Airbnb Buys Accessible Travel Business Accomable in Its Latest Move

Airbnb is acquiring Accomable, the two-year-old startup often referred to as the "Airbnb of accessible travel" for an undisclosed sum. As part of the acquisition, co-founder and CEO Srin Madipalli will move from London to San Francisco, where he will assume a new role: accessibility program and product manager for Airbnb. Five of Accomable's seven-person team will remain in London where they will work in Airbnb's London office. Accomable's site, which helps users find accessible rentals and hotels, will "wind down in the coming months" and "we will be integrating our know-how and expertise across the Airbnb platform," Madipalli told Skift. Airbnb said "we will work to include Accomable's listings in more than 60 countries on Airbnb." About Accomable Madipalli, a former corporate lawyer, and co-founder Martyn Sibley, started Accomable without any intention of building a formal company. Both co-founders have Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and together they started Accomable as "something cool and interesting that would be helpful for disabled people and their families," Madipalli said. "I just posted it on social media, and shared it with friends," he said. "The initial reaction was that people said this was really cool, and then we thought, maybe there's an actual business there." Accomable has more than 1,100 listings in 60 countries, while Airbnb has more than 4 million listings in more than 191 countries. But what makes Accomable different from Airbnb is that each of its listings is verified by the Accommable team to ensure that it really is as accessible as it claims to be. "We have far greater amount of detail on each listing with regard to accessibility, and what equipment is there," Madipalli said. "We spent a lot of time verifying that accuracy of information. As a wheelchair user, that was one of my pain points