Access More Areas

The song says there's three steps to heaven, but what if you're unable to take even those few steps to enjoy the heavenly coffee or food in that highly-recommended café? Or what if you've travelled half-way around the world on wheels only to find the bathroom in your luxury hotel-room wheelchair inaccessible? For many of us who enjoy access all areas on our travels, it's easy to forget that for many of those wishing to visit with us some places remain out of bounds thanks to short-sighted or thoughtless design.

Big Steps For Change

When software engineer Matt McCann was visiting London in 2012, he chose a hotel that claimed to be accessible for his rollator. On arrival however, he found the only access to his hotel was up three steps, and the doorway to his bedroom was too narrow to gain entry.

Matt, our featured guest on the last Kickstart Your Business in our series, decided to fix the problem of travel for himself and others like him, by setting up Access Earth to provide up to the minute information and ratings on accessible services across the world. Launched earlier this year in Dublin and Chicago, Access Earth has already seen hundreds of venues and places of interest tagged and rated in the two cities.

Have App, Will Travel

Mick Clifford, our stand-in host on The Right Hook, marvelled that no-one else had seen the need and opportunity to serve this significant and often ignored group of visitors.

I suggested that as both a user of Access Earth and the entrepreneur behind it, Matt is uniquely placed to reach out to representative and advocacy groups, and appeal to their members to get rating the various venues in their local areas.

I also noted that the soul of hospitality is our ability to welcome in strangers and make them feel at ease, and a venue that opens its doors to all visitors is likely to enjoy significant advantage over those that don't in terms of building customer loyalty.

Your Entry Here

How do you suggest that Matt make the business of travel access more areas for more and more of those travelling?

Listen back to Kickstart Your Business and tell us what you think? We'd love to hear from you.

Indicators On For Great Parking

Ever been tempted to knock on a stranger's door and ask if you can park in their vacant driveway for a couple of hours whilst you do your shopping? Or wondered who owns the reserved but always-empty space in the busy office park? For many of us, particularly those whose car journeys regularly take us into congested parts of the business and retail centres of our cities and towns, the vacant space seems to cry out for an occupant. But who to ask?

Space, The Final Frontier

Whilst home for Christmas in 2011, English language teacher Liam Farrell found the shopping centre car parks full up, and noticed lots of empty driveways where he could easily have parked for a few hours if he only knew who to ask. Having used AirBnB on his travels, he decided to set up a similar service for parking, that would enable owners to easily lease their space and drivers to just as easily rent it, whether for a few hours, a few days or on a more permanent basis.

Liam, our featured guest this week on Kickstart Your Business, launched ParkingMotel.com in Ireland in 2015, and plans to roll out his online booking engine in cities across the world later this year.

On Air Space

Our host this week, Bobby Kerr immediately warmed to the notion of a readymade parking solution for travelling fans heading to Dublin's Croke Park this Sunday to cheer on his beloved Kilkenny, and thinks that Liam is on to a winner.

Meanwhile, I suggested that Liam has very smartly parked his idea on a proven model, and is likely to motor past many of the mistakes that pioneers of the peer-to-peer commercial model, such as AirBnB, have made. At the same time, I stressed the importance of carving out that space for ParkingMotel on an international level as soon as possible, before one of the giants in peer-to-peer solutions reverses into Liam's great idea.

Park Your Views Here

How do you suggest Liam get car drivers everywhere parking quickly and without fuss using Parking Motel?

Listen back to Kickstart Your Business and tell us what you think? We'd love to hear from you.

Kickstart Your Business is broadcast at 6.25pm every Thursday on The Right Hook on Newstalk, and is available immediately afterwards on playback on Newstalk.com.