We all know that you should advertise your vacation rental on as many vacation rental websites as possible, but what are the costs of advertising your vacation rental? Some sites charge a flat subscription while others will charge you a percentage of every booking. Still other sites pass on the majority of the costs to the guest in the form of a booking fee. I have created a comparison of the fees charged by the major vacation rental listing sites in order to help you get a better grasp of the costs of advertising your vacation rental.
Homeaway & VRBO
Owner Fees:
Flat $499 per year per listing or 5% per booking if on pay-per-booking plan. Owners also pay a 3% credit card fee for any payments processed through the site.
Guest Fees:
5 – 15% of the total reservation.
Homeaway is hesitant to give out the exact details of their guest service fee. Their website simply states that they will calculate the fee as a percentage of the total reservation and the percentage may change from time to time.
Stats:
Over one million listings in over 190 countries, 40+ Million visitors per month
My Take:
Homeaway “double dips” as few other vacation rental sites do. Not only is the owner charged a percentage or flat annual fee in addition to the standard credit card processing fee, but the guest is also charged a hefty fee as well.
That said, Homeaway is an industry giant. Every vacation rental owner should advertise their rental on Homeaway. You are leaving serious money on the table if you do not.
Obviously you need to find a way to fit advertising with Homeaway into your budget. The costs of this vacation rental website will depend on the plan you select. The pay-per-booking plan only makes sense if you are renting your property a few weeks a year and doing low volume. Otherwise choose the flat annual rate if you plan to rent your vacation rental as often as possible.
Homeaway is actually a family of websites that includes VBRO, Vacationrentals.com and dozens of others. The value that you receive for the flat annual subscription is hard to beat.
Trip Advisor & Flipkey
Owner Fees:
3% of every reservation. Funds are transferred one business day after the guest checks-in and this fee is automatically deducted.
Guest Fees:
Varies from approximately 8 – 16%, depending on the reservation total.
Stats:
More than 800,000 properties in 190 countries, approximately 340 million travelers use Trip Advisor each month.
My Take:
I personally have not had nearly as much success with this site as I have with Homeaway. The good news is that it doesn’t cost you a dime until you get a booking.
Trip Advisor is a major travel brand, but I feel like vacation rental owners are competing with hotels to some extent on this platform.
This is another rental listing site that you need to fit in your budget when figuring the costs of advertising your vacation rental. All listings automatically appear on Trip Advisor, Flipkey and around 26 other sister sites.
Airbnb
Owner Fees:
A booking fee of generally 3% to cover credit card fees. This can be higher if you are in a foreign country.
Guest Fees:
Guests pay a service fee of up to 20% of the booking total.
Stats:
Over 85 million visitors per month.
My Take:
Airbnb ranks a close second to Homeaway for me in terms of the vacation rental sites that I have had the most success with. They have become a major force in the vacation rental industry.
One thing I really like about Airbnb is the innovative system they have where renters and hosts can review each other. I have found I get more “quality” renters through Airbnb due at least in part to this. Owners also have the ability to rent part of their house or a room in their house. This can be a nice flexible feature for many.
Booking.com
Owner Fees:
Generally 15% of the booking total, but I have seen others that claim to pay up to 25%.
You would also need to pay a credit card processing fee through your own secure merchant account, which would be around 3%.
Guest Fees:
No fees for guests.
Stats:
440 million+ monthly visitors, more than 1.5 million room nights are reserved everyday, site is available in over 40 languages
My Take:
I have the least amount of experience with Booking.com and the least amount of success compared to the other major listing sites.
The high fees can be a huge issue. Some owners may try to build the cost of this fee into their rates, but that will limit the amount of bookings you receive. As with Trip Advisor, you are competing with hotel rooms on this platform. Also Booking.com appears to be more popular outside of North America.
Despite these shortcomings, the shear volume of traffic is hard to ignore. Don’t rely on Booking.com as your bread and butter vacation rental listing site, but I would recommend using it as just another potential stream of revenue.
Major Niche Vacation Rental Listing Sites
The sites above are the vacation rental listing sites that you NEED to utilize. These will get you 90% or more of your rental bookings, but there are a few niche vacation rental sites to consider.
BringFido.com
Bring Fido is a popular vacation rental site catering to renters with pets. The great thing about this platform is you might be able to get a free listing if you already advertise on a major vacation rental site. Otherwise property listings are pretty reasonable at $249 per year.
Tripz.com
I really like the concept of this platform, as they are going against the grain of other travel sites that seem to keep increasing their booking fees. Tripz.com aims to be the top low cost provider of vacation rental accommodations. There are no booking fees for the owner or guest. A property listing will cost the owner $4 per month for a basic listing up to $89 per month for a premier listing.
Clanventure
Families with children make up an important target market for most vacation rental owners, and Clanventure caters to kid-friendly vacation rentals. Guests pay a flat fee to book a rental and owners pay a 10% booking fee, which includes credit card processing. This platform also charges a set-up fee, but they do offer periodic promotions to waive this fee.
