When thinking of a platform to promote vacation accommodations, it is very likely that the first one that comes to mind is Airbnb. This is not surprising, since Airbnb leads the vacation rental industry with more than 150 million users. But this is not the only one, there are many Airbnb competitors leading the market right now.
Over the years, Airbnb’s position has strengthened and it remains a benchmark for both owners and travelers. The platform offers millions of unique and varied properties to suit the needs of guests, both in terms of price and location, or whatever their accommodation preferences may be.
What makes Airbnb so special?
From its beginnings in 2007 until now, Airbnb has transformed traditional vacation rental methods limited to the booking of hotel rooms, shifting towards the rental of entire properties or even a single room within a property.
The sheer range of accommodation opportunities offered by Airbnb, together with the wide variety of filters and options to suit the user’s preferences, has opened up huge avenues of opportunity for both guests and property owners and managers. and move away from the conventional vacation rental, limited to the hotel industry.
Travelers now have the opportunity to stay in whatever environment they wish: in the middle of the forest, close to the sea or in an apartment in the heart of a big city. All this with the independence and autonomy that a property provides. For their part, property owners and managers can now turn their properties into a viable and stable business.
Top Airbnb competitors
However, Airbnb is not the only one in its sector, and there are increasingly more platforms that are gaining ground in the vacation rental and property management industry, and that are already positioned as strong competitors of Airbnb.
At Hostify we connect with the main sales channels that lead the market. With our channel manager you will get a direct connection to them, with which you can manage your rates and availability, guest communications from the Hostify dashboard, without having to switch platforms.
In this article we bring you the great rivals of Airbnb, giving you the best alternatives to the leading platform in the vacation rental industry to help you to improve your visibility listing your properties on multiple sites.
Booking.com
Booking.com is one of the most well-known and widespread online travel agencies in the industry and Airbnb competitors. It was first founded as a startup in 1996, and only offered hotel accommodation. Today, although hotel rentals are still its core business, it also offers a wide range of services, from booking vacation rentals of properties, to booking flights, cars, airport cabs, or combined offers of flights and hotels or properties.
Currently, Booking.com has millions of listings around the world, in 227 countries and more than 40 languages, and although it is gradually making its way as one of Airbnb’s big and strong rivals, both platforms still maintain several differences. While Airbnb’s business is almost entirely focused on property rentals, Booking.com focuses its activity mainly on hotel bookings.
VRBO
Vrbo, belongs to the HomeAway group, which in turn belongs to the Expedia group, and was founded in 1995. Although it is considered a pioneer in the vacation rental industry, it is currently positioned as a leading platform in the sector, behind Airbnb.
But, what is vrbo exactly? Although both platforms share their business approach, they also have key differences, especially with regard to booking possibilities. Vrbo only allows the booking of entire properties, while Airbnb offers the possibility of booking a single room within a property shared with its host. In addition, although both offer short-term rental accommodation,
Wimdu
Wimdu is another interesting competitor where you can find vacation rentals at a fair price. This German company has more than 350,000 properties listed, especially in Europe, so most of the travelers attracted by this platform come from this continent, positioning itself as the leading European portal for vacation rental properties. In addition, Wimdu incorporates technology from HomeToGo, a vacation rental search engine.
Hometogo
HomeToGo currently ranks as the world’s largest metasearch engine for vacation rentals, with more than 18 million offers in over 200 countries, and listings from over 600 different websites.
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Berlin, this platform offers a wide variety of properties, giving a broad range of options to travelers and the opportunity to compare with listings from different websites.
HomeToGo is positioned as a strong rival to Airbnb, however, they also present key elements that differentiate them. The main difference is that while Airbnb is a marketplace where property managers post their properties directly on the platform, HomeToGo is a metasearch engine, meaning it pulls listings from other websites.
Agoda
Agoda is another online travel agency located in Singapore, with two million listings for both hotels and private properties.
Although it is another strong competitor, one of the main differences that tip the balance towards Airbnb is the commission charged by Agoda, which is higher than that charged by Airbnb.
On the other hand, in addition to accommodation, Agoda also offers other services, such as airport transportation, or a loyalty program for users, where travelers can earn points for each booking they make and subsequently obtain discounts on other services.
TripAdvisor
Tripadvisor, founded in 2000, is the world’s largest review website and a global OTA used by 490 million travelers per month, and already has over 800 million reviews on accommodations, restaurants, activities, etc. It also offers short-term rental listings among other types of accommodations and many other services.
The number of properties that can be found on TripAdvisor is more than 7 million, much higher than those that can be found on Airbnb, and this platform also includes others such as HouseTrip and Flipkey, among many others.
What differentiates it from Airbnb is that, like Booking.com, Tripadvisor is an OTA and not a vacation rental marketplace, so while Airbnb competes exclusively against other property managers, Tripadvisor also includes hotels.
In addition, the commission charged by Tripadvisor is lower, being 10-15% per booking, compared to the 14-16% charged by Airbnb.
Honorable Mentions
As you have seen, Airbnb is not the only place to find vacation rentals, there are many other competing platforms that offer a wide variety of possibilities where you can compare and find the accommodation that best suits your preferences.
Those Airbnb competitors we have mentioned are just some of the many that also occupy a large space in the industry, so from Hostify we do not want to forget to mention other great platforms such as Marriot & Villas, Plum Guide, Holidu, Getawaygogo or Whimstay, where you can also access the offer of many and varied options of properties adapted to your preferences.
Now that you know all Airbnb competitors, would you like to expand your vacation rental business? Book your demo with Hostify and discover all the channels we have available for you. We will help you to level up your listings and make your property management more efficient!
