Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com -- Are you using one of them, two or all three?

[Robert Carmody]

I've seen some recent articles indicating that Booking.com is trying to compete more against Airbnb. Currently our primary source of bookings is Airbnb, followed by VRBO. Earlier this year, we were also posted on Booking.com, and while the listing did produce several reservations, it came with a huge amount of frustration and more last-minute cancellations that we've experienced (significantly more as a %) than the other 2 booking platforms, Airbnb and VRBO. There were issues syncing the reservation calendar, and it is nearly impossible to reach a customer support representative with Booking.com as an individual STR owner. The guests that booked through Booking.com, who did not cancel ahead of their check-in date, were good guests, but we didn't receive near the response rate for guest feedback that we do from Airbnb and VRBO. Once the Booking.com commission was paid for each reservation, the net payout was usually slightly less than if the guest had booked through Airbnb or VRBO. We canceled our listing on Booking.com towards the end of the summer. Our occupancy rate has been higher this fall, using Airbnb and VRBO than it was during the summer and spring months, when we were listed on all 3 platforms. I'm not suggesting that the higher occupancy is the result of dropping Booking.com but am not sure that it ultimately contributed to more reservations or a greater success rate. Curious about the success others are having with these platforms or if anyone thinks Booking.com is becoming a necessary tool for securing STR reservations?