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Key Takeaways
- Vacation rental marketplaces help increase your property's visibility and attract more bookings.
- Choose the right platform based on your property type, target audience, fees, and features.
- Different platforms serve different needs. For example, Airbnb offers global reach, while Vrbo is ideal for entire-home rentals.
- Listing on multiple platforms can boost occupancy and reduce reliance on a single booking source.
- Channel management software helps synchronize calendars, prevent double bookings, and manage listings from one dashboard.
- As your business grows, launching your own vacation rental marketplace can reduce commission costs and give you more control over your bookings.
Vacation rental listing platforms play a vital role in making properties visible to guests through listings, which also helps property owners connect directly with guests. In this blog, let us explore the top vacation rental marketplace platforms that can really help you reach a larger number of guests.
Why should you list your property on a vacation rental marketplace?
More travellers are preferring vacation rentals over traditional hotels. This has created more opportunities for property owners. Listing your property on a vacation rental platform creates access to a global audience. Along with visibility, these vacation rental platforms help you to make secure payments and make it easier to handle reservations. Apart from this, several other functionalities are included in the vacation rental marketplace platforms.
Top vacation rental marketplace platforms
Airbnb
Airbnb is one of the most popular vacation rental listing platforms. Airbnb holds over 5.5 million active hosts worldwide. Airbnb has more than 9 million active listings across 150,000 cities in over 220 countries and regions worldwide.
Commission and host fees
Airbnb earns commission directly from the host and the guest fee. Hence, it is called the split-fee model. Hosts typically pay 3% of the service fee to Airbnb, and it can be even a little higher in some countries, such as Italy, Brazil, and Mexico. The guest must pay 14-16.5% of the booking subtotal.
The single fee is another kind of fee structure paid by the host; here, the entire fee is deducted from the host’s payout. The host must pay 14%-15% fee for listing based on the country.
Best suited for
Airbnb is best suited for hosts who are more focused on acquiring guests across the globe. And a suitable option for individual hosts. Also, for a first-time host whose primary focus is to establish visibility of their property.
Expedia.com
Expedia is a vacation rental platform offered by Expedia Group. They serve Expedia to target different traveller segments. Expedia focuses on providing multiple services, such as hotels, vacation rentals, and even cruises.
Commission and host fees
Expedia follows a pay-per-booking similar to Vrbo; there is a slight change in commission rate, which ranges from 10% to 30% of the booking fee. But the commission rate may vary by property, location, and other factors.
Best suited for
Expedia is the best suited for hosts owning apartments. It is also suitable for travellers who want to plan their entire trip in one place. It is ideal for hosts targeting international travellers.
Vrbo
Vrbo is a vacation rental marketplace platform primarily focusing on vacation home rentals. Vrbo is a subsidiary of Expedia Group. It focuses on the whole home rental rather than shared spaces, and specialises in providing family-friendly, private accommodations. Vrbo positions them by providing homes with spaces, a kitchen, and amenities, particularly for travellers.
Commission and host fees
Vrbo follows a pay-per-booking model for hosts; here, the hosts are required to pay 5% of commission fee and 3% of payment processing fee. The 5% of the commission fee is taken from the rental amount, and the additional fees are charged, such as a cleaning fee. The commission may vary when you have integrated a property management software.
Best suited for
Best suited for hosts who want to list their entire home, and hosts whose target audience is family travellers and larger groups preferring a group stay.
Booking.com
Booking.com is one of the world's well-known listing platforms with over 28 million reported accommodation listings, including 6.6 million homes, apartments, and unique stays. Booking.com supports 43 languages and operates in around 220 countries and territories.
Commission and host fees
The commission is paid only by the host, and the host is charged a certain percentage on each reservation. And a certain percentage is also from additional charges such as cleaning fees, service fees, and other additional costs. These additional charges are applicable only when the guest checks out.
Best suited for
It is most suitable for the host focusing on listing guest houses and private villas. And well suited for hosts whose focus is on listing a diverse range of properties, including apartments and other unique destination stays.
Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy
Homes and villas by Marriott Bonvoy are vacation rentals, and a private homes rental platform of Marriott International was launched to extend its service on luxury and premium vacation rentals. It offers special curated stays such as luxury beachfront villas, mountain chalets, city penthouses, and estates.
Commission and host fees
Marriott charges approximately 15% commission on each reservation. An additional 2% for payment management is charged. Both the commission and host fees are excluded from the final booking price.
Best suited for
It is best suited for the hosts targeting luxury and premium range guests. It is also suitable for the hosts listing their properties for corporate travellers.
HomeToGo
HomeToGo is a leading global vacation rental marketplace founded in 2014 in Berlin. It is operated in more than 30 countries with localized sites and apps. HomeToGo attracts travellers seeking good booking offers and deals.
Commission and host fees
HomeToGo charges 15% commission on every booking for the host. There is another commission fee holding model called the shared fee, which holds 3% per booking and adds a variable fee to the guest based on smart pricing.
Best suited for
It is best suited for hosts who need broader visibility for their vacation rentals. This platform is also well-suited for hosts preferring price-competitive listings.
To know more about vacation rental pricing strategies to increase your bookings while listing your property, you can take a look at this blog on proven vacation rental pricing strategies to increase bookings.
Why list on a marketplace when you can own one?
Ready to start your own vacation rental marketplace? Download our free guidebook to learn the features, business model, and technology needed to launch.
How to choose the right vacation rental marketplace to list your property
Consider your property type
Choose your vacation rental marketplace platform based on your property type. For example, when you want to list the entire home, then Vrbo can be your correct choice from the above-discussed vacation rental listing platforms. So, based on the property type, your target audience can change; by considering this, you can select a suitable vacation rental listing platform.
Compare fees and commission structures
You must also consider the commission percentage across multiple vacation rental listing platforms. Before selecting the listing platform, take a look at the host fee charged by the listing platforms. Along with this, also consider the hidden costs involved and the budget allocated in your business plan. Before choosing the listing platform, calculate the profitability that you get.
Evaluate audience reach and market presence
You must evaluate the audience group of the vacation rental listing platforms based on the user group of the platform. Evaluate whether it is used by a global or a regional audience. You can find the marketplace presence by finding the monthly website traffic, brand recognition, and seasonal demand.
Review host tools and support
Review the host tools available on listing platforms before listing your vacation rental. There are some mandatory tools like calendar management, messaging system, analytics dashboard, and customer support. These tools can make your day-to-day operation smoother. Along with these additional tools, like dynamic pricing and AI listing, can be an added advantage to your day-to-day operations.
Can you list your property on multiple vacation rental marketplaces?
You can definitely list your vacation rental on multiple vacation rental marketplaces. As your vacation rental business grows, you may need more visibility across multiple platforms.
Benefits of multi-channel listing
Multi-channel listing helps you increase visibility, generate more revenue, and reduce the dependency on a single platform. Listing across multiple platforms can also help in improving the occupancy rate and revenue diversification. Multi-channel listing also helps you to reach the audience across multiple segments.
Managing availability across platforms
When you list your vacation rental property on multiple listing channels, there is a risk of double booking. Calendar synchronization helps to prevent double booking. It ensures that when a guest books the property on one platform, the dates are automatically blocked on the others, which keeps the availability booking on track.
Keeping your property listings consistent
When you have a property listed on a lot of vacation rental marketplaces, you need to make sure everything is the same on each one. Your property name, the description of your property, the photos of your property, the amenities your property offers, the pricing of your property, and the house rules of your property should all be correct and the same on every listing. This way, guests can find the information about your property no matter which website they use to look for vacation rentals.
So whenever you make any changes to your property listing, you should update all of them on every website.
Conclusion
I hope that by reading this blog, you have discovered various vacation rental marketplace platforms available to list your property. You may also come across the commission and host fee that each platform holds.
If you are a vacation rental owner with multiple properties, and are worried about the commission fee and host fee that are deducted from your overall profit. Then this is the right time to stop paying middleman commission. Start your own vacation rental marketplace to list your property. To launch quicker and to stay ahead in reaching multiple guests across the globe, a ready-made vacation rental script can be a better choice.
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