HOME AWAY FROM HOME

The driver for founding Ablestay, a highly accessible accessible holiday home in London, was Joanna and Charles’ 14 year old son Kit.

“Kit was injured at birth and has quad cerebral palsy, is a full time wheelchair user and is non verbal,” explained Charles. “We have always found it very difficult to find places that meet Kit’s needs in terms of accommodation. Joanna also runs a Facebook group, Accessible Holidays & Day Trips, which now has about 20,000 qualified members.

Below: The house in Worcester Park is London’s first fully accessible, contemporary single storey holiday home.

“In October 2019 a lady by the name of Emma Moss who has MND posted on the site asking if anyone knew of somewhere she could stay for a weekend break to London with her family. She asked for a profiling bed, ceiling hoist, height adjustable bath, changing table, wash/ dry peninsula toilet, wheelchair access throughout and additional bedrooms for children and a carer.”

But there was no response from the Facebook group, as no-one knew of such a place.

“We contacted many hotels in London and Airbnb but there was nothing that met that level of need,” said Charles. “So we decided to do something about it and that was the start of AbleStay!”

The original idea was to put one into London and then turn to other cities across the UK where there is also a total lack of provision.

“But seeing the level of demand we’re experiencing, not only from the UK market, but from overseas visitors wanting to visit London but haven’t been able to for the lack of somewhere suitable to stay, we could create ten similar ones and not even scratch the surface,” Joanna told us. “Our long term goal is to ensure there is an AbleStay holiday home in every UK city where people wish to visit. But for this we will need the support of investors.”

The first house has been a challenge for the couple.

“We have put all of our money into it, over £200,000,” said Charles. “We also had a loan from The Key Fund where banks wouldn’t help us and also raised over £50,000 with a Crowd Funding Appeal. We have also been incredibly well supported by our partners in providing some very expensive specialist equipment for free or at cost.”

The biggest challenge was securing planning permission for change of use from a residential property to one that is classed as a hotel/guest house. This took 12 months longer than they had planned, and cost them an unplanned additional £30,000 in mortgage payments, council tax, insurance and utilities.

“The house is designed to meet the needs of those with more complex physical disabilities,” explained Joanna. “It has three bedrooms and sleeps six. The accessible bedroom has two fully profiling beds and a ceiling hoist that transfers into the fully accessible bathroom. This has an accessible shower area, a height adjustable bath, shower/changing trolley, peninsular wash/dry toilet and postural supportive toileting/shower chairs.

“The second bedroom provides either two singles or a super king and the third two singles.

“There is a fully accessible kitchen with a rise and fall main cooking and work surface.

Above: The kitchen has height-adjustable accessible washing and cooking facilities.

Below: The bathroom includes a ceiling hoist from bedroom, height adjustable bath and a Gerberit wash/dry loo

The whole house is wheelchair accessible including the decked area in the garden.”

Disabilities vary so much that it is difficult to meet the needs of everyone, but AbleStay focuses on those with complex physical disabilities that need the highest level of mobility support to enable them to stay away from home for the night.

Ablestay may be London’s first fully accessible holiday home, but the demand for it that is reflected in its frequently fullybooked schedule means it will hopefully soon be followed by many, many more, in London and around the UK.