9 Best Airbnb Competitors for Investors

Thinking about switching up where you list your vacation rentals?

Whether you are buying Airbnb property or already a host, you might be wondering what kinds of websites you can market your rental property on. Airbnb is a great website for hosts, but it’s also worth checking out what Airbnb competitors have to offer.

What to Look for in Airbnb Competitors

Here are a few things to consider when searching for Airbnb competitors:

Name Recognition

So, you found the perfect Airbnb competitor platform to host your vacation rentals. It’s got all the features you need, and it’s cheaper than Airbnb.

The only problem?

Hardly anyone has ever heard of it, and it doesn’t rank well on Google. While some guests land on the website and book vacation rentals, it just doesn’t get the same attention and website traffic that other Airbnb alternatives are receiving. This could hinder your ability to keep your listings booked.

It’s best to stick with some of the bigger, more well-known competitors to Airbnb to ensure your Airbnb occupancy rate stays high.

Built-In Host Protection

If you’ve ever used Airbnb to list vacation rentals, you’re probably familiar with their free $1 million insurance policy for Airbnb hosts.

It’s always a good idea to check what kinds of homeowner protection different platforms offer when searching for Airbnb competitors. If a vacation rental site you’d like to list rental properties on doesn’t offer insurance, it might be wise to look into getting insurance elsewhere.

Cheaper Fees

For some Airbnb investors, this could be the biggest factor in choosing a listing platform.

If you are listing multiple vacation rentals, choosing sites with high fees can quickly add up and eat into your profits. That being said, Airbnb is already one of the cheapest platforms for listing vacation rentals, charging only 3% per Airbnb booking.

Cost is not the only factor to consider when listing your Airbnb rental property, however, and there are other reasons why you may opt for one of the Airbnb competitors on this list.

Are any of Airbnb’s main competitors charging less than Airbnb?

Read on to find out!

Top Airbnb Competitors

With this list, you should be able to find the right alternative to Airbnb for you.

Vacasa

One of the best vacation home sites is Vacasa. Vacasa is a full-service vacation rental property manager. In addition to listing your rental, Vacasa offers:

Photography
Custom copywriting
Digital marketing
3-D virtual home tours
24/7 guest service
Professional cleaning services
Guest amenities stocking
Guest screening
Damage coverage
Assistance with taxes and permits
A mobile app
Listing visibility across all major vacation rental sites

Vacasa claims to have local staff in every real estate market, so you can count on them to maintain your vacation rental for you. For busy landlords, this is a major plus.

Never heard of them?

That’s okay. If you list your vacation home with Vacasa, they will show it on all of the rental sites they partner with. This includes:

Airbnb
Google
Trip Advisor
Booking.com
Expedia
Vrbo

With exposure on the most popular vacation rental sites, your listing will get noticed. And Vacasa does not ask you to exclusively list on their site, so you can expand your reach even further by listing on additional sites.

While they only charge hosts a flat fee, you will need to get a custom quote from them. Because every property is different, the price hosts pay can vary.

However, if you are looking for an all-in-one solution to both listing rentals and property management, Vacasa is your go-to website. It really is one of the best alternatives to Airbnb.

Expedia

When you list your vacation rental with Expedia, you are putting your short term rental business in front of millions of travelers across multiple popular platforms. Expedia automatically shows listings across hotels.com, Travelocity, Orbitz, Wotif, and other high volume sites.

This Airbnb competitor’s fee schedule varies, depending on the location of your vacation rental property. You will need to make an account to find out what you must pay Expedia.

Though this website offers travel insurance, they do not advertise any insurance for hosts.

Wimdu

This Airbnb competitor is targeted mostly towards Europeans looking to travel to the states, but anyone who is aware of this steadily growing company can book a room. Similar to Airbnb, Wimdu does not charge hosts to list vacation rentals, but they do charge 3% for bookings.

While the price point is comparable, the only downside is that it is not as well known in the US, meaning the potential guest pool isn’t as vast as some other Airbnb competitors. Also, while they do offer insurance for hosts, it is not applicable in the US and Canada.

Booking.com

Booking.com is one of the most widely known and used Airbnb competitors, connecting millions of people with rental properties every day. With this website, you can be certain that your Airbnb listings will get enough attention.

Booking.com offers hosts a unique set of protections such as 24/7 support, the ability to report guest misconduct, and an option to request damage deposits. This Airbnb competitor conducts automatic fraud screening and background checks on guests.

The downside? Hosts will have to eat the high booking fees. Even though listing on the website is free, hosts have to pay between 10% and 25% each time one of their listings is reserved.

Red Awning

This Airbnb competitor posts listings across many partner sites, so you can expect your listings to receive high visibility. Unfortunately, the fee for bookings is steep at 20%.

As far as host protection goes, Red Awning provides $3,000 for rental property damage. Unlike Airbnb, they don’t seem to do any guest screening, and their website doesn’t have a host and guest review system. However, some unique features they offer include software to make hosting simpler, and they provide complimentary professional photography.

VRBO

Vrbo is a popular Airbnb competitor platform that benefits from its well-known name. Millions of users are booking on this website, meaning your listings will get lots of views here.

Because it does not allow shared spaces, Vrbo is geared towards families, unlike Airbnb, which is sometimes scrutinized for attracting a younger crowd prone to partying.

Similar to the Airbnb guest and host review system, Vrbo has its own method for hosts to review guests. This is an excellent feature that should make hosts feel more secure about who is staying in their short term rental property.

With Vrbo, hosts have two ways to pay. They can either pay 8% per booking or a flat rate of $499 per year. It is estimated that if you believe you’ll make over $10,000 on their platform per year, it pays to opt for the flat rate.

HomeAway

This well-known website has acquired both Vrbo and vacationrentals.com, and listings on this site also appear across many other vacation rental sites. Therefore, you know you are getting the right exposure.

HomeAway has the same fee schedule as Vrbo and is very similar in almost all respects. The only difference? HomeAway tends to attract European users, where Vrbo is more popular in the US. In the end, this doesn’t matter much, as both sites show their listings on sites visited worldwide.

Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor has been a leading travel site for years. In terms of visibility, anything listed on their site will get lots of views.

Vacation rentals listed on Tripadvisor are also automatically listed across their network of sites, including FlipKey, HolidayLettings, Niumba, and HouseTrip. For hosts looking for maximum exposure, Tripadvisor is a great choice. You get the bonus of being listed on multiple sites without having to create multiple listings, which is a huge time saver.

A strong Airbnb competitor, Tripadvisor matches the 3% fee schedule for bookings and does not charge a listing fee. However, unlike Airbnb, they do not appear to offer any kind of host protection or built-in insurance policies.

Onefinestay

Among Airbnb competitors, Onefinestay is a unique platform that can be great for the right host.

Unlike Airbnb and most of the other sites on this list, Onefinestay is a full-service property management company. They take care of cleaning and home maintenance, so you won’t have to worry about any of the hassles of being a landlord.

One downside to this platform is they require you to list exclusively with their website. However, they do their own marketing for your rental property. In order to find out how much it will cost to list on Onefinestay, you must contact them directly for a quote.

Can’t Choose Between Airbnb Competitors?

Still not sure which one to choose? You don’t have to exclusively list on one vacation rental website. In fact, it can be beneficial for real estate investors to list their Airbnb rental property across some or all of the best vacation rental sites.

Software such as iGMS helps landlords organize and manage listings for vacation rentals on multiple sites. This is a great solution for hosts who want to take advantage of multiple platforms because managing too many listings can take up valuable time.

This piece of vacation rental software will automate processes and streamline your duties as a property owner, all while keeping your listings across rental websites organized and in one place.

The Takeaway

After searching for and analyzing the best Airbnb properties to purchase, you’ll need a place to list your new vacation rental. Hopefully, this list gives you some insight on where you can list your short term rental property outside of Airbnb.

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