Are you tired of updating your website every day? Do you feel like no matter how much efforts you put into your website, there’s not much of a response? You must have tried advertising your properties physically as well, but did it work? If your answer is no, then we have a solution for you. Why don’t you advertise your properties on someone else’s website? A website that’s already trending and has millions of visit per month. Interested? But not sure how? Then keep reading further.
Listing your property on a trending website is always a good idea. You can keep working on your own website and advertising but side by side, you can use the advantages of rental websites. Number of vacation rental websites is growing by the day and with so many options to choose from, you are bound to get confused. There are many factors that you must consider before choosing the right website to list your property. In this article, we’ve put together a guide to 5 major vacation rental websites to help you choose the right one for yourself.
1. Homeaway
The first thing that comes to mind when trying to list your property on a rental website is how much you have to pay. You must be skeptical about paying anything before getting your website listed. Obviously you can never be sure that your property will be chosen by someone. This is why, Homeaway offers you to list your property on their website for free. Your property will get high exposure as Homeaway reaches to travelers in more than 190 countries and across 50 sites dedicated to travel rentals.
Homeaway offers free marketing to every user as they continuously advertise their website. They make sure to bring more and more traffic to the website through various advertisements on multiple channels like Facebook, Google, and many more.
Of course if you’re using their services, you will have to pay service charges. Once your property is booked, Homeaway charges you a mere 3% of the booking amount as service fee.
Another great thing about Homeaway is that you can customize your prices and create your own deals and special offers to attract more bookings. For e.g., if you’ve set a price of $250 for your property but you feel like it’s a little steep and you’re not getting any reservations, then you can change it at whatever time you want without any hassle.
Homeaway has more than 8.25 million visits per month so you can be sure that your property will get maximum exposure. Also, you won’t have to worry about payments as all the payments are handled by Homeaway only and later you will be paid for your property in your preferred currency.
2. VRBO
VRBO was one of the first few rental websites which was later acquired by Homeaway and together they are dominating the vacation rental industry for years. When travelers search for rental properties on google, VRBO is mostly in first 5 search results. This must have given you an idea of the amount of exposure your property can get.
VRBO is one of the few vacation rental websites that charges an annual fee from property owners. An annual fee of $399 has to be paid by property owners to list their property on VRBO. You might be skeptical about paying this annual fee as you never know whether people will be interested in your property or not. But you must keep in mind that unlike other vacation rental websites, VRBO will not charge you any service fee on successful bookings. This will be very profitable for owners whose property gets a lot of reservations as they will not have to pay any extra service charges.
If there’s a time when you do not want to let out your property, then you can control it on your own. You don’t need to specify any reason to VRBO, you can just switch off your property’s visibility and nobody will be able to search it. There are no lengthy procedures for switching off or switching on your property’s visibility as VRBO will never interfere with your preferences. It is your property after all, and VRBO provides you with full right to decide when you want to accommodate guests and when you don’t.
If you’ve listed your property on VRBO, it is never compulsory for you to accommodate anyone. You have the right to choose whether or not you want particular guests in your property. Guests can reserve your property only if you allow them to.
Should there be a problem to the guest, he/she can directly talk to the host and the host will make sure the problem is sorted. This prevents guests from unnecessary hassle of contacting VRBO and waiting for a response like many other websites.
Also, the hosts are in charge of their payments as VRBO will not interfere between the host and the guest. The host and guests have to facilitate payments on their own which makes it more transparent and easier for both.
3. Airbnb
Airbnb is one of the biggest vacation rental websites worldwide. It is ranked at number 2 in the hotel and accommodations category and there are a few reasons for it. Unlike other rental websites, Airbnb offers a lot of unique services to the hosts as well as the guests which is why they have a direct traffic of more than 60% on their website.
Airbnb charges no annual fee and anyone can list their property for free. You don’t have to pay anything unless your property is booked by someone. Once your property is booked, you’ve to pay a mere 3% of the booking amount to Airbnb. For e.g., you charge $200 per night for your property and after 3 days of stay you get $600 from your guests. Now you have to pay $18 to Airbnb which leaves you with $582 as your income.
Airbnb is one of the only vacation rental website which provides a platform to its hosts to communicate with their guests even before booking. The guests can also communicate with their hosts and inform them about any particular needs.
Airbnb is the only vacation rental website that allows the user as well as the host to give feedback about each other which allows other hosts to choose their guests on the basis of previous ratings.
Also, in case of any damage to your property, Airbnb offers protection with their Host Guarantee program which covers you up to $1,000,000. Airbnb also provides their hosts with Host Protection Insurance wherein if any of the guest gets hurt, then Airbnb covers the host for claims liability of up to $1,000,000 which is free of cost for every Airbnb host.
With Airbnb, you will never have to deal with money directly as Airbnb will handle all the payments for you and you will be paid directly right after your guests check-in. Airbnb has an estimate of up to 7 million visits per month which is why it should definitely be your first pick among other vacation rental websites to list your property.
4. Booking.com
Booking.com is the first site preferred by millions of travelers for their accommodations. It is ranked at the top in hotels and accommodations category worldwide. Booking.com provides its host with maximum exposure as it has more than 40 million visitors per month which is undoubtedly the highest among other vacation rental websites.
Just like many other rental websites, you can list your property on booking.com for free. Booking.com will not charge you any subscription fee or annual fee for listing your property. Only once your property is booked, you are charged 15% of the booking amount as service fee. This might seem a little steep to some of you but if you look at the services and the exposure that booking.com provides, we think this charge is definitely justified.
Booking.com also provides its hosts with free marketing services as they don’t just sit and wait for people to visit the website, rather they continuously advertise their website on different portals so that your property gets more and more exposure. They have partnered with airline companies like emirates, EasyJet, etc. so that whenever people book their flight tickets, they are redirected to booking.com.
A unique think about booking.com is that unlike many other rental websites who charge guests more than what the owner sets, as their own commission; booking.com displays the same price that the property owner sets. There are absolutely no hidden charges for the guests or for the hosts.
Also, since there are no annual fees or lock-in contract, owners can switch on or off their property’s visibility anytime. If you only want to let out your property in summers, then you can switch off the visibility in winters.
Again, just like Airbnb, payments for your property are not handled by booking.com. You are in charge of your own money. Your guests will pay you the full amount of their stay and later after every month you will have to pay 15% of your earnings to booking.com.
5. Vacationrental.com
VacationRentals has been in the rental industry from a long period of time. It was founded in 1997 and was later acquired by Homeaway. Being a part of the Homeaway family, VacationRentals assures quality services to its users.
All you have to do is explain what is unique about your property, show off with some pictures, and set a price. Your property will be listed for free on VacationRentals.com and later, It will charge you a service fee of 6%-12% for every successful booking which is based on the amount of reservation. VacationRentals will not charge any annual fee or subscription fee.
When you list your property on VacationRentals.com, your property will reach travelers in more than 190 countries and across 50 dedicated sites. So, you can expect maximum exposure for your property on VacationRentals.
VacationRentals will provide you an estimate cost for your property but, it is you who will decide the final price of your property. You can set the price of your property and later, you can change it at any time you want. This facilitates transparency between the website and hosts as there will be no hidden charges for the guests.
Property owners can also control the visibility of their property. There are no contracts of any sort and hence, if at any particular time property owner doesn’t want to let out his property, he can simply switch off the availability of his property on the website and VacationRentals will not let users search for your property. This is great for those who only want to let out their property for shot spans.
Also, VacationRentals will never force you to accommodate any guest. It is your right to decide whether or not you want particular guests in your property. Users can always search your property but they will only be able to reserve it, if you allow them to do so.
With VacationRentals, you will not have to worry about late payments or anything because VacationRentals will handle all the payments for you. They will deduct their commission, and you will get the balance amount.
If you’re still not able to choose one vacation rental website for your marketing portfolio, then we have a solution for that also. You don’t need to choose. Yes, you read that right. There is no restriction by any of the rental website due to which you cannot list your property on multiple websites. In fact, if you really want maximum exposure for your property then it is best to list your property on all of the above mentioned websites.
You must have started calculating the costs of listing your property on more than one rental website. But, we assure you that you will not be charged anything extra. How? Well, since four of the above mentioned websites will not charge any annual fees for listing your property, you will only have to pay commission to one website from where your property is booked. This will make sure that your property is getting maximum exposure with no extra charges. Isn’t that great?
So, what are you waiting for? If you have a property to let out, then think no more. This is the most effective strategy for attracting more and more guests to your property.
