Airbnb has added new filters to its platform to help people with disabilities more easily find accommodations.
Airbnb adds new search filters for people with disabilities
Elevators, roll-in showers, and wider entryways
Elevators, roll-in showers, and wider entryways
The total of 21 new filters let people specify searches for step-free entry to rooms, wide entryways to fit a wheelchair through, elevators, showers that can accommodate wheelchairs, ramps, and more.
Previously, Airbnb users could only filter for wheelchair accessible listings, but not for any specific disability-friendly features inside a home. Airbnb writes today in a blog post that the previously available filters “did not always meet travelers’ individual needs.”
A study last year found hosts were more likely to reject guests with disabilities
Airbnb will be monitoring to make sure the new filtered results will be useful and accurate, and the company may expand the filters to be even more specific down the line.
There have been many reports about Airbnb hosts discriminating and turning away guests on the basis of race, gender, age, or disability. As a study from Rutgers researchers found last June, when potential guests asked a host if they could accommodate someone with a disability, the host was more likely to reject them. The new filters should, in theory, help users figure out some of the answers to accommodation questions, without having to go around asking each host on their own.
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