Where to Advertise Your Vacation Rental - Complete List 2026 Edition

While browing through a reddit group today I ran across a thread where a host asked the question, "Airbnb is my main hosting platform, but I still get some empty days. In an effort to maximise my occupancy, I’m thinking of adding some other platforms. But I love my airbnb guests, they’re the best :) What other platforms do you have experience hosting on do similar people, and would you recommend them?"

For this list to be considered "complete" the list items must truly be a place where bookings come from. For example, you're not going to see a place like Houfy on this list. Although it may be a place where you can list your property, Houfy does not generate any substantial amount of organic bookings worth mentioning. Likewise you aren't going to see any mentioned of PMS platforms like Lodgify, Hospitable, OwnerRez, etc. Those are channel managers, and while some may feature website builders, all of them to date are lackluster and do not generate organic bookings. All items on this list I can verifiably ascertain have produced direct bookings. The list items are in no particular order of importance.

• VRBO - This is an online travel agency (OTA) and Airbnb's biggest competitor. They make the list because they generate bookings, although they are hated by many hosts. VRBO has changed over the years and they are clearly in it to shake down as much commissions as they can from both the guests and the hosts. We considered VRBO a necessary evil to be in this business, but all hosts should strive for direct bookings. With VRBO you are simply renting your audience, not owning it.

• Airbnb - This OTA is another necessary evil and VRBO's biggest competitor. If you aren't getting many direct bookings and need to make ends meet then Airbnb will be something you need until you can fly on your own. A huge disappointment in both fees and support, the quicker you can get away from these a-holes the better. They've been using AI for support, and let me tell you, they've been getting it wrong. The fees continue to go up, up, and up. More recently Airbnb began hiding the phone numbers of guests and hosts from each other by providing fake phone numbers that only work while the reservation is in progress. Once the reservation is over the phone numbers are deleted, and the guests/hosts have lost contact with each other. Airbnb considers guests on their platform their customers, and I could not disagree more. Again, only use these guys to help fill the calendar but focus your energy and passion to the remaining true sources of direct bookings below. Just like VRBO, you do not own your audience but instead you are renting your audience.

• Ebay - Yes, Ebay. Put a listing on Ebay and see how many conversations get started that end up in a book direct. Some folks will book right there on Ebay while others will contact you outside of Ebay. Ebay is a great place to showcase your property with multiple pictures and videos. Live availability calendars can be posted inside your listing so guests can see if you have their dates available. Check out this listing on Ebay that has had no less than 103 purchases on the platform and no telling how many other purchases outside the platform. This listing has thousands of views and has been added to over 300 people's watch list. This is social bookmarking at its best:

🏖️ Orange Beach Condo Gulf Shores Alabama 2 Bedroom Beachfront Ocean 🏖️

• Facebook Groups - Pay close attention here because, if you do, you're going to pick up something that you may have not already knew. Post your property in Facebook Groups, and I'm not talking about destination-focused groups! I'm talking about local or community-based Facebook groups near you. In these Facebook groups people likely don't just know you by first name, but they likely know where you live. Because of this there is a built-in inherent level of trust that gives you an advantage. Oh sure, you can post your listing in destination-focused Facebook groups, but they typically get lost in the constant feed of everyone else spamming their listings on there.

Let me give you an example. There is a very large destination Facebook group for condos in Gulf Shores, Alabama. When I post my listing in that group it's instantly lost in the river of over listings. Typically I don't get a single message from a guest. Another thing I've noticed in these large groups there's a constant price war going on where desperate hosts are trying to rent their properties to guests with unrealistic expecations. The opposite happens in the Facebook groups for my rural town of DeRidder, Louisiana! Sometimes I can be doing absolutely nothing and all of a sudden I'm getting tagged in local groups. Apparently someone comes into the group and asks for recommendations for condos in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The entire thread erupts with people tagging me because they know I have a condo there. The trust is already there because these people know me. This demographic of people are also more likely to leave great reviews about you after their stay.

• Facebook Pages - build a facebook page for your rental. This is a long term thing. You need a Facebook page because it provides people with the social bookmarking path they need to look you up later when they are traveling to your destination. Make regular posts to your facebook page so your Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) stays fresh and on the top of people's minds. Your Facebook Page provides a layer of social proof people are looking for that contributes to your overall trustworth online presence. While you may never see a direct booking come straight from your Facebook Page, it may have been the final deciding factor in deciding to book direct with you. For example, a guest may have been scanning your book dired website. At the bottom you have a link to your Facebook Page. The guest clicks on the link, takes a look at your Facebook page with fresh posts, and says to themselves, "Yeah, these people look legit".

• YouTube - Got videos of your place? Why aren't they on YouTube? I can't tell you how many bookings I've gotten from YouTube because someone saw my video and called me. YouTube videos can be optimized with their titles and descriptions. If you have a verified account on YouTube they will allow you to post a link to your property in your description. In the details of your video there's a place where you can put up to 500 characters worth of tags that are highly relevant to your listing. This helps people on YouTube find you. Then let's not forget that if you sign up for an account using your listing's information you can have a YouTube channel that is full of lots of videos about your property. Check out this YouTube channel. It has vidoes with thousands of views that have resulted in direct bookings.

🏖️ Orange Beach Condo YouTube 🏖️

🎥 If you are thinking about embedding your YouTube videos on your book direct website, do not do it! Doing so will send pagerank authority and traffic to YouTube which is something you do not want. Want another reason? If you embed YouTube videos on your website, YouTube will cross-promote other properties right there on your website which can lead to distracting your visitor and stealing traffic from your site. If you are going to show videos on your website, great, there's a way to do that. The way is NOT by embedding YouTube videos on your website! I'll get into that in another blog post.

• Google Business Profile (GBP) - Set up a Google Business Profile for your rental if you can. If you are successful Google will add you to their map pack, and people will contact you through the website you link on your Google Business Profile (your website link is covered in the next line item). Google have stated in the past that they do not want individual vacation rental properties in their Google Business Profiles because they clutter up the maps. With that said, however, the topic has been a grey area for quit some time now. There is a category called "vacation rental agency" and many owners fall into this category, and thus qualify for GBP because they have multiple properties they are managing and operate as an agency. If you can get a Google Business Profile, good, but keep in mind it may not be there (or on this list) forever. As such, don't put all your effort and energy into this.

If you already have a Google Business Profile, nuture it. Post updates and pictures to the your profile regularly to show freshness and social proof that you are alive and kicking. Get reviews about your business on your Google Business Profile, and I'm not talking about unhelpful reviews like, "great place to stay" or "owers were so nice". I'm talking about helpful Google reviews that make a difference.

• Book direct website - Build a book direct website for your property. They aren't expensive usually, and they have the biggest potential of everything I've listed. When you have a book direct website you have provided a way for guests to book your property without having to pay fees on a platform. When you have a book direct website you can put the link to your website on virtually everything I've talked about with the exception of VRBO andd Airbnb. To have a book direct vacation rental website means you own your audience. Make sure whatever web-building partner you use has an seo and email marketing strategy to help you build your presence. Stay away from the PMS-generated websites as those don't typically yield true organic direct bookings. Steer clear of Wordpress because the majority of Wordpress websites have speed issues.

Items That Didn't Make The Cut Because they Don't seem Worthwhile

• X (formally Twitter) - Despite my best efforts I've never received a single booking or even inquiry from X that resulted in a bookings. In my opinion this place is just a huge echo chamber with everybody talking and nobody listening.

• Instagram - I've listed properties here and in some cases have gotten quite a few followers. I'll keep working it, but at this point it doesn't get a lot of my attention because it hasn't given me bookings. Maybe it's got some worth as far as social footprint is concerned, but until bookings come this one will have to stay off the list.

• Reddit - A really weird place, and I understand why some call it the cesspool of the internet. There seems to be lots of conversations going on here, and it seems like people could find what they are looking for if it weren't for Reddit's strange policies. You see, Reddit wants the convesation to stay on their website. They don't want outgoing links. Reddit needs to review their linking policy. Maybe they'll be helpful to vacation rental owners one day, but until then they stay off the list.

• Property Management Software (PMS) / Channel Managers - If you want to more tightly integrate the management of your OTA listings on sites like Airbnb and VRBO, then go for it. But this article isn't about that, and the fact of the matter is the channel managers don't drive direct bookings. Some of the PMS providers like OwnerRez, Logify, and others dabble in the direct market by attempting to output vacation rental websites, but historically they have been a failure. No matter how pretty, these websites don't have the wherewithall to drive direct bookings unless you manually feed the guests straight into the booking engine. The discoverability is extremely low. Let the channel managers do what they are meant for which is integrating with OTAs.

• TikTok - I've tried, and I just don't get it. I'm watching, but until I see a way for this social platform to drive direct bookings they shall stay off this list.

• Pinterest - This is picture-sharing social network I've used for years. I've uploaded lots of adorable images, gotten plenty of likes and comments, etc. Unfortunately though, no direct bookings. This one stays off the list.

Tell Me Your Thoughts

Did I miss something? Do you have a way to drive direct bookings that I didn't list here? If so I'd like to hear about it! Click this link to drop me a line!

About the Author: Matthew Thompson

Matthew Thompson is a licensed employing real estate broker in Louisiana and Colorado, with twenty years of experience in the vacation rental home industry. He holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University and is also the developer and founder of OwnerWebs.com, a vacation rental website builder. (View his professional profile)