Where Should I list My Property?/ What Vacation Rental Property Site is the Best?

Is Airbnb the next Kleenex? And I don't mean it's going the way of the trash can. Many people use the term Airbnb to describe a short-term rental property. In fact, there are over 150 Airbnb-type marketplaces to list your short-term rental. You don't need to list your property on all of them.

Every city, country, and niche market has primary or dominant short-term rental marketplaces. At this time, 75% of my bookings come from Airbnb, 15% from the VRBO/HomeAway family, and the other 10% directly (I'll save talking about direct bookings for another time, though). It's clear that my market, the Nashville market, is dominated by Airbnb, but over the recent years, I have seen their percentage slowly decrease with an uptick in the VRBO/HomeAway bookings.

Besides finding out which listing sites dominate your locations, it's also important to consider your target market. Remember how we talked about the importance of knowing your target market. Generally speaking, the more bedrooms you have, the higher your VRBO/Homeaway booking percentage will be. The VRBO/HomeAway audience typically tends to cater to older or family demographics, while Airbnb tends to be younger and friend groups booking. These demographics continue to blur as they fight for market dominance.

Typically, the smaller the listing site, the higher the booking risk. Many of the small listing sites don't have as intensively verified guests, and sometimes the only reason guests are on those small sites is because they have already been run off the top competitor sites. Not always, though; use your best judgment.