I'm a huge fan of Airbnb over VRBO. The website is cooler looking and works 1000 times better than VRBO. I never handle money and I get a 1099 from them. They're 100% pro-host and insure damages up to $1m. They provide (or did the last time I listed a property) free, professional photography and don't charge a sign-up fee.
I list on both AirBNB and VRBO, but I hate VRBO. Something I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is that they charge a "credit card processing" fee ON TOP of the $399/year subscription - something I didn't see disclosed or discussed when I signed up, and which I was very unhappy to learn of. It's approximately 3% - which is what AirBNB charges hosts, but of course on AirBNB you can list for free.
Like @Avery Carl, my market is a mountain town where the local hosts swear by VRBO... but at least 95% of my bookings come from AirBNB. I find VRBO difficult to navigate, the website is archaic, and the fees exorbitant. I'll keep it going for a little while longer, see if I can manage to improve my position there (I'm in the lower 1/3 on VRBO but a first-page listing on AirBNB) but I find it likely I'll drop them in a couple of years if I don't see a significant increase in bookings.
No matter where you are, you'll want to use both. It took me a while to realize this, and I hid my AirBNB listings for a while before finally bringing them back on full time. My properties are in the mountains, at or near ski resorts, and 90% of my bookings are currently from VRBO. I hope someday to have them 90% from my own web site and 10% from these two listing sites.
Some say the site that will work better for you depends upon your area, or your property type. I believe it depends on the people. I find that those using VRBO are looking to 'vacation'. They are usually families, looking for something memorable and comfortable. AirBNB users tend to be younger, couples or groups of friends, looking for something convenient and less expensive.
I've never had any of the issues that you hear horror stories about, raging parties, etc. However, I do feel that in general the VRBO guests take better care of my properties. They also plan ahead, whereas the AirBNB guests are usually last minute (on the rare occasions when I have last minute availability).
Over the past year VRBO has been trying to become more like AirBNB, which is annoying to me. So, the differences are less and less every day. The exception to this is the fees, in that VRBO has more, for both guests and hosts. They are also both making it more difficult to market your own brand, which means this needs to be moved down to the physical layer, in your properties.
@Garry C. totally agree. You should be listing on both... if you have a preferred platform, use the secondary platform to list your property at a more expensive price and see if there are any takers. Also, if using VRBO/Homeaway as opposed to Airbnb, make sure you are covering your costs (since there management fees can be higher.)
@Erin Spradlin, can you explain what you mean about higher 'management fees' with VRBO? Are you referring to using their commission based services as opposed to the annual fee? In this case, it can be quite high, although it probably doesn't make sense to go commission based unless you're doing less than $4k/year in bookings.
AirBNB charges service fees between 3-5% to the host, depending upon your cancellation policy (I'm currently being charged 3.8%). For the guests, the service fees are as high as 5-15%, and I've found it difficult for a host to determine what these are.
VRBO service fees are 5-12% for guests (potentially lower than AirBNB). Host Fees are 3% for credit card processing, and the annual listing fee of $399. If you're grossing $30k in rental income annually, the listing fee works out to be about 1.33%.
In my mind, the only leg up that AirBNB has on VRBO is the fact that they collect and remit taxes for me (they may not do this in every state). However, with VRBO becoming more like AirBNB every day, the differences in the platforms are much less than they once were, which is not necessarily a good thing for VRBO.
Homeaway seems to be dominant in Michigan vacation rentals. I have used them as a guest several times. Their listings seem to focus on the weeklong, larger vacation homes. All of the Airbnb listings that I looked at seemed to focus on smaller, not as nice places and nightly rentals. I also tried to search on Airbnb for specific parameters that I wanted, like lakefront or specific amenities, and I really couldn’t figure out how to do it. I’m not sure if it’s there and I missed it, or I just Didn’t try hard enough? That feature was key for me in finding a property that I wanted on Homeaway.
I just double checked on the apps, and it seems that you can search for the kind of vacation property that you want on Homeaway, like beachfront, ski, golf, cabin, cottage, etc. Airbnb has the amenities you want, like shampoo. That seems weird to me. No way to search by the location/property type.
Higher fees by VRBO not an issue if you have a higher price there and still book more, right?
Any person knowing a little bit about software will tell airbnb platform in general, technically, is years ahead of vrbo , but is that the most important? What if vrbo brings you more clients?
Replies are very interesting in that there seem to be no rule for those who are listed on both platforms. @Michael Greenberg , @Peter R.@Myka Artis and others have all valid points.
I used to consider that vrbo performs better for full house/lake/beach/mountain/luxury/expensive and airbnb more in a yuppy area/urban/smaller condos/cheaper units. But I am now convinced this does not explain it all and the answers here prove it. By experience, I can confirm that for one same property, obviously no change in location nor demography, with exact same listing text and pics, one year it's 85% airbnb and another 85% vrbo!!
MY THEORY:
Possibly airbnb's search engine penalizes listings with syncing calendars from VRBO. That popup message constantly asking you to release those "blocked" days on the calendar could be a sign.
to put numbers in perspective, HA+Vrbo weights $166M to be compared to airbnb $2B (2016 numbers). I would not be surprised if airbnb penalized hosts who are also on vrbo while vrbo promotes those who are also on airbnb.
I have no proof of the above, and my experience is too small to conclude that way, but one thing is certain: they have all the data (through hosts calendars, behavior, guests demography, cookies, re-targeting ads, and more) to somehow fight their competition, if they decide to.
HA/VRBO and Airbnb have their purpose and have a ton of travelers searching properties and booking. You should be advertising on all the sites you can. The downside is they control so much on how you advertise and communicate with your guests and its only getting worse. Its important to diversify and list on sites like Tripz that give you full control and allow you to show your direct number and direct website and encourage travelers to book direct with the source. Ultimately home owners and PM's control the inventory not the listing sites and they are the ones responsible for executing the rental and ensuring guest satisfaction.
To echo @Michael Greenberg I think it's pretty location specific. I use both Airbnb and VRBO and I get 95% of my business from Airbnb. And the guests that I do get from VRBO are usually much needier and require a lot of handholding. i.e. sending a ton of messages pre-booking to ask questions that are clearly stated in the listing.
I also know other people who get 95% of their business from VRBO and have no complaints. I recommend posting your listings on both and just going with the flow of wherever your business comes from!
I prefer the airbnb platform over the vrbo platform. I had our partner handle the vrbo and I handle the airbnb listings. Since adding the vrbo (rather updating and improving the listings) I have seen a jump in occupancy. I recommend both. I dont believe that vrbo collects taxes like airbnb does and you are required to withhold the necessary monies.