Marketing for a vacations rental website

Airbnb alternatives for homeowners

31  July  2021

Since the advent of Airbnb in 2008, it has become the leading holiday rental portal, to the point that not only the vast majority of homeowners advertise their properties there, but many small homeowners have Airbnb as their unique marketing channel. The best alternative to Airbnb and other listing sites, for not having to pay commissions and customer loyalty, is your own vacation rental site.

A website of your own

Direct sales without intermediaries are the most profitable option, not only because of the savings in commissions, but also because they help us to retain our customers and make our offer known. To manage these sales, it is essential to have your own virtual holiday rental store, as an alternative to holiday rental listing sites.

Having our own website, in the vast majority of cases, will not allow us to do without listing sites like Airbnb, but thinking about a long-term strategy will allow us to reduce dependence on them, and improve the profitability of our holiday rental business.

Booking.com

Just as Airbnb is a leader for vacation rentals, Booking.com is a leader for hotels. Although a few years ago, they have incorporated vacation rentals into their accommodation offer. Positioning itself as a portal, in which you will find all kinds of accommodation, for short stays.

By advertising a property on Booking.com, you get a great exposure, to publicize your vacation rental offer. This makes it easier for you to get reservations regularly. In addition, among an audience looking for a hotel, they can discover the advantages of a vacation rental.

However, its great drawback is that it has many cancellations, since they encourage their clients to book in several accommodations, to ensure a good price and finally deciding on one, when the arrival date approaches.

Vrbo (Vacation Rentals by Owner)

Vrbo, formerly known as HomeAway from the Expedia group, is one of the most important vacation rental portals, with a very extensive inventory. It groups together other portals, which were important at the time, in their markets such as Fewo-Direkt in Germany, OwnersDirect in the United Kingdom or Homelidays in France.

An ad on Vrbo can give our vacation rental property a lot of visibility in a global market. Here the challenge will be, to get a good position within Vrbo, among this extensive inventory.

Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is not itself a vacation accommodation listig site, but a platform for opinions on tourist services, in which there is an important section dedicated to vacation rentals, which allows owners to advertise their offer.

With Tripadvisor the probability of obtaining reservations is lower than with the other operators mentioned above, but since it has a large audience in a travel planning environment, it may be interesting to take this into account.

Then each market can have its particular characteristics. In this link, the case of Germany is analyzed.


Marketing for a vacations rental website
Name for a vacations rental website
Promo Code for a Holidays Rental
German vacation rental websites
Direct reservations without listing sites
Setting rates for a vacation rental
Prices for the German family market
Airbnb alternatives for homeowners
Cancellation policies for vacation rentals