Two British disabled entrepreneurs are set to take their accessible holiday accommodation service to the US less than a year after launching in the UK.
Suitable accommodation
Martyn Sibley and Srin Madipalli set up Accomable to help disabled people find suitable accommodation around the world. Martyn and Srin had previously created the online disability magazine Disability Horizons and had originally met as members of a support group for children with spinal muscular atrophy.
Accomable already features accessible holiday accommodation across more than 30 countries, from Ecuador and Mexico to Thailand and South Africa.
Expanded to the US
The duo received help to get their business going in the form of a grant from the Skoll Foundation, the organisation founded by former president of eBay Jeff Skoll. Now they’ve expanded to the US with the help of a five-figure investment from a London-based technology investor. Their new office in Austin, Texas, will be managed by another disabled social entrepreneur, Heather Kerstetter.
The Accomable website receives more than 3,000 hits a day and has had more than 750 booking enquiries in just four months.
“We still have a lot of work to do to reach our goal of making travel accessible to all but our early progress is a great start.”
The service has 400 properties signed up, with another 500 currently being vetted for accessibility. At the moment just 21 of these properties are in the US but the plan is to expand to 10,000 by the end of the year.
Increasing the portfolio
Martyn and Srin are also in talks with one of the largest holiday rental accommodation websites about remarketing its accessible properties on Accomable.
Srin is now focusing on increasing the portfolio of properties around the world and hopes Accomable will soon be able to offer other linked services, such as adapted car hire, medical equipment rentals and specialist insurance.
He said: “We still have a lot of work to do to reach our goal of making travel accessible to all but our early progress is a great start.”
If you’re looking to get away on an accessible holiday you can check out the Accomable website here.
