Vacation Rental Comparison of Guest Fees
Below is a guide to all the mainstream and niche vacation rental websites complete with guest fees, host fees and listing costs.
Top Vacation Rental Websites
Airbnb
Founded in 2008 from a San Francisco bedroom, Airbnb has grown to be one of the biggest vacation rental websites in existence. Airbnb worth over $30 Billion now boasts more than 100 million users, including over 650,000 hosts. Airbnb is now the world’s second-ranked website in the accommodation and hotels category just barely losing out to Booking.com.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| Guests pay a service fee of 6-12% of the booking total, to cover costs of keeping Airbnb up and running. | Approximately 3% to cover transaction fees, but it may vary depending on the total booking amount. | Free to join and list entire property, private room or shared room. |
HomeAway
HomeAway has over a million listings in more than 190 countries. HomeAway’s companies including HomeAway, VRBO, VacationRentals.com to name a few are some of the biggest players. HomeAway vacation rental owners and managers will have exposure to over 44 million travelers each month.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| Guest service fee is usually between 5-12%of the booking total. | Dependent on listing plan – pay-per-booking subscriptions will pay a percentage (starting from 8%) on each reservation total. Annual subscription owners will not incur any additional host charges. |
Pay-per-booking If renting for less than 6 weeks per year, this option is suitable. Just pay a commission on the bookings you take, starting at 8%. Annual subscription For year-long rentals, paying annually makes sense. Prices start at $399 (with online booking) or $549(without). |
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor built its strong following based on trustable reviews on just about everything travel-related. That includes hotels, restaurants, activities, and vacation rentals. The latest figures show over 340 million travelers use TripAdvisor per month, and there are more than 800,000 vacation rental properties listed on the site. Active in over 190 countries, TripAdvisor automatically translates any property listings to appear on its 26 sister sites including FlipKey, HouseTrip, HolidayLettings and Niumba.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| Travelers are charged a booking fee, which TripAdvisor uses to run the platform, and this varies from 8% to 14.5% depending on reservation total. | Hosts pay a 3% fee to TripAdvisor on every booking they make, deducted from the guest’s booking total. | No upfront subscription fees or contract. List any property type for free. |
Booking.com
Booking.com is undoubtedly the #1 fare website for travelers across the world. Every day, more than 1.2 million room nights are reserved on the online travel agency. Booking’s site is available in over 40 languages, and has almost 1.2 million properties in over 227 countries. It’s known mostly for a hotel booking site but the vacation rentals are growing.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| No reservation fees for guests. | Hosts pay commission on a per-booking basis (usually around 15%). Invoiced and paid monthly. | No sign-up or subscription fees. |
Roomorama
Roomorama is an online marketplace which allows guests to book vacation homes worldwide. This site is mostly for longer stays normally with a nine nights minimum and most Roomorama users spend around $1,000+ per reservation which is twice the vacation rental average.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| The guest fee is calculated depending on the length of stay and includes credit card processing fees. It’s usually 15%, but this decreases to 12% if the stay is one month or longer. | Hosts on Roomorama don’t pay any fees. | It’s free to list properties on Roomorama. |
Wimdu
Wimdu has been around since 2011. It has 350,000 properties ready to accept bookings in 150 countries and in 15 different languages.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| Guests pay a processing fee which is automatically added on to the total amount of their booking. | Wimdu hosts don’t pay any fees. | It’s free to list accommodation offerings on Wimdu. |
Smaller & Niche Vacation Rentals
Accomable
Accomable is a vacation rental website which helps disabled travelers find and book accessible homes and apartments around the world. With over 1,000 wheelchair-friendly listings ranging from cottages to luxury spa retreats.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| Guests do not pay any extra fees to use the Accommable platform. | Accomable charges hosts 10% of the total booking cost, to be deducted from guest’s payment. Includes payment processing fees. | Listing accessible properties is free on Accomable. |
BringFido.com
BringFido.com is a one-stop shop for all things necessary when it comes to planning dog-friendly vacays. Search their 10,000 pet-friendly vacation rentals by price, rating, pet policy, or region.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| No booking fees are charged when making a reservation. Plus, guests get a free gift (such as a t-shirt, sticker etc.) when they arrive home from the trip. | BringFido.com usually takes a small commission from bookings made through the platform. | If the owner already has their own website or listings on HomeAway, VRBO, Airbnb or TripAdvisor, BringFido.com will use the link to create a listing free of charge.Otherwise, individual property listings start at $249 per year. |
Clanventure
Kid-friendly vacation rentals and travel ideas thoroughly vetted and handpicked by parents to ensure the offerings are suitable for family friendly vacations. They guarantee the safety features and amenities of each property and that it will have family-friendly activities nearby.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| A flat $79 fee is charged to guests who book using the site, and includes accidental damage protection during trip. | Clanventure charges a 10% host fee every time a booking is made through the site. This includes credit card fee.Discounts may be available if owners have multiple properties. | It’s free, but homes must be approved by Clanventure before listing. |
misterb&b
Misterb&b is the largest gay travel or LGBTQ travel and vacation rental website with more than 60,000 hosts in over 135 countries.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| misterb&b charges a 12% guest fee on the gross amount of the rental (e.g. rent+cleaning fee). Cross-border transactions are subject to another 3%charge. | misterb&b charges 5%commission on each booking taken on the platform for the processing of guest payments. | Setting up your listing on misterb&b is completely free. |
Niche Escapes
The Niche Escapes vacation rental website allows owners to list and travelers to book unique destinations and properties worldwide. The site matches guests with a property that would be a perfect fit for their needs whether it be cycling or history or even rural retreats. For each property listed, owners can select up to three niches allowing the rental to be marketed in three different categories across the site.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
|---|---|---|
| Niche Escapes charges a 10% guest fee on top of each booking. | With Niche Escapes, owners can opt to pay a 3% fee on a per-booking basis which covers credit card fees. Otherwise, they can pay early. | If paying yearly, there is an introductory offer of £49 for the first year (instead of £150!). |
9flats
9flats is a vacation rental listing website which offers over 250,000 properties worldwide.
| Guest fees | Host fees | Listing fees |
| The guest service fee tends to be around 10% per booking, but may vary depending on length of stay and total cost. | 9flats takes a 12-15% commission on the booking total. | It’s free to list your property on 9flats. |
atraveo
Founded in 1997, atraveo is part of the TUI group and has over 300,000 properties from all over the world listed on its website, with a particular focus on Europe.
Agoda
Agoda started off in Asia in 2005 and was acquired by The Priceline Group and offers over 1,250,000 accommodations, ranging from luxury hotels to budget hostels and private rooms or entire properties. Listing your property on Agoda is free.
Vacationstayz
Vacationstayz is a vacation rental listing website letting travelers choose their perfect vacation pad from 20,000 destinations. Vacationstayz focuses on the traveler experience and is completely free for guests. Vacationstayz doesn’t charge any listing fees for the free membership. There is, however, the option to pay $199 a year for full membership, which includes SEO optimization, listing management and one featured listing.
Owner Direct
Owner Direct offers thousands of vacation rentals from all around the world. The company also prides itself on its usability, efficient customer service and transparent fees. Guests aren’t charged any fees on Owner Direct. Owner Direct takes a 10% commission on successful bookings. There is an additional $100 fee if you’ve received more than one booking during the financial year, to cover set-up, maintenance and marketing costs.
HomeEscape
HomeEscape makes it easy to find and compare vacation rentals worldwide, without booking fees or processing fees. HomeEscape is commission-free for both owners and guests, making vacation rentals more affordable for everyone.
Wyndham Vacation Rentals
Wyndham Vacation Rentals boasts over 10,000 rental properties in resort destination across North America, and over 90,000 properties across Europe. Wyndham Worldwide was recently ranked no. 1 on FORTUNE’s Most Admired List in the Hospitality Sector. Also see Hilton Vacation Timeshares.
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