❝The framework was really useful to break down and analyse everything we already had in place, but also importantly to pinpoint areas where we could improve.❞

Airhouses has recently become the first Scottish holiday provider to be awarded an Autism Friendly Award, which recognised their autism-friendly practices.

From stunning views to hot tubs, you won’t want for anything when you stay at these award-winning self-catering lodges on the outskirts of Lauder.

Why did you register for the Autism Friendly Award?

At Airhouses, we are dedicated to ensuring every individual has a wonderful holiday experience, and we wanted to ensure we were getting it right for everyone. We have recently worked with Wheely Braw, who came to check on how welcoming and adaptive Airhouses is for people with mobility challenges.

Applying for the Autism Friendly award was the next step in our inclusivity journey. We are also a neurodiverse family ourselves, so we felt it was important to support the award and help encourage other businesses to think deeper about how they can help everyone have a great experience at their business.

How did the programme support you with reflecting and developing your venue/attraction?

The framework was really useful to break down and analyse everything we already had in place, but also importantly to pinpoint areas where we could improve. It really helped us drill down into the details and spot where we needed to do extra training or provide additional information as a team.

We found that the feedback we received around the workbooks and our evidence was invaluable and helped us improve our training and our services. The evidence guide that came with the workbooks was great at helping pinpoint changes and the depth of the changes required.

What areas of practice did you develop and what impact has this had on autistic people and their families?

We already had a number of strategies in place to support autistic visitors, such as individualised customer service. We always ask for feedback after a stay, but the workbook helped us see that we should explicitly ask autistic people to provide feedback to ensure we really listened to this minority group.

We also developed a sensory map highlighting areas (and animals!) around the farm that might be particularly noisy, smelly or have strange lights etc. We also wrote a special autistic accessibility guide to sit alongside our more general guide.

The accessibility guide talks in more detail about exactly what a guest will see, hear and experience as they enter Airhouses and find their way to their lodge etc. We already had 3D tours of each lodge available and lots of videos across social media, but because Airhouses is more than just the properties where people stay, we felt it was important to help autistic individuals know exactly what to expect from the farm, entrance, pathways to the properties etc.

❝We really wanted to make sure that Airhouses is as inclusive as possible because we believe all businesses should be.❞

- Elisabeth Kelly, Airhouses

How has gaining the award benefited your business?

Gaining the award was important to us for several reasons. We really wanted to make sure that Airhouses is as inclusive as possible because we believe all businesses should be.

Obviously, we are a business, and hopefully, it may help us attract new autistic customers who may be reassured by the award. We also hope some of the changes might encourage visitors we already have to come back again and again.

Gaining the award was also important to encourage other businesses to really think about how they can ensure autistic people can access and enjoy their services. As the first holiday business in Scotland to achieve this award, we hope we will inspire other businesses to follow suit.

Autism Friendly Award

This award supports customer-facing organisations of all sizes to provide an autism-friendly environment and inclusive customer service.

Find out about the Autism Friendly Award

Contact us

Make a new enquiry about our awards.

Autism Accreditation enquiries