What Are the Differences Between Airbnb and VRBO?

Wanna get away? Not only does everybody want to get away at some point, everybody needs to get away at some point.

Luckily, you live in a time where that’s never been more of an option. Current technology has offered a plethora of ways to book either a long-term or short-term trip to your desired location.

Whether you’re looking to visit Chicago in the summer or Tampa in the winter, there are options like Airbnb and VRBO to find the right rental.

But what are the differences between the two, you ask?

Here are the main differences between both VRBO and Airbnb so that you can make your decision on which to use.

1. The Classification of “Rentals”

To the untrained eye, one of the site’s amounts of “rentals” may seem significantly larger than the others.

Airbnb takes pride in the fact that it currently has over 4 million rentals available through its network. VRBO brags that it has over 2 million rental through its services.

While you might think “wow, Airbnb has them beaten by a landslide… that’s relative to what you’re looking for in a rental.

VRBO restricts its sites to only entire units (such as apartments, townhomes, houses, and condos), Airbnb does not. 

So, while Airbnb has over 4 million rentals, only a certain percentage of those are units you’d have to yourself for the entirety of your stay.

Airbnb’s “rentals” can be applied to attics, extra rooms, and even couches on occasion to be rented out. Depending on what you’re looking for, that may or may not be an opportunity that you would consider for your stay.

Thinking that you could maximize on Airbnb’s rentals as a renter? Use these Airbnb tips to get yourself set up for success.

Still, there are those out there that prefer to have a rental place for only themselves and their family to use during their stay, understandably so. If you fall in that classification, Vacation Rental By Owner (VRBO) is a better option for you.

It should be stated, however, that Airbnb still have millions of full units up for rental, and they’re up to the Airbnb world-class standards.

2. Service Fees

Ah, yes… the age-old question of “How much is this vacation going to cost?” and “No, seriously… how much is this vacation actually going to cost?”.

Anyone who’s rented a vacation spot before knows what differentiates the two questions: those dreaded service fees.

While they may be annoying to pay, they’re certainly a necessary expense. It helps cover the expenses such as proper maintenance of the rental. Keeping you and other renters satisfied with the unit for many years to come.

Still, the service fees can be a significant extra amount so you’ll want to be educated on what both Airbnb and VRBO charge for theirs respectively.

Airbnb’s service fees typically hover around 20-percent of the total cost of the rental you’re interested in.

VRBO’s service fees, on the other hand, only range between 6 or 12-percent which means less extra costs you’ll be paying for.

Depending on the amount of rental, that could be a significant amount of savings that you could use in different ways during the vacation.

3. Transparency of Their Services

First things first, this article is going to give credit where credit is due: both these rental sites do a fantastic job of staying honest with their customers. They both just have different ways of doing so.

Airbnb maximizes the transparency of its services through things like honest customer reviews, detailed property descriptions, and summaries on the owners.

They also use a 5-star ranking system to give a quick summary and allows you to search by common concerns such as wheelchair accessibility and locations.

VRBO focuses on the experience customers have by requestion reviews after they stay at the rental. It also gives the owners a chance to make any amends through response features to those that gave the review. 

As a renter, you can see if any previous renter’s concerns were corrected, or even acknowledged, before booking your trip. That gives you some insider information into whether the owner is someone that you trust to rent from.

Needless to say, both sites go above and beyond for their previous customers and future customers. Nothing is swept under the rug, and they take previous renter’s experiences very seriously.

4. Filters Galore!

One of the best features on both sites is your ability to be as specific or spontaneous as you’d like to be when booking your trip.

If you’d like to be more specific, then both sites have a tremendous amount of features to help you find an ideal place to stay.

After searching for a certain city on Airbnb, they’ll provide you with things like popular experiences, places to stay, or staying with an Airbnb superhost.

VRBO, on the other hand, focuses more on features to find your ideal location.

It uses things like amount of beds, property type, instant confirmation (or not), price range, etc. 

Either way, they both can help you find the best fit for what you’re hoping to accomplish during your getaway.

Airbnb vs. VRBO: Decide Which One Is Right for You

At the end of the day, there’s nothing wrong with scanning both Airbnb and VRBO before deciding which one you’ll rent from.

Doing so will increase your chances of finding the right rental for your needs that will help you find the relaxation and recharge that you need.

Be sure to check out our other articles that pertain to both this topic and others just like it.