this is, and this is why the broadness is important. This is why, I mean, we are helping bringing tax dollars in. We are helping the short-term rental industry get those heads to the beds. We are trying to fill those calendars with bookings. And we do it for a lot of different reasons. And I do go back and believe it's good business. And we just don't always think about, well, how is that draw? You know, where am I going to get people? You know, Heather, you got another hour because I can talk about that too.

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[Heather Bayer]

We will no doubt come back to this. And, you know, maybe we do this after the Design Summit and then talk about design, because I'm sure you're going to come across a lot of people there who are going to find this a really interesting meld of different concepts, from accessibility through design and safety.

Of course.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Yes.

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[Heather Bayer]

I remember now what I was going to say earlier on when I got onto the Design Summit. And that was we were having a property staged a number of years ago and it was a really big room and it had this fireplace right in the center of it. It was the most amazing centerpiece. It was obviously a round fireplace, big chimney,and the owner had all the furniture pushed back against the walls. And the stager came in and said, no, no, no. And she pushed everything out from the walls so that it was closer around the fire. But you could get around. She said, you know, people are going to actually get through this room because you have to go through this living area to get to the bedrooms. She said, they're walking between the sofa and this fire. So it's a safety issue. And she said, and what about somebody in a wheelchair? So she brought all this furniture in and the place looked completely different after this. And it was just such a simple thing of moving some furniture. And so people in wheelchairs were able to go around the back of the sofas, get to the bedrooms easily. And there was still space for them to sit on the sofas as well. But that was what I was thinking of when I got into talking about the VR Design Summit in High Point, North Carolina in June.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Well, I can't wait to be there and be a part of it. And you know, we'll talk about color choices and how that affects your mood, how it affects people with autism. And just again, 48 inches. Again, my boys hate it. We do a big effort on size matters. And they're like, Mom, can you please say something else? And I said, but it gets your attention. And seven inches is important. 24 inches is important. It's knowing what that space is. And 48 inches is the space that allows clearance. You know, for a hallway, for spaces on.

And you know, we hear a lot about bedrooms. Do you have that five foot rate turning radius? And that has been preached to us for years and years and years. And I say to people, you don't need five feet. I don't have five feet in my short-term rentals. I have enough that I can drive in and I back up because I mean, ideally I'd love to turn around, I would, but I don't have the space that I want to be accessible.

So what are those different measurements? That really do have an impact on access. So more people can book a property.

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[Heather Bayer]

Well, for those of you listening, you've heard such a lot of good stuff in this discussion. And unfortunately, I'm going to have to draw it to a close now, becaused time is almost up. But I want you to go to BecomingrentABLE.com. Take a look around the site. Look at the educational material that's on there. Get in touch with Lorraine. If you've got any questions whatsoever and let's come back to this, it doesn't cost, have to cost a lot of money for you to have your property become more accessible than it currently is.

And that's it, isn't it? It's just taking that first step.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

Yes, it is. Literally and figuratively.

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[Heather Bayer]

So Lorraine, it's been an absolute pleasure as, as ever talking to you. I'm so excited about your partnership with Expedia. I wish you all the best.

We will get together within the next six months or so and have a continuation of this conversation, because I think just like these other fundamentals of the business, like safety, like sustainability, like trust, these are the things that need to be talked about more and more. And I thank you. Thank you for bringing this to the forefront of our minds and thank you.

Have fun in High Point. I wish I could be there.

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[Lorraine Woodward]

I will. All right. 

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[Heather Bayer]

Thank you so much, Lorraine Woodward. Every time I speak to Lorraine, I come away completely inspired and with a really fresh perspective on what true hospitality really means.

And, you know, if I was back in the property management business with my 180 odd properties that we had when we sold, I would be going back to every single one of those properties, every single one of those owners and having that conversation with them. How can we make this accessible? And it doesn't mean people, you know, but the steps going up into the house. Well, that's okay. So maybe it's not wheelchair accessible. But what about if it's in a very quiet place and there's blackout curtains at least in one bedroom, which is painted in lovely pastel colors and there's locks on the inside of the doors that becomes accessible for a family that have a child with autism.

That becomes an accessible property and that's something that you can promote and advertise. And so if I had my time again, I would have somebody perhaps in my organization take this on as a project and say, okay, go through every single property and see what accessibility there already is within that property. And then if there are properties that are sort of on the margins, we'll have that conversation with the owner to say, you know, we could increase your profitability, we could increase your bottom line by doing A or B or C or doing these few things.

And perhaps, you know, having an extra page on every listing that talks about that accessibility nature of it. Because if there's one big takeaway from today, it's that accessibility doesn't have to be overwhelming. It just needs maybe a few thoughtful tweaks, clearer signage, better communication. And this could just open the door to a whole community of travelers who've often been left out of the short-term rental space. And thanks to the partnership with Expedia, this conversation is really moving into the mainstream and I'm so happy to see this and I know Lorraine is. More visibility, more education and more support means that it's never been easier or more important for hosts to take that first step.

As always, I'll include links to Becoming rentABLE, links to the Expedia Open World Accelerator and all Lorraine's resources in the Show Notes. And I'd really encourage you to take a look and see how your property might become part of the accessibility movement. So thanks again for listening.

If this episode sparked an idea or it's raised a question for you, just drop me a message. Share the episode with someone in your short-term rental network and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss another conversation like this one. So until next time, take care, be kind and keep striving to make your rentals a little better, one guest at a time.

It's been a pleasure as ever being with you. If there's anything you'd like to comment on, then join the conversation on the Show Notes for the episode at vacationrentalformiller.com. We'd love to hear from you and I look forward to being with you again next week.

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