Hitting Disabled Guests

[greenbarn]

No, not a cynical act of violence, nor even an Ian Dury and The Blockheads moment, but a serious question on the size of the market for disabled guests.

Here's the background: because of various planning constraints, red tape, bureaucracy etc etc our barn conversion was classed as a commercial building, and we had to fork out to satisfy various requirements in one of the cottages. As a result, we have a number of facilities aimed directly at wheelchair users and others with mobility issues, such as a ground floor wetroom with the approved toilet and all the grab handles etc (known as a Doc M Pack, if you're interested) that will take a wheelchair, and ramped access to the front door. Problem is all the bedrooms are upstairs; to satisfy the regs our architect designated the lounge as disabled sleeping accommodation, and we do indeed have a day bed in there. This has a proper single mattress and is very comfortable, and being a day bed needs the absolute minimum of effort to convert from sofa to bed - basically chuck the cushions on the floor. But - it's not a dedicated bedroom, and that's what people really want.

So to the question. How can we discover if there is sufficient market in our area to make it worth spending yet more on a stairlift? It would be great to be able to offer lovely accommodation to disabled guests, but a pointless and unaffordable expense if nobody wants to come here as a direct result. If I keep Googling for long enough I might find an organisation that can advise, but if anyone here can offer any suggestions, experience or opinion we'd be really grateful.

[A-two]

Can you advertise with stair lift on request, then if you get a positive response (one booking), do the install? I imagine you will need to boost the marketing to reach the disabled market, then build up the clientele over a year or two based on good reviews. You could be doing that even without the stair lift. We don't promote disabled at all, but still receive several inquiries every year as they are attracted by ground floor bedrooms and bathroom. However, the living room is upstairs, we don't have a stair lift, so it rarely goes ahead. That said, last year we had a severely disabled 10 yr old, who I guess was small enough to be carried upstairs. Since the booking was for a month, they brought quite a lot of their own equipment - ramps, oxygen machine etc. The only issue we had during the stay was a power outage cased by a storm. They had brought enough oxygen supply with them for about 12 hours, but we were concerned after it hadn't been restored after a couple of hours. We were on the point of taking over a generator to keep it going, but luckily the power came back on. Earlier this year, I had a request to bring in an additional hospital bed, but they were too many people to take our bed out and not enough room to add a bed, so that didn't go ahead. I have thought of putting in a stair lift as I think the market is definitely there, but as with everything, it's not as simple as put a stair lift in and everyone is happy. In my experience, people with disabilities come with all kinds of special needs, not just stair lift, although they certainly open up possibilities for more elderly guests. Baby boomers frequently have elderly parents who are not disabled as such, but just can't manage stairs well, and that's possibly a bigger sector of the market than the kind of severe disabilities I'm describing above. As you're in for the long haul, I would say to do it, but I don't know cost of install and maintenance, or how long it would take to pay back.

[Windy]

I noticed this weekend that there is a caravan at Limefitt with a disabled ramp. South Lakeland Parks have put 19 rental 'vans up on a temporary basis while they wait for the lodge sales market to pick up - this is one of these.

If they have added a disabled caravan then I would imagine that indicates quite strongly that this indicates that there is a decent market for it (they are not overtly philanthropic) Your stair lift idea might therefore pay dividends

Cumbria Tourism may be able to help you here with some research results?

My gut feel is that this is probably and underserved niche market that may well give a double whammy of providing a much needed service as well as contributing to profitability.

How much is a stair lift out of interest?

[Giddy Goat]

Bit of a long shot Greenbarn, but the owner of this website is on LMH, though hasn't posted for a while: http://www.accessibleaccommodation.com/

I've had some contact with him in the past and he has quite a lot of experience in terms of supplying equipment to disabled people before creating the above. I should think that if anyone knows the rental market in the UK for this client group, he (John) does. There's a phone number on the website. Good luck!

[greenbarn]

Thanks for the ideas.

Giddy Goat - We'll see if we can get in touch with John from accessibleaccommodation - there's a certain irony here, as I have a hearing disability which makes using a phone a real struggle; not as big a deal as being in a wheelchair, but something that affects daily life nonetheless! Anne does all the listening stuff, I do emails, so I'll probably try that first.

A-two - advertising as you suggest had crossed my mind, but it would need a number of bookings to justify the expense, so it's a bit of a Catch-22. I agree that the market must extend beyond the severely disabled to the elderly, which is something I've seen with my own eighty something mother who struggles a bit with stairs, and as the cottage has three bedrooms it could be a plus for a family. Right now we've still got enough reasons to have to spend, but if we don't see a strong case in the meantime we could well consider a bit of a gamble in a year or so and just go for it then.

Windy - cost of simple install in round figures is £1k for a good refurb unit, battery operated in case of power failure, which is a definite consideration here. I might give CT a try - it would be nice to get something out of them! We also think it is, as you say, an undeserved niche market. Pity that VB want to charge yet more money in order to tell those with a very limited choice about suitable accommodation.

We're still feeling our way in the business and learning about the sort of guests we get; a lot are walkers, and I can't get my head round the notion of there being a big market for people in wheelchairs coming on walking holidays. However, we're also getting a lot of people who are just attracted by the countryside and the peace, and having the choice of trips to both The Lakes and The Dales nearby. It may be that there's sufficient single-storey accommodation in the area to meet the demand, maybe not.


Thanks to all again for your suggestions - it's all good food for thought!

[jane reed]

we have mostly disabled or elderly customers.
it is a growing market, but you have to remember that disabled doesn't mean wheelchair user. The symbol for disabled with a wheelchair is very misleading.
Most of my customers can walk but have problems with distance and steps. I would work with what you have. i have had a look at your website, and it looks very nice, clean and modern. What i have found is customers like to know they are in a safe and friendly enviroment helps. So by showing the access to the barns, saying ideal for the mature customer, showing examples of short walks and drives that they can take.
is access to garden on the level, are the floors slippery, if you meet an greet your customers say so. If you have a bird table for people to feed and watch the birds that helps. we have a 70% return on our customers, our accomodation is not as nice s yours but we are friendly and keep an eye on them.

[greenbarn]

Thanks for that information Jane - very interesting. We're going to put up some bird feeding stations, but hadn't thought about the extra benefit to less mobile guests, although recent guests brought granny along who spent a lot of time sitting with the binoculars we'd provided and announced after day 1 that she liked the place so much she was going to squat!
We're also incredibly fortunate in having Red Squirrels visiting daily - this is one of the very few areas of the country where you can buy bird-proof squirrel feeders, rather than the normal squirrel-proof bird feeders!

[HenryG]

Make sure your site is accessible

Then advertise on accessible directories and/or create traffic from web accessibility discussion forums. There are many.

Once that is done, if you are the webdesigner - you may want to join Gawds or similar.

And if your final website is absolutely dashing you may want to request for it to be evaluated here

There are plenty of ways to attract traffic, using "accessibility" as an angle. The good news is that you will still attract everyone - not just those in need of better access.

But the more accessible you make your site - the higher your search rankings should be. Well, at least in theory anyway.

[catherinedonegal]

i had been going to install a stairlift but after discussing it on lmh, i decided it best not to in my situation.

however, we do have a downstairs bedroom with en suite wet room, disabled loo, grab bars, etc. and we ramped the entrance to the back door for access from off street parking (the front door is ground level so ok). as the house is old, the doorways are a little wider than a modern build.

i got quite a few bookings from people who were bringing an elderly parent and appreciated the gf room & facilities. and in one family one of the ladies was mostly wheelchair bound and her daughter reported back that she managed to get around the gf fairly well (although she told me electric wheelchairs are wider and may damage my doorways if not manoevered carefully).

so i do think having accommodation for people who find stairs difficult a big plus.

[Windy]

Returning to my previous post about the disabled caravan, which I though was a great idea - I was absolutey amazed to be told a few weeks back that it is the least rented unit of them all.