VRBO
- Most Popular Vacation Rental Site
- Lists Properties of All Types and Sizes
- Services Travelers and Hosts Globally
- NOT All Private Listings (Some Mgmt Co)
- Specializes in "Conventional" rentals
Airbnb
- Began as a 'budget' travel website
- Think: extra rooms, shared apts, even couches
- Today they offer rentals of all trypes, sizes, and rate$
- Airbnb specializes in exetic or experiential rentals
- Think: Yurts, Castles, Even Treehouses
- The primary user profile of Airbnb skews younger (25-30yrs old)
HomeAway
- HomeAway is the parent company of VRBO
- However, to post on both, you must list individually on both of the respective platforms
- Due to it's similarity to VRBO, HomeAway users tend to not overlap significantly with those using VRBO
- Similar types of listings to those on VRBO
- NOT all listings are privatley posted (Some are management companies)
FlipKey
- Owned and operated by the powerhouse, TripAdvisor
- Lots of marketing dollars, and heavy trafficled website
- Listings are more of a blend between those on Airbnb + VRBO
- FlipKey/TripAdvisor charges 3% of the guests final payment
- Highly-trusted, very secure website
Booking.com
- Owned and opperated by Priceline
- One of the most-trusted travel booking websites on the internet
- For both host AND guest, in terms of security, customer service, flexibility, etc.
- Massive marketing budget, meaning tons of exposure, and traffic from all over the world
- Advabnces host user interface that makes managing guests and bookings easy
- Charges a hefty 15% of your guests final payment as booking fee
HomeToGo
- Not as much a booking platform, as a rental search engine
- Many managemnt comanies, but works for private listings as well
- You must be listed on a partnered-booking platform first, then the info is pulled dynamically into HomeToGo
- Recommended: Airbnb (3% commission)
- Advertising options available
Red Awning
- A Marketing Engine that allows homeowners to list on all the most popular websites at once
- Think: Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, Brbo, Google Travel, and more
- They manage resevation scheduling and paymant processing across platforms
- Offers free Professional Photography, and option to create a website
- Charges 10% of guest final payment as booking free + 3% processing fee
