Is Airbnb Truly the King of Short-Term Rentals?

Not going to lie – Airbnb is pretty great. We use it. We recommend it.

But sometimes, it’s good to peek over the mountain to see if the valley down below has greener grass than yours. While everybody’s raging about Airbnb, there may be other platforms that are better for your situation. Remember, real estate is not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing, so when you look at these, always think of your situation and less of what everyone else is doing.

Why Not Go For Airbnb on the Get-go?

If Airbnb’s so great already, why look at other platforms? Well, besides what we’ve already mentioned earlier, it isn’t perfect. Sure, it’s gotten a lot of attention over the past few years, but that may be to its own detriment.

Basic economics would suggest that the prices tend to go higher if more people want something. If you look test things out right now, you might find that booking a standard hotel room may be more practical than going for a quirky Airbnb accommodation! Sure, for you, that may mean more money, but this may also mean fewer bookings due to a steep price tag.

Before, one of Airbnb’s advantages was that it was more “homey” than your standard hotel ordeal. There’s a human touch to how the houses/rooms were prepared and how the warm communication between tenant and owner sticks until the end of the stay. Not to say that this isn’t the case anymore, but because everyone and their mom want a slice of that Airbnb pie, the platform has somehow lost that “homey vibe” consistency. If you’re the kind of person who wants to provide this experience to customers, the fact that Airbnb is now a little more “corporate” than it was before may be bothersome for you. This is why you might want to look at the other apps, sites, or platforms that allow you to list your property for short-term renting.

This is definitely going to be on all the lists that show Airbnb alternatives. Why? Because they’ve been in town longer than Airbnb has (1995 vs. 2008)!

Vrbo focuses more on private, family (or large group) vacations, so if you fit in this category, you might want to consider going with them. They do have fewer listings than Airbnb (two million compared to Airbnb’s six to seven million), which might seem bad, but for you, it means more exposure! Not everyone wants a sea of options! (That’s why we only have a few for you in this article.)

Here’s what homeowners could get according to their website:

1. Control – your price, dates, and rules.
2. Exposure (as mentioned earlier).
3. Dedicated customer support.

And, we didn’t forget to say what the letters stand for. V-r-b-o means “Vacation Rentals by Owner”. And yes, doing grammatically incorrect acronyms is a style they’ve chosen to do. So if you’re a sucker for proper grammar, this one might not be it for you.

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TripAdvisor is expanding their rental game with their purchase of FlipKey. We would say that they’re almost the same as Airbnb but with verified reviews and property owners (and that’s TripAdvisor-level verification).

So while that sounds good for customers, what’s in it for you?

1. Millions of people trust TripAdvisor. This means they would trust the reviews, the platform, and ultimately, you.
2. Because of its global reach, there’s also more exposure for you!
3. And did we mention it’s free to publish your listing?

(Do take note, though. They don’t offer shared rooms like other competitors.)

You can also check out HouseTrip, another acquisition of TripAdvisor. It’s pretty much the same. I mean, just compare their websites from one another!

This is probably one of the smaller, more niche ones, but we also want to show you that there are platforms that target a specific need. As you may have inferred from their name, Kid & Coe focuses on providing kid-friendly options for travelers. The company’s founder, Zoie Coe, traveled the world with a growing family and knew the difficulties of finding accommodation that fits a family’s needs.

It’s apparent that they’re not running on the same track as the others on this list, so you can expect a slight variance with their benefits (at least as far as their marketing is concerned):

1. Building a community. Because of the nature of the platform, the hosts tend to have similar interests. Kid & Coe allows their hosts to be in a network of like-minded individuals worldwide.
2. Targeted marketing. Yeah, all the others do them. But again, because of their intention and purpose, you can be sure that they will show your property on desirable travel and lifestyle media, which highly translates to bookings from preferred guests!

If this is something you want to support, you may visit their site to see how you can become a host.

Finally, let’s get into the big dog of this article. Not just big, but experienced, too! Booking.com has been in the game since 1996 (almost as old as Vrbo) but also has 28 million accommodation listings.

Here’s why you might want to consider going with them:

1. It’s free to create listings,
2. You get 24 -hour customer support
3. You can create your own rules for guests
4. And sync your calendar with other sites you list on.

They do have benefits for owners, like setting up “damage deposits” and setting the criteria for guests to book your property. If security is your utmost concern, they also got you covered. Feel free to check their website for more info.

Sure, we did say that the more listings a platform may have, the less exposure you’re going to get. But little exposure is still exposure regardless. You might have missed a crucial piece of information from one of the benefits we mentioned.

Using Them ALL

You might notice that these platforms and websites have various benefits you want to get or even advocacies you wish to support. The good news is that listing with these sites isn’t exclusive at all! You can list one property on another platform as long as you meet the terms necessary for both. The same applies if you want to list them on three or more.

Does Booking.com offer little exposure? Just list it on another site with more! As we said earlier, little exposure is still exposure, so it may still be worth your time to post a free listing with them.

Don’t like that FlipKey can’t offer shared rooms? Not a problem! Put your listing on another platform that allows it, like Airbnb. Get the best of both worlds!

Just remember that when you utilize multiple platforms, sites, or apps, each of them has a set of rules that may differ from one another. You don’t want to mix things up and cause yourself some trouble.

With mix-ups in mind, double-bookings are a big no-no in the short-term rental space! Want to find out how to deal with these issues? Check it out in the following article!