Top Alternatives to Airbnb

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What's up guys, it's James here and in today's video I'm going to talk to you about the top alternatives to Airbnb what are some platforms that you can list your property or properties on that are going to perform as well as sometimes even better than Airbnb.

Now before we dive into things, I want to remind you just subscribe to the channel, hit that subscribe button down below to check out all the new videos that we post twice every single week on this channel, I do my best job to try to bring you the highest value content that I can wrap around everything to do with Airbnb, short term rentals and property management. So if you're new to the channel here, or if you're one of those people who's watching these videos and watches them regularly, but just has not clicked that subscribe button yet, then hit that subscribe button.

So other than that, just hit this like button down below as well. If you liked the video, if you get value from it, let's just dive right into it. Let's get started here and talk about the top alternatives to Airbnb. So the top alternatives for Airbnb are largely going to be either booking.com homeaway, or VR Bo, there's a ton of other websites out there for you to list your properties on. And from my experience, none of them are going to come even close to what you're going to get on Airbnb booking.com. And home white vrb o.

Now, if you integrate with a channel manager, meaning that it's super easy for you push your listing out to those other more obscure websites, then fine, go ahead and do that. But if you don't, then I don't recommend going through the hassle of using any platforms outside of those four. So with that being said, not each one of those four platforms is created equal, you're not going to likely get equal results on each one of those different platforms. So it depends on which type of property you have, which platform is going to be the best one to expand out to.

Now the other caveat I'll give before we dive into some more of the nitty gritty is that I don't really think that any one of these, these platforms is a good replacement for Airbnb, there are some circumstances with some properties where another platform is going to be dominant. I've seen it happen before. So I'm not saying it's impossible. However, for most properties, I'd say about 95% of all properties. Airbnb is going to be the dominant platform to be on if you want to maximize your bookings maximize your revenue.

So that out of the way, let's talk about when it makes sense for these other platforms to come into the mix. If you have a hotel, like listing, if you have a listing, it's likely going to be competing in people's minds and people's searches with hotels, then I'd recommend expanding onto booking.com. So this what I mean by that is just if you have a property that's centrally located in an urban center, ideally a studio or one bedroom, sometimes two bedroom properties as well can do quite well, on booking.com. Basically, if they're going to be a good alternative to a hotel.

So if you have a five bedroom property out in the suburbs, is that an alternative to a hotel? No, not really. So I wouldn't recommend booking.com. The reason being is it the majority of properties on booking.com have historically always been hotels. And so as a result, the dominant guest on Airbnb, the people that go there to search for properties are people that are looking for hotels. So if you have a similar listing to hotel a comparable listing, then you can do quite well on booking.com. The nice thing as well is that if you set your prices, relatively competitively two things are going to happen.

Number one, because you're competing with hotels, you're typically going to get higher rates. Number two, because you're competing with hotels, you're typically going to win the competition because you have really great amenities that come along with apartments that you don't typically get in a standard hotel room, like for example, a full kitchen. So there are some really great advantages to listing on booking.com. And if you have a really good listing that competes really well with hotels, think about you know, beautiful, well located one bedroom or studio with a full kitchen, then they can tend to do really well on booking.com you do tend to get higher rates.

Bear in mind though, that the rates that you get on booking comm are inclusive of that 15% fee that you then need to pay to booking.com on Airbnb, you set your rate and Airbnb charges, the guests their percentage up charge so that Airbnb can make money on that so you don't see that portion. So yes, you are able to set a much higher rate in booking.com. But you do have to give a 15% chunk of that back to booking.com because you're the one that's charging the credit card and then paying it back to them. So what makes sense to when does it make sense to expand out to homeaway vr vo then well, naturally vrb o vacation rental by owner and homeaway think about home away from home are really well suited to homes away from home vacation rentals, larger properties if you have a problem.

That's in that space. And then I'd recommend checking out those different booking platforms and potentially listing your property on one or both of them. So if you have a property, for example, that is a one bedroom condo or studio unit downtown, if you list it on vrb, oh, it would achieve the same result as if you listed a vacation rental on booking.com, you're going to be in amongst other listings that really just aren't anything like yours. And the guests that are looking on those platforms just really aren't going to be interested in your listing.

If, on the other hand, you have a five bedroom home in the suburbs, or a five bedroom home even better than that on the beach somewhere in a popular vacation destination, then go ahead and list that property on VR, Bo and homeaway, it's likely going to do quite well. Now again, the people that are booking those properties are looking for a great vacation rental, typically some more amenities, typically a larger property. And typically, it's people that are traveling with their families, they tend to have a bit higher budget than people that are traveling on Airbnb who oftentimes are looking for a discount.

So with that being said, you can oftentimes with the right property, meaning a good vacation rental property that suits that crowd that searching on that platform quite well, you can set higher rates, the nice thing is, again, like Airbnb, they're gonna charge an up charge on your rates. So you just set your rate and whatever you set your rate at, that's what you end up getting, in addition to the cleaning fee any other additional fees you might have with your listing. So if you have a listing that is a good vacation rental listing, that I'd recommend checking out vrb o and homeaway.

Those, in my opinion, are the best three alternatives to Airbnb. And those are the use cases. for them. I see booking.com performing quite well with hotel like listings, and I see vrb on homeaway doing quite well with vacation rental listings. Now, that being said, if you don't if you have a property that doesn't really fit into either one of those molds, it doesn't mean that I wouldn't recommend going on to any of these channels. Nor does it mean that if you don't have a listing that specifically fits it well, you know, whether one are booking.com or VR, vo or home wait that I wouldn't recommend trying it out.

By all means try it, it's relatively simple to get your property list on multiple booking platforms and it could do quite well. Just be aware that you're probably not going to get as good a results as what you get on Airbnb. And then you should view it as supplemental income supplemental bookings rather than a full complete alternative. You really do want to move completely away from Airbnb, then honestly, my best advice to you is to expect a downturn in revenue and bookings.

Again, that's not always the case. But more often than not, that is what's going to occur, you're definitely going to need to put more legwork in a really optimizing your property and making it stand out if you want to move completely away from Airbnb for one reason or another. That being said, I don't recommend doing that I recommend staying on Airbnb and I recommend listing on other booking platforms when it makes sense trying them out seeing how it does, maybe you'll be surprised and get some additional bonus revenue out of it.

Again, if you've liked this video, if you want to learn how to do this for other people or you want to just build and expand your business of vacation rentals, short term rentals and managing them for other people. Then check out the link in the description below. We've got a free training that's over an hour and a half long that walks through absolutely everything in full and complete detail. So be sure to check that out. If you want to learn more about how you can earn a full time income up to six figures a year managing other people's properties on Airbnb, that link again, like I said is down in the description below. So just click that to register for the training.

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