Expedia Group Working With Tech Startups to Make Travel Easier

25.08.2023 - 14:16 / skift.com / Justin Dawes

As the founder of a short-term rental software platform dedicated to people with disabilities, Lorraine Woodward said she sees a lot of lip service about accessibility from big travel companies. 

While many companies have internal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, all of them arguably are lacking when it comes to services for travelers. And it takes action — not just words — to make a difference. 

That’s why she is optimistic that her new partnership with Expedia Group could lead to an industry change. 

Her company, Becoming Rentable, is one of 12 travel tech startups that are part of the first cohort of Expedia Group’s new Open World Accelerator program.  

“I believe that when a company makes this type of commitment, then others will follow. But we need a leader, and I believe that Expedia is going to be that — with our help,” Woodward said. 

Becoming Rentable is a short-term rental listing platform that contains 36 filters for different types of disabilities — not just for people using wheelchairs or walkers, but also for those who are blind, deaf, or autistic.

The company also offers paid evaluation and certification services for property owners and managers to verify vacation rentals as accessible in some way or another. If an owner wants to make a property more accessible, the startup can help with that too. 

Woodward founded the company with her own experience in mind. She and her two adult sons have muscular dystrophy, greatly limiting what they can do. She designed a fully accessible beach house in North Carolina so they would have a reliable option. Since she listed the house as a vacation rental and word spread about the accessibility, more than 350 families have used the space, she said. 

The problem Woodward sees with listings on big-name vacation rental booking platforms is that able-bodied property owners often do not understand the practical needs of people with varying levels of abilities. So property owners often label a property as accessible even if it is not. “Wheelchair accessible” could mean different things to different people who use wheelchairs. 

“We kept finding that. I promise if you go into any of these large platforms, you will see the same,” Woodward said. 

An estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide, including roughly 61 million in the U.S., have a disability. The majority of them want to travel but cannot because of accessibility issues, something Woodward said she has learned through countless hours of research and conversations. That’s a big segment of the market that’s potentially getting left behind. 

Vrbo, Expedia’s short-term rental booking platform, is not excluded from the criticism. The platform only has two filters right now for accessibility — one for