Top 10 vacation rental websites for hosts in the wake of Airbnb

1 March 2023

Giuseppe Mastrangelo

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Channel Manager | Airbnb | Vacation Rental

Do you want to know which are the best vacation rental websites in 2022 as Airbnb alternatives? In this Octorate Blog article, we will try to help you maximize the online visibility of your apartments by looking at other sites such as Airbnb in terms of their functionalities and goals. At the end of the article, you will also discover how to use a Channel Manager to easily and automatically appear on all of these portals. Are you ready? Let’s get started!

Sites like Airbnb: the OTA
Top 10 vacation rental websites like Airbnb
How to manage the best holiday rental sites with Octorate Channel Manager
Downlaod the 100 best vacation rental websites for hosts
Frequently Asked Questions

Sites like Airbnb: the OTA
Top 10 vacation rental websites like Airbnb
How to manage the best holiday rental sites with Octorate Channel Manager
Downlaod the 100 best vacation rental websites for hosts
Frequently Asked Questions

Sites like Airbnb: the OTAs

In 2022 it has become a priority to publish all your properties on as many booking portals as possible to increase the visibility.
It is quite intuitive to understand why: the more sites in which the apartments are visible, the greater the chances of receiving bookings and increasing the occupancy rate of your apartments.

Thanks to a very fast rise in the last five years, one of the most popular travel booking portals is certainly Airbnb. When we talk about sites like Airbnb, therefore, we are talking about OTA, or Online Travel Agency: portals on which tourist facilities and accommodations can be rented (for hosts) and booked (for travelers), and on which rates, availability, characteristics and photos can be managed (for hosts).

However, there are several Airbnb alternatives and sites like Airbnb, and they are also very important. So if you need to improve the online presence of your vacation rental in order to get more bookings, then it will certainly help to understand the top 10 vacation rental Airbnb alternatives. Below, we look at them one by one.

Top 10 vacation rental websites for hosts like Airbnb

Booking.com

Booking.com is not just an alternative to Airbnb, it is the tourist booking portal with the most daily bookings in the world (almost one million according to unofficial sources) and also one of the longest-established OTA in the Hospitality industry (founded in 1996).
Booking, therefore, represents a unique opportunity to list vacation rentals, and your sales strategy must absolutely include it. In fact, if at the beginning of its activity the offer was limited to Hotels, with the disintermediation caused by short-term tourist rentals, on Booking.com it is now possible to manage, rent and book, also Bed & Breakfast, Hostels and, precisely, apartments.

VRBO (ex HomeAway)

VRBO is one of the sites such as Airbnb on which your apartment cannot avoid appearing. VRBO received this name in 2020 when it took the place of the old HomeAway. This OTA is one of the affiliates of the Expedia Group network, a colossus that, in addition to VRBO, also controls companies such as CarRentals.com, Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Orbitz, Travelocity and Trivago. Some of the features that make VRBO one of the best vacation rental websites sites is the fact that it has more than 2 million accommodations with over 44 million monthly visitors to its website.

Agoda.com

Agoda, founded in 2005, is an OTA born in Singapore and part of the Booking Holdings group (formerly Priceline Group), the same owner as Booking.com. Agoda has in the recent past been among the fastest growing OTAs on the planet for hotels and resorts.
However, thanks to the new Agoda Homes solution, you can also list your vacation rental here with excellent chances of receiving bookings, thanks to 49 million visitors per month on the portal and thanks to its strategic predominance in Asian markets such as Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy

Another option to promote your property is Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy, one of the world’s most popular premium and luxury vacation rental and booking platforms. Seeing your properties listed on this portal is a very favourable opportunity. Firstly, because it is managed by Marriott International – one of the heavyweights of the hospitality industry, which is synonym of guarantee; secondly, because Homes and Villas by Marriott Bonvoy is the only home rental platform to participate in a robust travel program – Marriott Bonvoy which means the properties listed on Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy (not only holiday homes, but also private homes, bungalows, villas, castles, ski chalets and townhouses) can reach more than 173 million members globally who are well-traveled road warriors and can earn and redeem Marriott Bonvoy points with every home stay.

Tripadivisor

Tripadvisor appeared for the first time in 2000 – was originally a review platform but now has evolved to offer travelers a range of services covering the whole holiday experience. You can also list your own accommodations and vacation rentals with excellent visibility and receive direct bookings. This functional step was taken in 2008 through the acquisition of Flipkey (which, however, continues to live under its own brand name), an OTA that used to be one of the best solutions for booking vacation rentals.

Traum-Ferienwohnungen

Traum-Ferienwohnungen is one of the main German portals for vacation rentals and similar, which currently advertises more than 100.000 accommodations all over the world. Traum-Ferienwohnungen has around 47 million visitors each year who submit over 240,000 reservation requests per month. In addition to the German platform, which is mainly used by German-speaking guests, there is also an English platform. This portal does not charge any commission on booking requests but works with an annual membership fee with no obligation to renew.

HomeToGo

Like Holidu, HomeToGo – founded in Berlin in 2014 – is a search and booking platform for vacation rentals that aggregates millions of properties already listed on selected partners such as Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com. From vacation rentals, cabins, beach houses, apartments, townhouses, castles, farmhouses and everything in between, HomeToGo combines price, destination, dates and services to find the perfect accommodation for any trip around the world. As well as finding flats on other portals, of course, you can also publish your own listings on HomeToGo to increase your visibility and booking potential.

Plum Guide

If you are looking for an exclusive portal where you can receive bookings, then you should also list your property on Plum Guide. Being listed on this platform, however, is not at all easy. Only 3% of the requests received are actually granted.
This explains the concept behind this platform, whose intention is to offer travelers the possibility to book exclusive properties rather than offering a wide selection of them (12,000 properties listed in 17 countries). This scarcity is counterbalanced by the type of customers who are used to booking on Plum Guide, who can count on considerable and often greater purchasing power than users on other platforms.

TravelStaytion

TravelStaytion is a rapidly expanding London-based vacation rental platform with a portfolio of over 80,000 properties worldwide. The mission of TravelStaytion.com is to offer high-end vacation rentals in wonderful destinations, through the local support of reliable and highly qualified hosts, able to guarantee the same standards of quality in all the properties they advertise.

How to manage the best vacation rental sites with Octorate Channel Manager

Now that you know which are the sites like Airbnb and which, at the same time, are the best vacation rental sites in 2022, it is time to understand how to manage them.

You didn’t really expect so many, did you?!

As we wrote at the beginning, it is not really correct to talk about the OTAs mentioned as alternative to Airbnb. In order to maximize your visibility, you should appear on all of the portals mentioned, including of course Airbnb. It would be impossible to manage rates, availability, photos and descriptions on every single site at the same time if there would not be a Channel Manager that would carry out real-time updating of rates, automatic synchronization of all these functions on all portals in real time if you want to know more we refer you to the article on what a Channel Manager is).

The great thing is that on Octorate – as you can see in the video – connecting an OTA to your apartments is really easy and, inside, you will find all 10 of the best vacation rental sites mentioned in this article. What’s even more, Octorate’s Channel Manager is awarded annually by all major OTAs (such as Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb, VRBO, TripConnect and HRS) for its reliability, efficiency and ability to quickly implement all new features released.

Frequently Asked Questions

🏠 Which are the sites like Airbnb?

When we talk about sites like Airbnb, we are talking about OTA, or Online Travel Agencies: portals where tourist facilities and accommodations can be rented (for hosts) and booked (for travelers), and where rates, availability, features and photos can be managed (for hosts). Some sites like Airbnb are:

Booking.com
VRBO
Agoda.com
Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy
Tripadvisor
Traum-Ferienwohnungen
HomeToGo
Plum Guide
TravelStaytion

🏆 Which are the best vacation rental sites ?

Top 10 vacation rental websites in 2022 are:

Booking.com – is the world’s largest daily booking portal for tourism (almost one million bookings a day)
VRBO – It is part of the Expedia Group network and there are more than 2 million accommodations with over 44 million visitors per month.
Agoda.com – has a large presence in Asian markets such as Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines with 49 million visitors per month and is part of the Booking Holdings Group, the same as Booking.com.
Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy – one of the world’s most popular platform for renting and booking premium and luxury vacation rentals. It is run by the hospitality giant Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy.
Tripadvisor – has exceptional visibility, receiving direct bookings from 450 million visitors a month
Traum-Ferienwohnungen – one of Germany’s leading portals for vacation rentals, advertising more than 100,000 accommodations worldwide and receiving 240,000 booking requests per month
HomeToGo – Publishes not only rentals, but also beach houses, condominiums, castles, farmhouses listed by selected partners such as Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com. You can also publish your holiday homes directly on this portal.
Plum Guide –Exclusive OTA where only 3% of listing requests received are published. Offers a clientele with considerable purchasing power
TravelStaytion –fast-growing vacation rental platform with a portfolio of over 80,000 properties worldwide

🖥 How to manage the best vacation rental sites with Octorate Channel Manager?

With the Octorate Channel Manager you can manage prices, availability, photos and descriptions of each individual portal simultaneously in an automated way without entering each individual OTA.
With Octorate Channel Manager you can manage up to 150 booking portals simultaneously with a tool that has been awarded by Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb, VRBO, TripConnect and HRS for its exceptional quality standards and for its reliability, efficiency and ability to quickly implement all the new features released by each supplier.