As a new short-term rental host, you’ve got to be asking yourself—which is better Airbnb or Vrbo? Listing your vacation rental on multiple platforms can, in theory, bring in more revenue. But it can also increase operational complexity, the time it takes to manage your property, and your expenses.
So, is listing your short-term rental on multiple platforms really the best thing for your business? If not, which platform should you list on? In this post, we’ll weigh the pros and cons of the two biggest short-term rental platforms, Airbnb and Vrbo. Keep reading to determine which platform is better for your business.
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Airbnb vs. Vrbo: Company Background
Founded in 1995, Vrbo (which stands for “vacation rentals by owner”) is the older of the two vacation rental platforms. It’s also the smaller of the two, with approximately 2 million listings worldwide.
Founded in 2007, Airbnb (originally “Airbed & Breakfast”), while the newer of the two companies, has significantly more listings on its platform with over 6 million listings and 4 million hosts worldwide.
So, while Airbnb is the newer short-rental site, it has significantly more listings.
Another major difference between the two is that Vrbo only allows entire properties to be listed on its site. Guests booking through Vrbo expect to have the entire property to themselves; they know they will not share their short-term rental with other guests or the host.
Airbnb, on the other hand, immediately changed this expectation when it launched. The platform began when co-founders Brian and Joe welcomed their first guests into their home in San Francisco, CA.
Today, Vrbo is Airbnb’s biggest competitor, both vying to be the go-to platform for short-term rental guests and hosts alike. So, which platform is better for your short-term rental? Read on to find out.
Site navigation might not be something you immediately consider when choosing a short-term rental platform. However, the ease of creating, updating, and managing your listing simply can’t be overlooked. Poor site navigation can cost hosts countless wasted hours and create unnecessary frustration. Here’s a brief overview of my experience listing on both platforms.
In my experience, Vrbo’s site navigation is unnecessarily time-consuming. It took me significantly longer to create and update my listing on the Vrbo platform than on Airbnb. Whether I was setting my pricing, creating my house rules, or updating my photo captions, Vrbo had numerous rules like requiring low character counts or only allowing a few entries in a given section. So, instead of just creating a listing exactly the way I wanted it, I spent hours adjusting my descriptions, house rules, captions, photos, etc. to fit within Vrbo’s parameters.
Creating, updating, and managing my listing on Airbnb, however, is the total opposite experience. In my opinion, Airbnb’s site navigation is very intuitive. Whether I want to create automated messages, rewrite my listing description, or update my pricing, I almost always figure out how to do it right away and am able to do it very quickly. To me, Airbnb’s platform just makes sense, which has saved me countless hours and tons of frustration.
Takeaway: Airbnb wins for having intuitive, easy-to-use, and time-saving site navigation.
Pro tip: One of the best things you can do to perform exceptionally well on Airbnb is optimize your listing.
Airbnb vs. Vrbo: Safety and Insurance
Having used both Vrbo and Airbnb as a host and guest, I can confidently say I have never had a safety issue on either platform. But, I strongly prefer the safety measures and insurance coverage of one platform over the other.
Before we jump into their differences, here’s what both platforms have in common:
- Both Airbnb and Vrbo provide 24/7 customer service for hosts and guests, in case either party is ever in need of support
- Both verify the identities of owners and guests
- Both require guests to accept the property’s house rules before booking
- Both make efforts to prevent scammers
- Both have strict video surveillance rules to prevent guests from being monitored in public spaces without consent or in private spaces
Vrbo safety and insurance
When it comes to safety, I often felt like I had surprisingly little information about my guests booking through Vrbo. Most of my guests had very few (if any) reviews from other hosts and didn’t have a profile photo. The lack of information about my guests often made me feel uncomfortable as a host.
In terms of insurance coverage, Vrbo covers hosts with $1,000,000 in liability protection with each booking but they don’t include any damage protection. Instead, hosts can choose to require guests put down a security deposit or purchase property damage protection. For example, if guests paid an additional $59, I received $1,500 in property damage coverage. As a host, I always hated asking my guests to pay an additional fee and, even when they did, I was uncomfortable with how limited the coverage was. Guests can do A LOT more damage than just $1,500 worth!
Airbnb safety and insurance
On the Airbnb platform, most of my guests have several (sometimes a dozen!) reviews from other hosts. Being able to see guests’ history on the platform and what hosts have experienced makes me much more comfortable hosting them myself. You can also require guests have a profile photo, which makes me feel like I actually know my guests, even if just a little bit!
What makes me even more comfortable with bookings I receive through Airbnb is knowing that every single booking is covered with $1,000,000 in liability protection AND $3,000,000 in damage protection—that’s way more than Vrbo’s max of $5,000 in damage protection. Better yet, that insurance coverage is included with every booking, so my guests don’t pay anything additional (and I don’t have to ask them to!).
Takeaway: Airbnb wins for providing more guest information to hosts and having significantly more insurance coverage at no additional cost.
Airbnb vs. Vrbo: Service Fees
One of the biggest things to consider before choosing a vacation rental platform is the fee. Whether you choose Airbnb or Vrbo, there’s no getting around paying a service fee to use the platform. So, to maximize your profitability, you need to account for these fees and how much they differ across platforms.
Vrbo service fees
- Option #1: Pay-per-booking
- Hosts pay an 8% “partner fee”, which includes a 5% commission fee and a 3% payment processing fee. Vrbo applies the commission and payment processing fees differently to different components of the booking. To keep things simple, I won’t cover that in this post, but you can read more about it here.
- Guests pay a fee as well but Vrbo doesn’t say how much (source).
- For example, assume your nightly rate is $100, your cleaning fee is $50, and there are no other fees or taxes. For a one-night stay, you’d earn $138 ($150 minus 8%). Since Vrbo doesn’t tell you beforehand how much they charge guests, I don’t know how much guests would pay in this scenario.
- Option #2: Flat annual fee
- According to Vrbo, you may be able to reduce the “partner fee” if you pay a flat annual fee. If you’re interested in this option, I’d recommend calling Vrbo customer service to see if it’s available to you.
Airbnb service fees
- Option #1: Hosts and guests split the fee
- Hosts pay 3% of the booking subtotal (your nightly rate + any additional fees you charge), which is automatically subtracted from your host payout (source).
- Guests pay 14% of the booking subtotal, which is added on top of the nightly rate and any fees you charge.
- For example, assume your nightly rate is $100, your cleaning fee is $50, and there are no other fees or taxes. For a one-night stay, you’d earn $146 ($150 minus 3%) and your guest would pay $171 ($150 plus 14%).
- Option #2: Hosts pay the entire fee
- With this option, hosts pay for the entire service fee themselves, usually 14-16% of revenue from a given stay.
- While I’ve never personally seen a listing with this fee structure, some hosts are required to use it. Learn more here.
Takeaway: In my opinion, Airbnb wins for having lower, simpler, and more transparent service fees.
Recommended: Airbnb Host Fees: Are They Worth It For Airbnb Hosts?
Airbnb vs. Vrbo: Revenue
Lastly, and maybe the single most important factor in your decision: how much revenue can you earn on either platform? My first year hosting, I grossed over $85,000 in revenue! Here’s how much came from each platform:
Pro tip: One of the best things you can do to increase your revenue is optimize your listing.
Vrbo revenue
In my experience, I earned significantly less on the Vrbo platform than on Airbnb. When listed on both platforms, I typically received one booking per month from Vrbo; every other booking was from Airbnb. Having grossed over $85,000 my first year hosting, only about 10% of that revenue was from Vrbo.
Airbnb revenue
Since I was exclusively listed on Vrbo and Airbnb, everything else that I earned came from Airbnb alone! Find out what my exact gross revenue, expenses, and profit were my first year hosting in this blog post.
Recommended: Is Owning An Airbnb Profitable? FREE Airbnb Host Income Report
Takeaway: For my short-term rental, Airbnb completely blows Vrbo out of the water in terms of revenue.
Important: all that being said, different listing sites are more popular in different areas, which can drastically impact the revenue you earn on each platform. So, which platform is more popular in your area? AirDNA will tell you just that.
Takeaway
At this point, you’ve learned a ton about what listing on the two most popular short-term rental platforms is really like. In my experience as a real host, Airbnb’s site navigation, safety features, insurance coverage, lower service fees, and higher revenue make it a clear winner. But, which platform is more popular in your area? Make sure you’re making a data-driven decision with AirDNA.
Recommended: 5 Must-Know Ways To Maximize Your Airbnb Revenue With AirDNA
Which platform will you choose? Let me know in the comments.
FAQs
Which vacation rental site is the best?
Before deciding on which short-term rental platform is better for your property, you need to consider Airbnb and Vrbo service fees, revenue potential, safety, insurance, and more—all of which we’re covering in this blog post.
Which is safer to use Vrbo or Airbnb?
Having used both Vrbo and Airbnb as a host and guest, I can confidently say I have never had a safety issue on either platform. But, that doesn’t mean you’re not more likely to have an issue on one platform or the other—read this post to learn more.
Why do people use Vrbo instead of Airbnb?
Different listing sites are more popular in different areas. Which platform is more popular in your area Airbnb or Vrbo? AirDNA will tell you just that.
Which is more popular Vrbo or Airbnb?
Today, Vrbo is Airbnb’s biggest competitor, both vying to be the go-to platform for short-term rental guests and hosts alike. Vrbo is the smaller of the two, with approximately 2 million listings worldwide. Airbnb has significantly more listings on its platform, with over 6 million listings and 4 million hosts worldwide. So, which platform is better for your short-term rental? Read on to find out.
Which vacation rental site is the best?
In my experience as a real host, Airbnb’s site navigation, safety features, insurance coverage, lower service fees, and higher revenue make it a clear winner. But, which platform is more popular in your area? Make sure you’re making a data-driven decision with AirDNA.
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Can you book weeks off from other sources if you are with Airbnb, say for instance I get a friend of a friend from Instagram that wants to book from me. Do I have control of the schedule to put my own people in the schedule or must it all be done through them? Or even if I want to stay in my own place. etc.
Hi Lynne! If you and/or a friend are staying at your Airbnb, you don’t need to “book” those nights through Airbnb, you just need to block them on your Airbnb calendar so that no one else can book them. Just remember to schedule your cleaners after you leave so that the place is clean and ready for the next guest! 🙂