These specialty vacation rental sites can help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
“Airbnb” has become the default term for a vacation rental, but if you’re only searching for places on Airbnb, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Plenty of other vacation rental platforms have sprung up to offer all kinds of accommodations. So whether you’re looking for a luxury villa or a family-friendly pad to rent, there’s a site out there that can help you find it.
Here are the best Airbnb alternatives.
VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner) is very similar to Airbnb, but retains one key feature that Airbnb eliminated—the ability to sort by price. VRBO’s search function is very easy to use, and if you want to be ultra-confident about a property before you book, you can virtually tour many of the offerings.
You can search for all kinds of properties on Booking.com, from high-end hotels to luxury tents. There are a surprising amount of vacation rentals available, and you may find more options here for international bookings than on other vacation rental sites.
Don’t want to waste your time searching multiple vacation rental sites to find the perfect property? Tripping.com lets you look at options from HomeAway, VRBO, Wimdu, Booking.com, and more all at once, giving you the most choices with the least amount of work. Tripping.com will display hotel rooms as well as rental houses, or you can filter by accommodation type—castles or boats, anyone?.
Been burned by a bad vacation rental? You can book with confidence on Plum Guide; every property listed has been evaluated for quality. Plum Guide experts review every house to make sure it meets the site’s standards, assess each host’s reliability, and monitor guest feedback. For the best quality homes, look for Plum Guide award-winners, which means they’ve passed the 150-criteria Plum Test. (The Plum Guide sends a “Home Critic” to every award candidate to measure things like WiFi speed and noise levels in the bedroom, as well as evaluate the property’s design and comfort.)
Want the space and amenities of a vacation rental (like a fully-stocked kitchen) but the guaranteed quality and professionalism of a hotel? Sonder, a startup that leases and manages its own apartment rentals, is run like a hotel but offers luxury apartment living. As Sonder’s properties are licensed as hotels, they’re a great Airbnb alternative in destinations where short-term rentals are illegal.
If you’ve traveled with kids, you know how hard it can be to find a family-friendly rental, from childproofed outlets to a game room to keep the teenagers entertained. The carefully-curated properties on Kid & Coe are fully-stocked with toys and other family amenities, and you can refine your search to include that are important to you, like changing tables or baby monitors.
Note re: Airbnb
Airbnb is still the industry leader. And I have to say, I’m liking these new “Flexible” options, launched a few months ago:
–Flexible Destinations allows users to prioritize property attributes like proximity to points of interest (think national parks) or cool features (think ocean views and wood-burning fireplaces) over a specific location.
–Flexible Dates allows you to search for periods of time. like a weekend or even a month-long stay, rather than specific dates.
–Flexible Matching suggests similar listings that are just outside a traveler’s search parameters like a set price or date.
Twist’s Take: Specialty vacation rental sites can help you find exactly what you’re looking for; ditto Airbnb’s new Flexible options.
Before I go…
Looking for inspiration before you begin your vacay rental search? Check out this Netflix show: The World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals.
Although the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel may be upon us when it comes to traveling, we can always use some wanderlust inspiration in the form of a travel TV show—like Netflix’s new series, “The World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals.” Via three hosts, viewers get to experience an array of amazing rental properties for every budget and travel style.
Filming began in crowded pre-pandemic Bali in January 2020 and resumed again last summer. The series is currently available to stream; I’ve watched two episodes and like what I’ve seen so far!
From a treehouse in Atlanta to an alpaca farm to a cabin in Hawaii with a private waterfall to a snake-shaped apartment in Mexico City, the show highlights accommodation options (while swooning over some truly amazing properties). Best of all, every rental featured on the show is in fact available.
Here’s the trailer:
