Don’t worry about it! You’re already forgiven if you’re one of the many, many, many landlords that believe Airbnb is your only effective means of marketing your UK based Holiday Rental to the rest of the travelling and hitchhiking world.
Yup, Airbnb is awesome, and it should be tossed into the arsenal of every marketing plan for holiday lets, domestic or otherwise, but you’d be amiss to blank the other awesome options available. So, let’s check ’em out…
As part of my essential but depressingly boring process of due diligence, I looked through a bunch of websites that advertise UK holiday rentals to see if there are any new contenders outside the options I already had wedged in my memory-banks.
I also bunny-hopped through a bunch of other websites, mostly travel blogs, that are recommending websites where landlords should list their holiday-lets. I hate to be the kind of guy that pisses on someone else’s camp-fire, but I got to be that kind of guy. Most of the lists were crammed with 20+ options, most of which were bloated with useless suggestions (IN MY HONEST, HUMBLE & BETTER OPINION).
Plus, who on God’s green earth is going to manage property listings on 20+ different platforms?
With that said, I believe the list below is pretty solid, and will do you no wrong! It’s also worth remembering that most of the holiday let marketplaces only charge a commission on a pay-per-booking basis, so ultimately, you can market on multiple platforms without incurring subscription fees.
Websites to advertise Holiday Rental propertiesMarketplacePriceNotes Marketplace
Price 3% per bookingNotes
The world’s fastest-growing holiday website
No intro is required! Airbnb is what firmly put short-let stays on the map, and made it cool to ditch hotels!
If any landlord wants to maximise their chances of filling those rental voids, Airbnb is a must! It’s insanely popular among holiday-makers because of how easy it is to find good value accommodation anywhere in the world!More Info Marketplace
Price 3% per bookingNotes
For hosts that provide an authentic experience
Homestay is unique compared to the others on the list, because it’s a “hosted experience”, whereby the host welcomes guests into their home and provides an authentic local experience by offering guidance and assistance during the stay.
If hosting and being the local expert is your calling, stick your property on their website!More InfoMarketplace
Price 6-12% per bookingNotes
Holiday/vacation rentals
Homeaway is a world leader in the vacation rental industry, with over 1.8 million online bookable vacation rental listings in 190 countries. Yup, they ain’t no joke!
They specifically target holiday/vacation entire property rentals (not rooms-only accommodation with live-in hosts, unlike Airbnb), although I’ve seen properties in their inventory which are located all over the UK, many of which aren’t your typical holiday destinations! HomeAway and VRBO belong to the same parent company, but VRBO notoriously has bigger and more luxurious properties on their books.More InfoMarketplace
Price 6-12% per bookingNotes
Large holiday/vacation properties for families & groups
VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner) is part of the HomeAway group, the world’s leading online marketplace for vacation/holiday rentals. It is very similar to its sister site HomeAway, the main difference is the properties on VRBO are bigger and generally better suited for families & groups, and holiday-makers usually turn to VRBO for higher-end rentals.
VRBO lets you rent only full houses, not a single or shared room.More InfoMarketplace
Price 10-25% per bookingNotes
Most popular travel booking website!
Booking.com is one of the most popular travel booking websites in the world but what you may not have realised – through no fault of your own – is that they also allow hosts to list their private homes and apartments for world-travellers!
No, their short-let platform is no way near as popular as their hotel booking platform, but while they attract nearly a million paying customers per night, it’s difficult to ignore the potential! When you have that volume of business – and even though they are relatively more expensive – you wouldn’t be unwise to list your holiday rental on booking.comMore Info
Please note, I try my best to keep the information of each agent up-to-date, but you should read the T&C’s from each service provider’s website for the most up-to-date information.
Just as a final reminder, if you decide to restrict yourself to just Airbnb (as many do), you might be missing out on a lot of great bookings! Remember, all the marketplaces listed above charge commission on confirmed bookings only (at least, at the time of writing this blog post)!
Do you use any other platform to market and advertise your UK holiday rental? If so, which one, and why are they your poison of choice?
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