Airbnb vs other Vacation Rental By Owner Websites

[Lynn Montang]

I recently listened to a podcast where this girl talked about how much she LOVES Airbnb.... well I don't "get" it, I find Airbnb nothing but aggravating and frustrating!  VRBO is my favorite and second is TripAdvisor.  (although, I am super annoyed that they now charge high booking fees).  I am able to set these sites up a year in advance and it's pretty much auto pilot with my calendar.  With Airbnb I have to go in and monitor my calendar on a constant weekly or at the very least monthly schedule.  I WANT to like Airbnb because I know people like to use it.  But in my view so far, Airbnb is for the 1 night bed and breakfast type of guest and the other sites I mentioned are more for vacationers.  

Other things I do not like about Airbnb:  1. It won't automatically add in taxes.  2.  I can't get answers to my questions easily, they want to pass the buck and have you to write to other hosts.  3.  If I have to cancel a reservation I get reprimanded and kicked off of their site.  (I have never had to cancel anyone or be scolded on any of the other sites).  

Help me understand what is so great about Airbnb.  Like I said, I want to like it.

[Myka Artis]

I mean I like all of them they all bring you money. You should actually work to list your property on all of the platforms. That's more traffic and more money for you. It's just most people like Airbnb because its dominating the market and most popular in most people's area. @Lynn Montang is your property in Portland? Also it doesn't automatically add in taxes because Airbnb is working to get taxes added and paid by the guest in most cities. As far as the other two things you wrote about them answering questions and reservation cancellations I totally agree with you. People love Airbnb truly because of the amount of traffic that it gets. Also you shouldn't have to monitor the calendar daily if you use an automatic pricing tool such as beyondpricing or Wheelhouse.