Book Amazing Vacation Rentals (Part 1)

Tips and tricks for Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com from a host’s perspective

So you’ve decided that a vacation rental is the right move for your next family vacation.  Now what?

If you are like millions of other family vacation planners across the U.S. and the world, you reach for your phone and head to your favorite travel app.  These platforms have completely disrupted the hospitality industry and have collectively given their users access to more than 20 million vacation rentals and other short term rental opportunities throughout the world.

Today, I want to discuss the big three vacation rental platforms:  Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com.  These aren’t the only three, but they are certainly the largest.  We host our condo, Lizzy’s Landing, on all three sites, so I am very familiar with them.

I interact with these platforms on a daily basis, so I’ve learned a few tips and tricks to help you find your next family vacation rental.

Disclaimer – In the hospitality industry, these sites are called Online Travel Agencies, or OTAs.  There are a lot of OTAs that I am not covering in this article. When I refer to OTAs below and in parts 2 & 3, I am specifically referring to Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com

The Big Three

I call these OTAs the big three because they have the largest market share of all platforms.  Booking.com has more than 28 million listings with over 6.6 million houses and apartments¹, Airbnb has over 6 million² listings, and Vrbo has more than 2 million properties listed.³  For comparison, another popular OTA, TripAdvisor Rentals, only has about 830,000 rentals available.⁴

Airbnb and Vrbo have nearly 200 million users combined^2,3 and, in 2022, Booking.com had more than 100 million mobile app users.⁵

These three are often the largest OTAs in vacation markets throughout the U.S, and their size gives many travelers across the world peace of mind when booking a stay. They are a great option for booking your next family vacation!

Cost Comparisons

Depending on how you get to your family vacation destination, a vacation rental will likely be your #1 expense.  A tried and true method of getting the best deal is to compare products before purchasing, and that applies to your vacation accommodations too!

OTAs make it extremely easy to compare different rentals in your favorite vacation markets.  Their mobile apps and websites are easy to navigate and nightly rates and review scores are listed on the search results making comparisons extremely easy!

But here is something to try:

In most vacation markets, you can generally find the same vacation rental on multiple OTAs, and the pricing is not consistent across all three.  It can be difficult to find the same property on another OTA, but it is possible.  Your best bet is to pull up the map viewer and look for listings in the same area.  To protect hosts pre-booking, the “pins” aren’t exact locations on the maps, but they’ll be in roughly the same location on other OTA maps.

Please do not message the host asking if they list on other OTAs.  That is a great way to get the host in trouble, and in extreme cases, kicked off the platform entirely.  OTAs only make money when a guest books, so they do not tolerate hosts giving guests other options to book outside of their platform.

It only takes a few extra minutes to check the other OTAs after you have found your ideal vacation rental. The cover photos should be the same across all platforms.

Example Comparison for Lizzy’s Landing (4 Night stay in august)

*Note – totals may not add up due to rounding.

There are several reasons why the nightly rates and overall costs vary across platforms.  Platform specific fees (what you pay as a guest) are different, which results in different nightly rates and total costs across platforms.

Each OTA also charges a different host service fee (commission). Booking.com charges 15% while Vrbo and Airbnb are closer to 3-4%.  To account for this difference, we increase our nightly rates slightly on Booking.com, hence the higher costs.

However, you’ll also see that there are two rates on Booking.com.  (1) is a refundable rate and (2) is a non refundable rate. As it’s name suggests, the non refundable rate is not refundable if a guest cancels at any time. However, it is the lowest rate for the same exact vacation rental across all three OTAs for the same days.

Hosts must enable this option on their listing though, so some properties won’t have non-refundable rates on Booking.com.

New Listing Discounts

When a host lists a new property on these OTAs, they have the option to provide a 20% discount to their first three guests.  Note every host takes this opportunity, but most do because it is an easy way to get bookings on a new listing.  

Keep an eye out for listings that are marked as ‘New.’ It should be easy to find new listings because the OTAs give them search ranking boosts for the first 5-7 days.  When you open the listing, it will tell you whether or not there is a discount available.

Just know that you may be staying with a brand new host who is still learning, so show them some grace and provide some constructive feedback and a glowing review as a thank you for the discounted stay.

Ways to Save on Booking.com

Booking.com has a ton of ways for guests to save.  Their Genius Partner Program allows hosts to cater to Booking.com’s most valuable guests, so all Genius Partner listings are automatically 10% off for qualified guests.  Booking.com also allows hosts to opt into several other cost-saving features like non refundable rates, mobile only deals, and last-minute deals.

Ways to Save on Vrbo

Expedia Group, which owns Vrbo, just launched its new One Key loyalty program that provides rewards across all of their brands including Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo.  This program is so new that I don’t know much about it, so head over to Vrbo after reading this for more information.

Repeat Stays and Referrals

Hosts love it when you come back again and again and when you recommend their place to friends and family.  Many hosts offer automatic discounts for repeat guests, and the savvy and more competitive hosts will direct their past guests to direct booking websites for future stays for added savings (more on booking direct next week).

However, if you have never stayed with a host before, and you aren’t a referral, DON’T ask the host for a discount! If you are looking for a surefire way to gain the distrust of your potential host, ask for a discount before you have booked.  In my, and other hosts’ experience, prospective guests who are asking for a discount often (not always) turn out to be bad guests.  They don’t take care of the property, don’t follow the rules, and leave below average reviews, which severely impacts the host’s search ranking and status on the platform.

Because of this, many hosts won’t approve a guest’s request to stay with them if they ask for a discount.  If you really want a discount, follow some of the other recommendations above. If you do ask for a discount pre booking and the hosts approves, thank them by leaving a great review!

Book on the ‘Off Season’

It is very rare for a vacation market to have no off season. National parks in the West are popular during the summer, Joshua Tree in California is great in the early spring, late fall and winter, and Midwestern markets thrive from early spring through mid- or late summer. However, the off season for these markets is much shorter than you think, and the months leading up to or just after their peak are great times to save money on a vacation rental.

For example, our market (Branson, MO) is a typical south/midwestern market that shines from mid-May through early August. However, Branson, and some key attractions like Silver Dollar City, are open through the end of December and have very festive fall and winter festivals. Most attractions close down from January through February but are back up and running by mid-March just in time for Spring Break! Nightly rates are typically much lower during this time (our nightly rates are $30-$40 cheaper per night), but there is still plenty to do and enjoy.

If you have discovered any great ways to save money when booking through OTAs, make sure to let me know in the comments (no tips on how to get free trips by filing false complaints – that isn’t a tip, it’s theft).  Keep your eyes out for Parts 2 & 3 coming soon!

Until then, happy travels!

Notes:
1 – About Booking.com
2 – Search Logistics Airbnb Key Statistics
3 – New Silver Vrbo Key Statistics 2022
4 – Trip Advisor Book a Rental
5 – Dream Big Travel Far Blog – Is Booking.com the Biggest Travel Booking Site?

Photos provided by Free Stock photos by Vecteezy