Title:
Becoming rentABLE | Making Travel Accessible

Subtitle:
Short Term Rentals for Disabled Travelers

Transcript:

Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people.

Open hearts. Clear paths. Let’s go.

Alycia Anderson: Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I’m Alycia Anderson. We have a fascinating conversation today. you know that in 2019 it was reported that disabled people spent an estimated 58 billion on travel. That’s a pretty big number. Why am I sharing this with you?

Challenges Faced by Disabled Travelers

Alycia Anderson: Because I, the question that I want to try to answer today is why does travel continue to be so tough and so inaccessible securing accommodations where we might feel welcomed, where we can find a place that we belong. And we don’t feel like a burden in the process is actually a pretty hard task, especially in the era of this shared business model, term rentals, ride shares, and such as a disabled person. I have found personally, since I travel a lot, the stage. That there’s a lot of stigma and discrimination when you’re going through this process. And for me, it causes me what I call my short term rental or ride share anxiety, I run into blatant denials of service I disclose my disability and that is a real, real true, true. So that means I could show up to an event. And be denied a place to stay or order a ride share and they literally drive by and leave me on the side of the road. This is tough, especially in this era where most of the general public is choosing these services as their number one option. is absolutely a fundamental right for all of us to ensure opportunities like employment and leisure. I love the leisure part.

Introducing Becoming Rentable

Alycia Anderson: So today we’re going to talk about short term rentals specifically with a very innovative and accessible company that is taking the industry in the space by storm. Adam Norco. He is an accomplished business and development and marketing executive extensive experience in hospitality. He is the host of the Art of Hospitality podcast. We want to hear about that for sure. And sidekick today is the founder of Becoming Rentable, Woodward,, Becoming rentable is a technology platform company that is redefining accessibility in the short term rental and vacation rental space. Thank you for doing the work, the much needed work being pioneers in the space.

Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I’m so excited about this conversation.

Lorraine Woodard: Thank you for having to be here.

Alycia Anderson: Okay. So I have a lot of questions. I think I want to start though. If you don’t mind, just a brief introduction on what becoming rentable is and Lorraine, what inspired you this creation?

Lorraine’s Personal Story and Inspiration

Lorraine Woodard: Actually, you know, I, I hate to admit it. It was my family, uh, because it was hard. I have muscular dystrophy. I use a wheelchair. My two adult boys have muscular dystrophy. Traveling was hard. And I really, as they got older and, you know, Papa bear couldn’t lift them anymore and they were becoming. Young men, I wanted them to have a different opportunity to travel at least, you know, get outside their dormitory, get outside their condo or an apartment and enjoy a space that they could get around. And so ended up building a beach house three hours away from where we live in North Carolina. It’s Beach outside of Wilmington, North Carolina. And after years of having this rental and 450 families renting, I found out our family wasn’t as special as I thought because these 450 families were having the same problems that we were, , and finding an accessible place to stay. As they say, it’s as hard as finding a needle in a haystack. And here we are, 2024. Why are we having this problem? What is the problem? And what is the solution?

The Importance of Accessibility Features

Lorraine Woodard: And it’s about awareness. It’s about education. It’s identifying what is accessible. It’s not this magic formula to say these 10 things equal access. For us, we believe it’s about choices. What I need may be very different than what you need. And what my boys need is different. So we created a, a platform where you identify 43 features that you need when you look at a short term rental and properties are added to our list by being certified, where we. the property and most importantly, we validate the property that it says what it has to say that it has in it. And that’s really, the most critical feature because, you know, I’m traveling in September. And honestly, I, I’m thinking about canceling it We have to stay at a hotel between here and there, because it’s a 14 hour drive. But like you and so many others, it is that trepidation. Okay. What happens if, and and yes, we have, I mean, I bring a van full of Just in case, you know, what’s that plan B and C. So this work is not only needed, it’s critical. And it’s really shameful that we’re at this stage in 2024.

Alycia Anderson: you look like you have something to say.

Adam’s Perspective and Industry Insights

Adam Norko: No, I mean, I agree wholeheartedly with, with what Lorraine saying, honestly I’m sort of, my eyes are being open to this a little bit. So I come at this from, from two different directions. Um, I’ve been in the vacation rental space for 16 years and in a variety of different roles. sales, marketing technology, but I’m also the father of a son that has a rare genetic disorder.

I’ve got four kids and he’s my 11 year old. So it presents itself as sort of severe, severe autism. So very similar to what you would expect from autism. And I’ve come at this from that side of it as a parent who thinks about traveling. But when I listened What you have to say, Alycia, and what Lorraine is saying and the discussions that I’m having across the industry, my eyes are still being open to this.

You know, I’m still learning and being educated to, to think that we’re in 2024 and you, when you think about ride sharing or you think about traveling and staying in a short term rental, that you almost expect that at some point there’ll be sort of this outright denial that, that blows my mind to think that that is still happening is eyeopening for me.

And it should be for the entire industry. I don’t think people are intentionally doing this. I don’t think they’re ignoring it or denying service intentionally out of out of malice, out of a bad place. But I think that if we can educate and we can create this awareness, we can recognize that there are simple changes that can be made that can make it much easier for everybody.

Alycia Anderson: Education, I absolutely agree, is key in all of this. I don’t think the majority of people are out there to be rude or unkind or frankly, downright discriminating against us. Um, but it does happen.

Common Barriers and Solutions

Alycia Anderson: And so what do you think some of the common barriers are that we need to educate partners on?

Lorraine Woodard: You know, for me, it is the idea of choices. It’s the information in which you go and book a place to stay. And so a different booking platforms have different information. Vrbo has elevator and wheelchair accessible. What does that really mean? So you go in and you look for a place and you look, okay, now I’m going to push both of those buttons and what do I get?

Oh, 5213 places to go through. And then you have Airbnb, they have 13 filters. Again, some are very specific and some are very broad. So, okay, now you get 350. Properties to look at, and then there’s the element of the unknown. So I think 1 is how do we get. Choices on these booking platforms of the onboarding and change it so it is more comprehensive. Secondly, it’s. It’s providing education about what is, for example, a grab bar. Sometimes you have this suction cup grab bar and it’s like, Hey, we have that for my grandmother and it works perfectly. So I have a short term rental. I’m, I’m, I’m putting it on this platform and I’m going to click the accessible button, but what does that mean? And is that a viable option for access? Oh, and I forgot to tell you, I do have five steps to get into the front door and there’s no other door that has. Less than five steps. So it is be able to give that information. And even a driveway, you may not think of, okay, a driveway. Well, driveway is important for me when I drive up in my van. Is it ground, grass, dirt, gravel? Because if it is, that’s not going to work for me. I will dig in the ground. I will get stuck. So it’s even simple things that you have in place. But you didn’t think of them in that regard of accessibility.

We just finished a project in Arkansas with the state parks program of looking at all the cabins, yurts, and lodging options they have. know it’s really cool. And so they said they had one feature. They said ADA accessible. Of course I’m going, well, what does that mean? And so we evaluated their properties and lo and behold, they had 39 features and they were going, Lorraine, how do we have 39 features?

And it’s like, well, let’s look, you have hard surface in all of your cabins. It’s, it’s wood. You have all white doors. You have concrete areas to park. And all of a sudden they’re like, really? I never knew that that was associated with accessibility. And I would say the next thing is looking at accessibility in broad terms. So many times, and hey, you and I are both all about wheelchair access, but accessibility is also about walker access and crutches and canes and what all of our needs are, and and that’s what’s also important to really broaden what the scope is, and in Adam’s need for a place to stay for his, his son, we look at cognitive issues as well. And so again, it’s broadening and thinking beyond maybe ourselves and others as well.

Alycia Anderson: You know what I loved about that too? And you look like you have something to say, Adam. So I want you to jump in, but the whole option of choices, I translated that as standardized choices. So maybe across every platform, a ramp means a ramp and that’s what it means. So there isn’t this like variation of, well, it could mean this on Airbnb, but over on this program, it means something else.

So the education isn’t convoluted,

Lorraine Woodard: you’re absolutely right. And that’s one of the things that we’re trying to do in the industry is to create standards.

does this mean? Because another phrase that we see a lot is

barrier free. Well, again, what does that mean? And so if in the hospitality industry, we can look at creating these standards and identifying the definitions that will help not only short term rentals, but our, our mid stay rentals, our extended stay renters, our hotels, and an understanding of what accessibility does mean.

Adam Norko: I agree with all that. I would actually take it a little bit further than that as well. So I, I think that, um, the idea of choices and thinking about this and, and I come again specifically from the vacation rental side of things and hotels and some of the other hospitality and lodging side might think about it a little bit differently.

There’s such a uniqueness to short term rentals and vacation rentals that it’s very difficult to define what a specific standard would be. And that’s why the ADA doesn’t apply to short term rentals is because it’s, there’s such a variety. That you couldn’t potentially give one standard. That’s going to apply to everything.

So I think that is the beginning of it to Lorraine’s point is that we’ve got to think about this as choices or more like matchmaking than it is a standard. The job of the vacation rental industry, the job of the vacation rental manager is to find the best property for each one of their guests and be a matchmaker and try to match them up.

But I would take that one step further. To go back to the point you made, Alycia, and it’s at the beginning, you said that you need to feel welcomed and you need to feel like you’re not a burden. And I think that is really the underlying foundation of all of this is all of these industries, whether it’s ride sharing or vacation rentals or hotels.

We all need to recognize that we are in hospitality and our job is to welcome people. Regardless of what they’re doing.

I think we’re looking at this as if I might have to do some extra work in order to earn you as a guest or to support your trip into my location.

I think that it’s all the same work about being hospitable and creating great guest experiences for every guest that comes through. And I think the industry needs to understand that there really isn’t that much extra work with that. But the other part of that that Lorraine and I keep hearing is feedback that people are concerned about lawsuits as a result of it.

There is no set standard that you can say, if you can’t give me X, Y, and Z, now I can sue you because you didn’t do X, Y, and Z. And I think the industry needs to understand that there isn’t a set standard. We can help define that. Becoming rentable is helping define the broad standards of where the choices and the matchmaking can happen.

But there isn’t going to be one set standard that you’re going to have to rely on, that if you don’t meet it, that you’re going to have to end up your day in court. And I think that people are A, they think there’s extra work and B, they think there’s a risk that’s associated with that extra work. And I think we need to change that.

We need to help people understand that we’re all the same. We’re all trying to enjoy vacation. And to your point, we have this freedom to move. We should be able to use that freedom to the best of our ability.

Alycia Anderson: And you know, this is the problem in every industry. Disability inclusion is salted with adversity and looked at as a punitive Issue before it’s looked at as a human issue. And I have written down attitudinal barriers, and this is the thing. This is the, Oh, you’re in a wheelchair. I don’t want your wheels on my wood floors.

I’m denying you. It’s the attitudes and the ableism of like preconceived notions of what. The ability somebody with a disability is, and it shifts these behaviors in us that we think like negative, fear based, and that’s a tough umbrella to live in. As somebody who just wants to go to Hawaii or somebody who’s like booking a trip to go speak about disability inclusion. And she’s discriminated against the entire time making her way there, you know? So that’s why your work is so important because you have those opportunities and you are shifting those barriers.

It’s amazing.

Lorraine Woodard: Well, the other thing in regard to what you’re saying is the reality is nine out of 10 of us are going to have a disability in our life. It could be short term. It could be long term. And now with the aging process, you know, and we’re growing in in 2030 are we baby boomers myself will be a part of this. You know, 72 million Americans that are of the senior age and with senior age comes, vision, hearing, mobility issues, and this has benefit all of us, if not now in the future,

Alycia Anderson: Bottom line benefit among so many other things.

Lorraine Woodard: absolutely.

Alycia Anderson: What do you say to those? clients that you work with, that you’re working to, qualify their property to be under your platform that might have some fear or misconceptions maybe valid conceptions, both.

How do you ease their minds to move forward in a partnership?

Lorraine Woodard: You know, a lot of times it really is just talking with them and educating them about their property and the benefits of their property and how many people that can enjoy their properties.

And then all of a sudden the benefits are outweighing those concerns and those concerns slowly dismissed and go on. And so there’s this idea that yes, your wheels may get on the floor and dirty.

And Oh my, but you don’t think about how much alcohol are you going to drink? You know, how long are you going to be out in the sun? And then you come in and you’re tired and you know, you’re weak and you fall down the steps. But yet if you have a disability. You know, the first thought is, Oh, my gosh, you know, what happens if this?

Well, let’s think about what happens in other scenarios. And then when you start talking about it and educating, a lot of times that fear does go away.

Alycia Anderson: And by the way, what is the difference from a wheel and a shoe? Like I still can’t figure out what that is.

Success Stories and Positive Impact

Alycia Anderson: give me a success story, let’s talk about the beautiful value of this.

Lorraine Woodard: My renters that just left this morning, they were here for 10 days. They have a six year old daughter who has multiple disabilities. They haven’t been able to vacation in their life and they wanted to stay longer because they had so much fun. And what was amazing for them is it’s like, they felt like quote a normal family, just like anybody else that goes on vacation and you just bring your luggage, your treats and your bodies and you enjoy yourself. And that’s what they got to do. . Um, this year we had a family and, and the daughter of, her father called me. And she said, Lorraine, my dad was diagnosed with stage four cancer and we need to stay by a hotel, I mean by the hospital, excuse me, and our house doesn’t accommodate for a hospital bed and we need a place that dad can stay and it’s not our house.

Can we rent from you? And I said, sure. They said, but we don’t know how long I said, that’s okay. And so literally they moved in that day. And 14 days later, he passed away. And they sent me this artwork and they sent me letters and said, Lorraine, those were the best 14 days. We got to sing songs with dad.

The dog was on the bed. The grandkids were on the bed. You know, their bed was like just full of people having a good time laughing and sharing stories. And they said, if it weren’t for your accessible rental, we would still be looking for a place to find for dad to put that hospital bed. And that’s why I do what I do. .

Alycia Anderson: story gave me the chills. love it. And what you said in the story before that and now they are not afraid to book again. never have the feeling of not being afraid. I’m going to cry about it we don’t understand as humans, what a privilege it is to not feel fear and anxiety about booking a trip to go to Hawaii when it’s supposed to be fun, because you’re afraid that somebody is going to leave you on the side without a roof or a ride.

So that is amazing.

Lorraine Woodard: Okay. One more story just

Alycia Anderson: Okay.

Lorraine Woodard: I love stories.

is a family. The daughter lived in Durham, North Carolina, mom and dad and brother live in Texas. It took them 28 years. on their next vacation. Why? their son is now 48. son is in a wheelchair. The son is blind and has autism. And it’s not all of the, the the blindness, the wheelchair, the autism. It was about dad not being able to lift his son and help him be independent. couldn’t find for 28 years a place that they could go on vacation. Until fortunately they found our beach property and so, they went on a, a, a pontoon boat. and you just see this smile on this gentleman’s face, , as the wind is and the sea salt and the water is just splashing against them. And they had such a great time. And that’s why I love my beach house. I love this industry because of these stories and how we are making a difference in people’s lives. So many times we don’t understand disability. because it’s not a part of our lives. These are individuals.

These are our neighbors, our friends, our family. And now they can go on a work trip. They can go on a family vacation. They can go to that wedding. They can go to a funeral.

Alycia Anderson: Where do you see the landscape of the industry of accessible travel, short term rentals? What do you think the next five years is going to look like?

Alycia, you asked for success stories. Seeing the changes in this industry, the amazing guest experience, the amazing hospitality, the privilege that we have as hospitality providers to be included in those life moments is very significant.

Adam Norko: That’s where the success is. And the vacation rental industry likes to think of themselves as embracing hospitality. And creating these fantastic guest experiences, which we do, we do that for a vast majority of the guests that come into the vacation rental industry, the challenge is that we’re actively ignoring this disability community for all the reasons that we talked here, right?

Whether it’s additional work, we feel like it’s a burden that we don’t know if there’s enough of an opportunity. So I think we are at this place where we’re trying to help the industry understand a few different things. There’s a huge opportunity. The numbers that you said at the beginning, Alycia, for the amount of money that was spent by disabled travelers is huge. There is a huge opportunity to generate revenue, but more importantly, there is a huge opportunity to give people life changing moments and life changing events.

And for us to be a part of that as hospitality, a hospitality provider, , we have this opportunity to be really intimate with the guests that come through our organizations. We get to help them stay in, in very unique properties. We have to help them go on very unique experiences while they’re in our area.

We try to get them to feel like a local. And if we can do that for people that have been ignored up to this point, or even worse than ignored, been actively pushed away and made to feel like a burden, that is up to us as an industry to change. And we need to embrace that.

So if I had to answer your question, where would it be in the next five years? My hope is that we move through this educational phase. Relatively quickly. And then we move into the certification phase pretty quickly after that. And in five years from now, it’s just commonplace.

So that’s why, Lorraine and I are exceptionally passionate about spreading this message.

But more than just spreading it by, by being that tool that we can use to, for the industry to start to grow and start to embrace this as quickly as possible.

Alycia Anderson: Industry has the opportunity to pave a pathway towards inclusion by looking at accessibility as not only return on investment, but an opportunity to build a new world that has not been available to everybody.

So it’s like such. An opportunity to be, to put your stamp on that as well. Very cool. Okay.

How to Support Becoming Rentable

Alycia Anderson: Tell me how our listeners can support you your programs all of that.

Lorraine Woodard: visit us at becomingrentable. com again, if you have interested in the short term rental space and creating an accessible short term rental, please reach out. If you’ve had great experiences and know of accessible short term rentals, let us know about those so we can share that with others.

Adam Norko: You can find Lorraine and I on, on LinkedIn. But I would reiterate that becoming rentable. com is where you want to go. One to learn about information. If you’ve got a short term rental and you’re open to us trying to certify it, we’d love to be a part of that.

But I think more importantly, which we didn’t really touch on too much is that we have listings for, Travelers with disabilities to go on and find the homes that have been certified. And we’ve got 1500 plus homes that are already certified across the country. So if you’re in the disability community traveling, I think we should be the place where you start to see if there’s a short term rental that could qualify for you.

Alycia Anderson: and I’m so glad you added that and there are plenty of options out there on your website. And we absolutely encourage our listeners to follow you on all of your platforms.

We’re going to leave it in the show notes and a vacation, sign up to a home and through becoming rentable and go kick your feet up somewhere and feel the wind in your hair and the breeze on your face and the splash of the ocean on your skin. And enjoy things that maybe you haven’t. Before because you were too afraid or there wasn’t a path of least resistance.

This was so fun. I’m ready for vacation. Thank you so much for your time and for this incredible advocacy work that you’re doing. It is so much more than the platform. It is so much more. From an emotional standpoint, honestly, you are changing societal perceptions on so many things.

Pushing Forward Moment

Alycia Anderson: Before we wrap up, we always have a pushing forward moment. This is a mantra, a little bit of advice that you can give to inspire our listeners. Do each of you have, and I’m putting you on the spot, I can see it right now, a little bit of, I don’t know, inspiration that you can pass along.

Adam Norko: I’ve got one. I’ll let Lorraine think about hers for a second. So I mentioned I got four kids and, um, we’re big into sports. So every time I drop off my son to go play lacrosse or soccer, when he’s getting out of the car, I always say to him, be the hardest worker on the field. So I think that’s what I’ll leave with.

Be the hardest worker. Show up early, stay late, do what you need to do for other people. .

Alycia Anderson: I love it. Hard work. Let’s go.

Lorraine Woodard: go. Gosh, you made this really, really, really hard. You know, for me, it, and it kind of sounds corny, but don’t give up, you know, really look and address what your needs are. And and that’s how we’re going to create change. Don’t be afraid to ask those questions, particularly, you know, you’re at a hotel, you’re at a short term rental, and you have a need, that’s how we’re going to create more change, is helping you, you know, meet those needs.

Alycia Anderson: If you see something that you need and you don’t see it. Say it. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Conclusion and Farewell

Alycia Anderson: Thank you to our community for showing up every single solitary week. I see you. We are growing. Please continue to subscribe and review and all of the good stuff. will see you next time. This has been Pushing Forward with Alycia, and that is literally how we roll on this podcast.