How to Make Your Holiday Rental Accessible for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Guests

Why is it beneficial to make my short term rental more accessible for people with hearing loss?

Hearing loss affects roughly 1 in 6 adults in the UK and almost 80% of people over the age of 70.

This is a huge market that you could appeal to with just a few simple changes to your advert and your property.

Making a holiday rental more accessible for deaf or hard of hearing guests is often about thoughtful communication, visual cues, and safety features rather than expensive renovations. Many improvements also benefit international visitors.

Before guests arrive - changes you could make

Everyone accesses information in different ways. 

Offering multiple ways to communicate, such as email, text message, phone calls, or messaging apps, will make a positive difference to all guest, but especially those with hearing difficulties. 

We would recommend:

Clearly stating on your listing that your property welcomes deaf and hard of hearing guests and list the accessibility features you provide.

Provide a link to your digital guest app before arrival. This provides an easy way to send check-in instructions, maybe even with photos or a short video showing:

• How to find the property
• How to use the key safe or smart lock
• Parking information
• Wi-Fi details

An extremely simple change that you could make, is simply to add a notepad and pen in every room. A very easy change, that could make a huge difference. If these are branded with your logo and the guest chooses to take them home, they're also spreading the word for you on how amazing and accessible your property is and that you thought of every little thing. 

How could check in for a guest with hearing difficulties be made easier?

Provide written copies, either in print or via your guest app of: 

• House rules
• Appliance instructions
• Emergency procedures
• Local recommendations
• Check-out instructions
• Full address of the property
• Nearest hospital
• Emergency contacts
• Instructions for contacting emergency services by text (where available)
• Evacuation procedures with diagrams

If you greet guests personally:

• Face the guest when speaking.
• Don't cover your mouth.
• Speak naturally - don't shout or exaggerate lip movements.
• Be happy to write things down if needed.
• Learn a few basic signs such as "Welcome," "Thank you," or "Need help?" if you regularly host deaf guests.

This will go a long way to making them feel at home and lead to amazing reviews.

Are there any safety concerns which I should consider when welcoming guests with hearing difficulties.

Going away on holiday can be scary if you can't hear when danger occurs. Imagine a fire breaking out and you can't hear the regular smoke alarm.

Consider installing:

• Smoke alarms with flashing strobe lights
• Carbon monoxide alarms with visual alerts
• A vibrating pillow alarm (available as portable units)
• A doorbell with a flashing light notification
• A baby monitor with vibration/light alerts for families

These can all be picked up second-hand or relatively cheaply and will increase the safety of all your guests. 

Ensure your television:

• Has subtitles enabled by default if a guest informs you that they are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Includes streaming services that offer subtitles

Transcript of the video about adaptions for guests with hearing loss in short term rentals, for those who need it:

Becky: So when you are thinking about hearing loss, are there any simple changes that people could make that would make their properties more inclusive for people who have hearing loss? 
Gillian: There are. There are some great little tips on welcoming people. So you imagine the booking stage. So what do we all do? A lot of us look online, which, yeah, is great because then you can see the written information, you can gather that information, which is good. But if you want to make that contact over the telephone, then that is challenging because if you can't hear, you're not going to be able to hear the information that you need. 
Becky: So the flexibility of information in alternative formats 
Gillian: Yes the flexibility when booking and is so important. Other things are that you've got lots of written information so if they can't hear they can read lots of things. We've got a welcome book here that's full of information about what to do while you're here. We've also got a portable hearing loop and what that does it creates like a magnetic field between the person who has got hearing loss and has got a hearing aid that's got a T position, where they flick it to the T position and it connects with this magnetic loop. It enables people to chat and it drops out the background noise. 
Things like a vibrating emergency alarm pillow, which is called a Def Guard, that's a brand, and we've got one of those here. So a pad goes under the pillow, it's plugged in, and when the fire alarm goes off. it shakes and vibrates and wakes that person up. So you imagine staying in accommodation and having that fear factor that if there's a fire, you're not going to hear it. I mean, it's scary, isn't it? It's very scary. 
Becky: Yeah, and the visual flash. Flash, I agree. But if you're fast asleep, like you said, the vibrating mattresses, under the pillow. It's amazing. 

Gillian: It's a great thing. Flashing fire alarms. If someone can't hear the sound of an alarm, then when it's flashing, it's alerting them to say, you know, there's an emergency. 

We've also got a little Sony portable Bluetooth speaker. It's got a charging plate and plugs in near the telly and then you can take it and you can sit it at the side of you and you can control the dial etc and the volume. So instead of having to have it on really loud and blaring out a TV that's uncomfortable for other guests then that's a really great little thing to have. It just makes it more comfortable for everybody but they've got that speaker as close as possible to them.

Things like subtitles on your smart TVs, they come as standard really, but write about it. Anyone staying at your property, they don't know whether you've got a smart TV. Tell them that you've got that and that there are subtitles available. If you make videos of your own property, if you do anything about the local area, put subtitles on it. 

People become socially isolated because of hearing loss. And they often start to avoid going places and saying, oh, I'll stay at home because I can't hear anything anyway when people are talking. And they don't feel included. And I think if we can pull things in place that actually make people feel included, then that's a lovely thing.