Top 10 Vacation Rental Websites

Global Vacation Rental Listing Sites

FREE LISTINGS

53 million visits per month

190 countries

50+ dedicated sites

HomeAway is the big name in the vacation rentals industry with more than two million listings in 190 countries in 23 languages.

Funded in 2005 and now owned by Expedia, the HomeAway network is the #1 vacation rental marketplace to advertise your property.

The HomeAway network of booking sites includes VRBO, HomeAwayUK, Homelidays, Abritel, VacationRentals.com and Stayz.

The ‘Book with Confidence Guarantee’ offers comprehensive guest payment protection and instils booking trust.

All listings include a property headline, description, 24 high-resolution photos, interactive map, guest reviews and reservation calendar.

‘Instant book’ properties are slowly being rolled out for distribution across Expedia and Trivago as part of the Expanded Distribution Network .

Properties for rent include houses, condos, apartments, villas, barns, boats, bungalows, cabins, castles, chalets, chateaus, cottages, estates, mansions, yachts and yurts.

HomeAway offers a pay-per-booking option and annual paid subscriptions.

FREE LISTINGS

1.55 million reservations confirmed every day

480 million monthly visitors

6.5 million listed homes, apartments and other unique places to stay

154,000+ destinations in 225 countries

17,500+ strategic partners

Adding your vacation rental on Booking gives you instant access to a huge audience of approximately 480 million website visitors per month.

Top 10 Vacation Rental Websites For Landlords

Note:Kiavi

About the author:Diana Eastman is a professional freelance writer from Orlando, Florida who writes content for dozens of real estate, property management, travel, and finance companies across the country and internationally. She has also helped well-known motivational speakers, authors, and self-help professionals create web content and blogs that are meant to inform and inspire.

If you are thinking about becoming a landlord or investing in buy-and-hold properties, one challenge you will certainly face is finding renters for your property. Short term vacation rentals can be an exciting and profitable real estate investment, but the key is an effective and intentional marketing strategy. Part of this strategy should involve listing your home on websites designed specifically for vacation rentals.

If youre turning your investment property into a vacation rental, consider listing your property on the following ten vacation rental websites and getting your property in front of as many interested and qualified renters as possible.

Make Your Business Legitimate

When you buy from widely known brands, be it clothing or holiday packages, you know what to expect from that company. When a brand is well established, so are its patterns, behaviors, mission, and overall operations. People who book with Airbnb or Vrbo know more or less what to expect. These key players have been in the business for quite some time, proving their legitimacy.

Having your vacation rental affiliated with those names makes your business appear legitimate by proxy. Most guests know that OTAs and vacation rental listing sites maintain high standards for their hosts, so your business being on there consequently means that you adhere to those levels of quality.

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Niche Vacation Rental Websites

The world of travel has grown in a way that tries to be a little bit more accessible for all types of travelers, be it disability-accommodation, kid-friendly, or any other needs you may have. The beauty of renting a vacation rental instead of a hotel is the customization and touch of detail that hosts add for their varying guests.

What Are The Basics For Vacation Rental

Vacation Rentals basically has two types of markets. Either you rent a whole house or a room in a house. Renting a whole house comes with a special experience.

Whether its with a group of friends or a big family, theres space for everybody to get under one roof. These houses may be condos, cottages, rentals, or single-family homes. If you want to rent a space inside someones house, youre normally living with a host.

The advantage of this is that you will get fantastic ideas, tips, and travel advice on how to visit like a regular. Expertise varies, of course.

But more often than not, youre beginning to learn the local community from a live host. Knowing the contrast between these two choices will help you find out what kind of holiday rental is better tailored to you.

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Which Listing Site Is Best For Vacation Rental Owners

Weve listed about forty vacation rental listing sites for you to choose from. While its always advisable to list on multiple platforms to get more bookings, its still nearly impossible to get your business published on every site . Each platform has its own characteristics, pricing, and audience so it can be difficult to decide which will generate the most bookings for your business. There are a couple of factors that will help you narrow down your search and choose the best vacation rental sites for you and your business.

Tips For Booking And Paying For Vacation Rentals

Protect yourself during the booking process with these reservation tips:

• Review the total cost before you click. There may be hidden fees in the rentals fine print that arent advertised in the main search.
• Pay directly through the app whenever possible. Using the services system provides information protection.
• Read the contract. You should have a clear understanding of cancellation policies, occupation limits, and damage waivers before booking.

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Our Guide To Vacation Rental Websites: Airbnb Vrbo And More

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While we love a good hotel, vacation rentals have a lot of appeal. For families with kids, vacation homes offer the much-needed space and privacy to spread out and get a little messy for groups of friends, they offer social, communal spaces and can cut down on costs and for curious travelers, they can give a more genuine, local feel in any given city or town. As far as rental booking services go, Airbnb dominatesbut its far from your only option. Depending on your specific needs, there may be a service better suited for your upcoming trip. Below, weve rounded up the best vacation rental websites to consider when you book that next vacationand a few of our favorite homes from each.

Common Features Of Vacation Rental Software

Common features found in vacation rental management systems include:

Streamlines reservations dashboard

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Is There A Cost For Rental Property Sites

Most often, landlords are able to list their properties on these sites for free. In a few cases, listing more than one property costs around $10 per week. Most of the expenses, however, are allocated to the applicants.

Renters browse rental listing sites at no charge, but they often pay to apply online or to order their background screening checks. These costs range from $25 to $60 depending on price breaks for bundled services.

What Aspects To Consider When Choosing Top Vacation Rental Sites For Your Vacation Homes

As a property manager, your focus lies on getting the most exposure to your vacation rental properties to travelers who dont look on the traditional websites Therefore, the following questions should be answered when youve ticked off your checklist, giving you a clear roadmap where to list your vacation rental properties in order to reach your target audience:

• Which traveler base does the site cater for? What are their requirements?
• Which type of rentals are listed on the platform?
• In what way are your properties presented?
• What coverage does the platform have?
• Does the platform make sure that your properties get maximum exposure to potential guests?
• What commission does the platform charge?

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Top 24 Vacation Rentals Booking Websites

With the hotel rates rapidly rising, vacation rentals seems like a great alternative for vacation accommodation considering the extra space and amenities that one can get for a price much less that what he would spend on a hotel. However, finding the best apartment, that too in a city or country unfamiliar to you can be quite a herculean task.

With the internet at your disposal, it has now become possible for anyone having a spare room to be able to post listings for travelers making it easier to locate vacation rentals. There are over a hundred websites offering this service, each with a variety of options at different rates. Following is an overview of the best websites for vacation property rentals ranked according to their traffic.

You can also check our list of top hotel booking sites if youre looking to book a hotel room.

Tripadvisor And Its Family Of Sites

While many users may be familiar with TripAdvisor for its hotel and attraction reviews, not many know of its entire family of websites. Many of them are vacation rental sites, including FlipKey, HolidayLettings and HouseTrip.

Collectively, TripAdvisor Rentals includes 830,000 properties in 190 countries and averages 390 million unique monthly visitors, according to the website.

You could access the main TripAdvisor rental website, but lets take a deeper dive into its specialty sites.

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Abercrombie & Kent Villas

Abercrombie & Kent Villas is a luxury vacation rental company with a wide range of luxury villas and ski chalets that have been carefully selected to provide guests with the highest levels of comfort, facilities and service.

The companys specialists inspect every property before listing them on the website. The company has been offering travel experiences for 50 years and has gone to great lengths to find the best luxury vacation rentals in Europe and the rest of the world.

If you manage ski chalets in the Austrian Alps, the Dolomites, The French Alps or the Swiss Alps, A& K Villas is the best luxury vacation rental site for you.

Top destinations: Europe

The Best Vacation Rental Websites: Airbnb

Airbnb is one of the webs most popular vacation rental websites, and it has perhaps the best brand recognition in the niche, which means lots of traffic and exposure for property owners who choose to list on this site. Worldwide, Airbnb has more than 1.5 million vacation home listings in over 190 nations on its mobile-friendly website.

Some key features and points include:

• The mobile-friendly platform offers secure, traceable payments, allowing for greater guest confidence.
• You can showcase your home with lots of features, including a detailed property description, an amenities list, photographs, guest reviews, and an interactive map.
• Unfortunately, there is no booking availability calendar on Airbnb, which is one downside.
• Theres an owners profile, which allows you to add a bit of personality to the equation by placing a face to your vacation home. This profile page also features reviews from past guests for added social proof.
• The listing fee for property owners is just 3%, which is much lower than the fee on other sites.
• The guests pay a booking fee ranging from 6% to 12%, which is higher than the fee charged on other sites.
• Although due to brand recognition, many travelers go to Airbnb without browsing other platforms.
• The property owner can determine their own cancellation policy. There is also a free $1 million dollar host guarantee, which provides insurance coverage to property owners, covering up to $1 million in damages.

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What Does The Marketing Mix For Luxury Rentals Look Like

A Channel Manager is certainly a technology tool that provides a great deal of help to guarantee an up-to-date calendar and reduce time spent on lower added value interactions with each sales distributor used.

Paola Gheis

In order to maximise occupancy and bookings for owners, fast-growing luxury vacation rental websites are using a tech-based approach to connect property managers with a discerning clientele.

Mainstream OTAs are not meeting the needs of these travellers, which presents an opportunity for niche vacation rental websites that curate lists of rigorously vetted, exclusive properties.

While the units listed on these platforms must meet some unusually high standards, their average booking value is also much higher than that of less exclusive properties. All the more reason why property managers who manage such high-end units need to find the right place to advertise them.

The selection process of niche agencies specialised in luxury and the distribution agreement with them can be time-consuming, says Paola. Its a mutual selection process between owner and distributor. Well-known luxury agencies select and inspect the properties before adding them to their inventory, she adds.

Once a property passes the listing sites test, what comes next is an often tedious bureaucratic process involving detailed contracts and long lists of amenities, services and rates. But the good news is, there is a way to speed it up.

According to Paola:

Best For Reviews: Tripadvisor

TripAdvisor is the place to go to read candid guest reviews of everything from hotels to restaurants and attractions. Reading about the experiences of others is a great way to book with confidence. Best of all, the site doubles as a metasearch engine, providing third-party links that allow you to make those reviewer-inspired bookings without having to search from scratch on a separate OTA. Travel services offered by TripAdvisor include hotels and vacation rentals, tours and tickets, flights, and restaurant reservations.

The website also stands out for its intuitive design, which allows you to search for each service under its own specific tab and then filter results according to a pretty specific set of personal criteria. For example, if youre looking for a place to stay in London, you can set a budget limit, choose your preferred star rating and property type, select must-have amenities, and even narrow your search to a specific neighborhood. Under the restaurant tab, you can browse traveler-ranked options according to themes including Cheap Eats, Local Cuisine, and Fine Dining.

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The Best Vacation Rental Websites: Flipkey

FlipKey is owned by TripAdvisor, so there is a big emphasis on reviews and other social proof elements. For example, there is a little feature on each vacation home listing that indicates how many guests have used FlipKey to book that property in the past. The downside: This site only has around 300,000 property listings, but the site is clearly growing, and it is heavily promoted on TripAdvisor, which sees millions of visitors each month.

Some key features and considerations on FlipKey include:

• Instant booking features and a secure, traceable payment interface to bolster consumer confidence and seize upon impulse purchases.
• Property owners pay a competitive 3% fee on all bookings. This competitive rate is offset by the fees that are paid by guests, which can range from 5% to 15% of the booking fee. But this is comparable with one of the webs biggest vacation rental sites: Airbnb.
• FlipKey has feature-rich property listings, with detailed property descriptions, lots of photographs, guest reviews, availability calendars, interactive maps, and more.
• Homeowners are free to determine their own cancellation policies.
• Property owners cannot secure damage insurance through FlipKey, as is available through sites like Airbnb, although guests can secure damage protection insurance.
• Theres also a payment protection policy for up to $10,000 for guests, which provides peace of mind to travelers.

Lead image: Skitterphoto via Pixabay

The 10 Companies Are:

The short answer to telling the world about your vacation rental home and increasing your revenue is the internet obviously. It is efficient, reaching a considerable number of people in the shortest amount of time, and it promises quick results. There are few companies that still send out a physical catalogue or advertise in newspapers and on radio commercials. Not so long ago, that used to be the norm. How the world has changed..

In the myriad of holiday rental websites, picking the ones that suit you best is not an easy task. You would first have to look up the various holiday rental websites, weigh their incentives before narrowing options on the ones that are the best for you.

Before selecting the best holiday vacation rental listing sites, you first need to know how to advertise your property.

Before listing your vacation home online, you need the following:

• Professionally taken pictures and videos of the property. This is an essential step that must not be taken lightly. Take your potential clients on tour around your vacation rental home, inviting them to a world of relaxation and fun.

• Perfectly and eloquently describe your property. This will be required in the listings, and it is best to have the description at hand. Make the description fun, catchy, and informative. If writing is not your strength, there are various freelance writers you can employ to make your vacation rental home the place to spend the vacation.

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