Blog · Platforms
Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo: which platform suits your property?
15 December 2025 · 6 min read
Anyone who lets a holiday home soon arrives at the same question. Which platform should I list my property on? For many people, Airbnb is the first instinct. Booking.com is the biggest player in Europe. And Vrbo is less well known in Belgium, but popular with families from abroad.
Each platform has its own audience, its own rules and its own way of working. In this article, we set out the differences side by side. That way you can see which platform suits your property, and why most professional managers are active on all three at once.
Airbnb: personal and focused on the experience
Airbnb grew big with private hosts. You can still feel that in the atmosphere on the platform. Guests read the description carefully, look at the photos and want to know who the host is. A property with character stands out well here: a villa with a garden, a flat with a sea view or a converted farmhouse.
The audience is broad. Couples, groups of friends and families book a weekend or a holiday there. Many guests plan some time in advance and take the trouble to ask questions beforehand.
How Airbnb charges
In Europe, professional hosts on Airbnb mainly work with a service fee that is paid entirely by the host. The guest sees one price, everything included. Airbnb deducts the fee from the payout to the host. Since October 2025, hosts connected through management software have been moved to that model.
For you as an owner, this mainly means clarity for the guest. The price they see is the price they pay. You do need to bear in mind that your net income is lower than the nightly rate shown.
Booking.com: wide reach and lots of last-minute bookings
Booking.com started with hotels, and you can still tell. Guests search quickly, compare a lot and often book at short notice. The platform is strong with international travellers and business travellers. For a flat in a city or a property close to the seafront, that can bring in plenty of bookings outside the traditional holidays.
Guests on Booking.com do not pay a separate service fee. The host pays a commission on the booking. So the price you set is the price the guest sees, and the commission comes off your income.
Booking.com works with a lot of settings: cancellation policies, payment methods, rate plans and discounts. That gives flexibility, but it also needs monitoring. A wrongly configured rate option can cause you trouble for a long time.
Vrbo: whole properties for families and groups
Vrbo is part of Expedia Group. The platform focuses on whole properties, not rooms. Its audience consists mainly of families and groups going on holiday together. Vrbo is popular in Germany, the Netherlands and the United States.
For a spacious holiday home or villa on the coast or in the Ardennes, Vrbo is worth considering. German and Dutch families often look for a property for a full week. Those bookings fill your calendar with long stays, which means fewer changeovers and fewer cleans.
In Belgium the platform is less well known, but that is precisely an advantage. You reach guests you might miss through the other platforms.
The differences side by side
| Airbnb | Booking.com | Vrbo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical audience | Couples, friends, families | International, business, last-minute | Families and groups |
| Type of listing | Everything, strong in unique properties | Everything, strong in cities and flats | Whole properties only |
| Cost | Service fee deducted from the host | Commission paid by the host | Fee for the host, depending on the chosen model |
| Booking behaviour | Often in advance, many questions beforehand | Fast, often at short notice | Often a week or longer |
Cancellations, rules and strictness
Each platform lets you choose from a number of cancellation policies, from flexible to strict. A flexible policy attracts more bookings, because guests take less risk. A strict policy gives you more certainty, but can cost you bookings. In high season you can often be stricter than in the quiet months.
Also pay attention to what the platform expects from you. If you cancel a booking yourself, penalties usually follow. That can be a fine, a negative note on your listing or a lower position in the search results. Platforms expect hosts to be reliable. A calendar that is accurate is therefore no small detail.
Reviews: your most important asset
On all three platforms, reviews largely determine whether guests book. They do work differently, though.
On Airbnb, guest and host write a review of each other. These only become visible once both have been submitted, or after a fixed period. Guests pay close attention to details: cleanliness, communication, the accuracy of the description.
On Booking.com, guests give a score on different aspects, such as cleanliness, location and value for money. That score is displayed prominently on your listing and weighs heavily in the choice.
On Vrbo, reviews are also visible to everyone. Because families often book for a longer period, they read them carefully.
You do not build up reviews on one platform and take them with you to another. That is a reason to start early on every platform you want to use.
Payouts
Payouts differ too. With Airbnb, you usually receive the money shortly after the guest arrives. With Booking.com, it depends on your settings: the guest pays you or the platform, which then pays out. Vrbo also has a fixed arrangement through the platform.
For your accounts, it is important to know per booking what you have received and what the platform has deducted. If you let on several platforms, it pays to set that out every month per property.
Why professional managers use all three
Each platform reaches a different part of the market. If you are only on Airbnb, you miss the last-minute traveller on Booking.com and the German family on Vrbo. The more platforms, the greater the chance of a booking in a quiet week.
The risk is clear: double bookings. Two guests booked for the same night is the worst thing that can happen to a host. It costs you a review, a penalty from the platform and a lot of stress.
The role of a channel manager
That is why professional managers work with a channel manager. This is software that connects all your platforms to one central calendar. When a booking comes in on Booking.com, those nights are immediately blocked on Airbnb and Vrbo. You manage prices, availability and rules in one place.
Some owners synchronise their calendars with simple calendar links. That works, but with a delay. In the meantime, a second booking can still come in. A direct connection through a channel manager is safer.
Which platform suits your property?
A few rules of thumb:
- Unique property with character: start on Airbnb, where guests look for an experience.
- Flat in a city or on the seafront: Booking.com brings business and last-minute bookings.
- Large property for families or groups: Vrbo attracts long stays from Germany and the Netherlands.
- If you want to fill your calendar as well as possible: combine all three with a channel manager.
Help with the choice
Keeping track of three platforms, each with its own rules and messages, takes time. YourDomi manages properties on Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo with synchronised calendars, daily prices based on market data and guest communication in several languages, seven days a week. Would you like to know what that means for your property? Request a personal proposal.
