12 Sites Like Vrbo For Vacation Rental Listing and Booking
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Whether you’re a property owner or a traveler, Vrbo is a great platform for listing and finding great vacation rentals. However, there are plenty of other sites like Vrbo that offer even more.
Vrbo is a peer-to-peer vacation rental platform that connects property owners with vacationers seeking an alternative to a hotel.
This platform has over 2 million active listings in over 190 countries all around the world.
However, it’s not the only platform for vacation rentals.
If you’re a property owner and you only have your listing on one platform like Vrbo, you could be leaving money on the table.
In this article, we’re going over 12 sites like Vrbo for additional exposure to your vacation rentals. You’ll also discover a couple of unusual ways to make extra money with vacation rentals even if you don’t own a rental property.
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12 Sites like Vrbo For Vacation Rental Listing and Booking
Vrbo is a great platform for both rental owners and rental seekers, but sometimes you might want an alternative.
Whether you’re a renter looking for more options, or a rental owner wanting a way to increase your chances of exposure and bookings, take a look at these other sites like Vrbo to expand your horizons.
1. Airbnb
Airbnb is a household name, so it likely needs little introduction.
Unlike Vrbo, Airbnb boasts over 5.6 million rentals in over 220 countries around the world. And, also unlike Vrbo, Airbnb allows you to list single rooms for rent.
This opens the door for property or homeowners looking to make a little rental income without having an entire separate property to rent out.
And, if you’re the renter, you’re likely to find much lower prices on Airbnb due to the single room rental option.
Airbnb does not charge owners for listing, but they do take a percentage of your total booking fees.
According to their resource center, hosts can expect to pay a service fee of around 3% of the booking subtotal, and guests pay a service fee of 14% of the booking subtotal.
Airbnb is a great Vrbo alternative, especially if you’re someone looking to list or rent a single room.
Visit Airbnb2. FlipKey
FlipKey is a vacation rental marketplace with more than 300,000 active vacation rental properties in 190 countries around the world.
This platform is a part of Tripadvisor Rentals, but it operates separately.
Like Vrbo, FlipKey has only entire property rentals or private rooms, like a private hotel apartment.
Since FlipKey is a part of Tripadvisor, guests have the ability to sort properties by their Tripadvisor reviews. This is a benefit for both the customer and the host (as long as you have good reviews).
As an owner, you can list your rental property on FlipKey for free. Like Airbnb, owners pay a 3% service fee once your property is booked.
Guests can expect to pay a service fee of anywhere between 8% to 16% for rental bookings through FlipKey.
This is one of the smaller vacation rental sites like Vrbo, but it can be a great place to get additional exposure on your rental property with the added benefit of Tripadvisor reviews.
Visit FlipKey3. Holiday Lettings
Holiday Lettings lists over 700,000 privately owned cottages, villas, and apartments in over 150 countries worldwide.
This platform is another Tripadvisor partner that operates independently.
When you list your property rental on Holiday Lettings, you’ll get exposure on Tripadvisor to millions of vacationers searching for places to stay all around the world.
As a guest, Holiday Lettings has unique places to rent including castles and luxury yachts.
Although Holiday Lettings is a UK-based rental platform, they have rental listings in over 150 countries.
Just like FlipKey, it’s free to publish a listing on HolidayLettings. Hosts only pay 3% of the total booking fee once a property is booked and paid for.
Due to their connection with Tripadvisor, this is one of the top sites like Vrbo for listing your vacation rental, especially if you’re UK-based.
4. Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor has close to 1 million vacation rental properties in close to 200 countries around the world.
This platform has combined its power with Holiday Lettings, FlipKey, and Niumba, a vacation rental platform for Spanish speakers.
Tripadvisor claims to be the world's largest travel platform.
Whether or not that’s accurate, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Tripadvisor has more user-generated location reviews than any other travel platform out there.
Tripadvisor is one of the leading platforms for vacationers to research, compare prices, and book their trips.
This platform tops the list of the best sites like Vrbo because of how well-known, trusted, and powerful it is.
Listing your vacation rental on Tripadvisor will get you exposure to the over 116 million active users per month.
Just like the rest of the Tripadvisor partner platforms, owners pay nothing to list their property. Tripadvisor takes a 3% service fee from any bookings.
5. Owner Direct
Owner Direct is a peer-to-peer vacation rental platform that was started in 1994 as a way to rent out ski condos.
The platform grew, and now they have over 13,000 vacation rental homes in resorts in 96 countries.
Owner Direct has higher fees than other platforms. Owners can list a property for free, but as an owner, you will pay 10% of the total rental plus taxes on every booking.
As of 11/2020, Owner Direct attracted 1.6m website visitors. It is unclear if this statistic is per year or per month.
However, Owner Direct can be a decent platform to get more eyes on your vacation rentals.
For guests, this platform boasts a variety of different types of vacation rentals.
From homes in resorts to luxury apartments, condos, and villas, rentals on this platform have more of a luxury aesthetic.
6. Kid & Coe
Kid & Coe is a premier vacation rental platform that puts a major focus on families.
In fact, this platform makes traveling with children their top priority.
If you’re a property owner with a rental that’s great for traveling families, Kid & Coe is the best place to start.
Kid & Coe’s rental listings vary from private family homes to professional vacation rentals and world-class hotels.
This is a specialty platform, and as such, owners can expect to pay a one-time editorial fee of $99 to list your property on Kid & Coe.
Similar to Vrbo, rentals on Kid & Coe must be entire homes, condos, apartments, or rental units.
Unlike other rental platforms, Kid & Coe has two options for hosts: you can join as a rental host or an exchange host, allowing you to swap with another family to take a vacation.
In addition to the one-time $99 editorial fee, hosts will pay a 5% service fee on all rental bookings with this platform.
For traveling families looking for sites like Vrbo, be sure to put Kid & Coe at the top of your list.
7. Booking.com
Most people think of Booking.com as a place to book cheap flights and hotels. However, travelers can also book privately owned vacation rentals through this platform!
This is a great advantage for rental owners because Booking has over 20 million monthly users (as of 2018).
There are 29 million active listings all over the world on Booking.com.
While that stat might sound intimidating, more is actually better.
That amount of rentals is what makes Booking.com a trusted resource for travelers everywhere.
When you list your vacation rental on Booking.com, you have full control over your availability, prices, and more. The platform does not add anything to your prices, either.
However, unlike other travel rental platforms, hosts do not have the ability to approve or deny renters based on their profile or ratings.
When a guest makes a booking through the Booking.com platform, their reservation is immediately confirmed. According to the platform, hosts cannot reject a reservation except for specific situations, like a denied credit card or overbooking accident.
If you’d prefer to screen guests before accepting reservations, Booking might not be the right platform for you.
However, if you want to increase your exposure and profitability, give it a try!
It doesn’t cost anything to list on Booking, and hosts pay a service fee of 15% of the total booking price.
Visit Booking.com8. HouseTrip
HouseTrip is another vacation rental site partnered with Tripadvisor. It’s one of Europe’s leading holiday rental booking sites.
This platform has over 300,000 holiday rentals in more than 20,000 global locations.
HouseTrip has a wide range of unique accommodations from lighthouses to luxury sea forts.
This platform is perfect for guests and owners looking to list or book vacation rentals in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
Since this platform is paired with Tripadvisor, owners can list for free and pay a 3% service fee for all booked trips.
Visit HouseTrip9. Outdoorsy
Unlike all the other vacation rentals on this list, Outdoorsy is specifically for RVs.
Outdoorsy is a peer-to-peer RV rental service, connecting RV owners with RV renters. This platform makes it easy to make money with your RV while you’re not using it.
As an owner on the Outdoorsy platform, you have total control over how, when, and where your RV is booked.
You can choose to allow renters to tow or drive your RV, or you can offer stationary rentals where you deliver the RV to a certain campsite and set it up for the renter's vacation.
Like most vacation rental platforms, it’s totally free to list your RV for rent on Outdoorsy.
When rentals are booked, Outdoorsy operates on an 80/20 fee structure.
Owners keep 80% of the total reservation costs, including any add-ons the renter purchases.
Owners can charge extra fees for add-ons like a generator, bikes, kayaks, and more. You can also charge mileage fees over a certain amount of miles.
Outdoorsy takes 20% of the booking to continue running their platform.
As a renter, Outdoorsy has a very intuitive search feature with plenty of filters to help you narrow down your experience.
Prices are transparent, and Outdoorsy offers plenty of additional add-ons like extra trip insurance, mobile mechanic services, and more.
If you have an RV sitting around that you only use sporadically, consider listing it on Outdoorsy and let it make money for you.
Outdoorsy10. Hipcamp
Hipcamp is another peer-to-peer vacation rental platform with an emphasis on the outdoors.
As a guest, that means you can choose from incredible private tent camping spots, RV parks, cabins, treehouses, and entire glamping setups.
As an owner, this means that you have the opportunity to earn money on your camping rentals, leased RV park spots, vacation cabins, and private property.
Hipcamps's main goal is to get more people outside, no matter what that looks like.
Currently, this platform covers rentals in the U.S. and has options in over 19,405 National and State parks, 32,633 campgrounds, and 366,927 campsites in the U.S.
This unique rental platform allows property owners who don’t have a separate vacation rental to take advantage of their extra property, by renting it out as a private campsite.
You can take this one step further and build a glamping retreat on your own property. Bonus if you live in an outdoor destination hot spot.
Just like most other rental platforms, it’s free to list your rental on Hipcamp.
Once your rental is booked, Hipcamp keeps a 10% service fee.
And if you don’t own land but still want to make money with Hipcamp, you can earn $100 per landowner referral with their referral program.
Visit HipCamp11. Plum Guide
Plum Guide is the best site like Vrbo for luxury vacation rentals.
Whether you’re a luxury rental property owner or a traveler looking for a world-class experience, check out Plum Guide.
Unlike other vacation rental websites, the homes listed on Plum Guide are hand-picked and curated. According to their website, only 3% of rental homes in each location qualify for their platform.
Plum Guide has ‘Home Critics’ who review thousands of homes to find properties that truly fit the bill.
The criteria for Plum Guide? A beautiful home with top-notch interior design that also has great reviews. And, finally, the home must also be in a great location.
Although the approval process for Plum Guide is rigorous, owners are rewarded with a high-quality renting experience.
Plum Guide guests tend to be more mature and reliable, and according to their website, cancellations are over 30% lower than on other platforms.
Since this is one of the more luxury-focused sites like Vrbo, owners pay a one-time joining fee of 300 pounds per listing. This fee goes towards marketing, a professional listing on Plum Guide, and a professional photoshoot of your rental property if one is needed.
Aside from the listing fee, Plum Guide keeps a service fee of 3% of the total booking revenue for each stay.
Visit Plum Guide12. Expedia
Like Booking, many people associate Expedia with flight and hotel bookings and price comparisons.
However, just like Booking, Expedia has expanded into offering peer-to-peer rental properties as well.
You can list a hotel, motel, bed and breakfast, private home, apartment, or vacation home for rent on Expedia.
Expedia owns Vrbo and also partners with Hotels.com, Travelocity, Hotwire, and many more.
Hosts pay nothing to list vacation rentals but will pay between 15-20% per booking depending on the property location.
There are no other sign-up or subscription fees for owners.
In addition to simply listing your vacation rental on Expedia, property owners can sign up for Expedia Partner Central.
On Expedia Partner Central, vacation owners can manage their own global travel marketplace.
This platform gives property owners access to listing their rental on localized sites available in over 70 countries worldwide that attract around 75 million monthly visitors.
The major benefit of listing on Expedia is the exposure you’ll get on a trusted platform.
Visit ExpediaHow to Make Money with Vacation Rentals
As you can see from this article, you don’t even have to own a vacation rental to start making money with rentals.
At a minimum, you either need a separate bedroom that you can set up for rent on Airbnb or a private piece of land in an outdoor destination that you can list for camping on Hipcamp. Alternatively, you can rent out your RV, travel trailer, or camper van on Outdoorsy.
And for those with vacation homes like ski lodges, condos, cabins, or simply a spare apartment, you can make money renting it on any of the rental platforms listed here.
What’s great about these platforms is that none of them require exclusivity – meaning you can list your rental for rent on every platform, as long as you have a calendar that can sync all your bookings.
The market for peer-to-peer vacation rental services is hot right now, and some people make a career out of investing in real estate for the sole purpose of renting through these platforms.
Finally, ambitious entrepreneurs can make money renting out properties through a process known as rental arbitrage. This involves renting out multiple apartments in hot vacation destinations, furnishing them, and listing them as vacation rentals on peer-to-peer rental platforms.
Best Rental Sites Like Vrbo Wrap-Up
There are so many vacation rental sites on the internet today that no one is stuck with the options on just one platform – whether you’re a traveler or an owner.
For owners, listing your property on multiple platforms increases your chances of consistent bookings by giving you exposure to each platform’s existing audience.
And for travelers, the benefit of searching multiple platforms gives you the ability to get the best value for your money or find the lowest-priced rental around, depending on your preferences.
If you're a digital nomad, check out our guide to how to make money while traveling!
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