OTAs
Expedia vs. Booking.com: How They Work for Vacation Rental Hosts
Expedia vs. Booking.com: find out what features make these platforms different and what each offers for STR property owners.
Expedia and Booking.com are popular OTA platforms offering a vast global reach. Which of them is a better option for listing your vacation rental property? In this blog post, we’ll compare Expedia vs. Booking.com and talk about how they differ and what they offer for short-term rental hosts and property managers.
You may also want to check out our article comparing Agoda vs. Booking.com, where we focus on their target audiences, service fees, and benefits for owners of vacation rental properties.
Whether renting out your own lakefront vacation home or managing multiple vacation rental properties as a co-host, your job will be easier if you automate repetitive daily tasks using vacation rental software like Hospitable. Our tool can save hours a week so you can focus on providing an exceptional experience for your guests and growing your business.
Expedia vs. Booking.com: Key Differences
Look at this comparison chart of Expedia vs. Booking.com to see how these OTA platforms differ and what each offers for vacation rental hosts. We compare these popular travel booking websites across categories: number of listings, global reach, types of property you can list, target audience, service fees, and benefits for hosts.
Expedia | Booking.com | |
|---|---|---|
Global presence | Operates globally and has 200+ travel booking sites across 70+ countries | Operates in 220+ countries and territories |
Number of listings | More than 3 million accommodation listings | More than 31 million listings, including hotels, homes, apartments, and other unique places to stay |
Property types | Hotels, resorts, hostels, motels, and a wide range of vacation rental listings, including apartments, condos, cottages, cabins, vacation homes, ranches, castles, villas, chalets, farm stays, treehouses, and glamping | Hotels, resorts, and different types of vacation rental properties, including villas, cabins, cottages, serviced apartments, ryokans, riads, country houses, farms, tiny houses, luxury tents, and boats |
Target audience | Families, business professionals, luxury seekers, and budget travelers looking for discounted packages and last-minute deals | Business professionals, families, and leisure travelers |
Service fees | Commission rates vary from 10% to 30%, depending on the accommodation type, the location of the property, and other factors | Commission is typically around 15% per country and can vary based on the property type and location. Optional programs like Genius, Preferred Partner, and Visibility Booster can increase the effective rate |
Benefits for hosts | Vacation rentals are listed through Vrbo. With Instant Book turned on, your Vrbo listing becomes eligible to appear on Expedia, Travelocity, Trivago, and other Expedia Group partner sites. Hosts can use tools like MarketMaker market data and rate automation | Hosts can use the Pulse app to run their properties on the go, and access paid marketing tools like Visibility Booster. Eligible home-like properties get up to $1M in liability protection against third-party claims for every reservation, and U.S. vacation rentals get up to $1M in damage protection at no extra cost |
Expedia vs. Booking.com: General Overview
Expedia is one of the world’s largest online travel agencies, operates globally, and boasts more than 200 travel booking sites across 70+ countries. Expedia’s site is a comprehensive travel marketplace where visitors can search and book accommodation, flights, cruises, car rentals, experiences, and vacation packages.
Expedia attracts leisure and business travelers from across the globe, but over 90% of the site’s traffic comes from the United States. The website attracts families, business professionals, luxury seekers, and budget travelers looking for discounted packages and last-minute deals.
As a full-service travel brand, Expedia is a member of Expedia Group, which also owns and operates an extensive portfolio of brands, including such well-known brands as Hotels.com (provider of online hotel booking services) and Vrbo (the vacation rental brand).
Expedia’s competitor, Booking.com, is part of Booking Holdings Inc. and is one of the leading digital travel companies in the world. Booking Holdings owns five primary consumer-facing brands: Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable, and a network of subsidiary brands.
Booking.com connects travelers searching for accommodation to a broad network of hotels, vacation home rentals, and other unique places to stay. They also help travelers book flights, car rentals, airport taxis, and experiences in different cities worldwide. Booking.com attracts travelers from across the globe. The platform appeals to business professionals, families, and leisure travelers.
Expedia vs. Booking.com: Property Types
Expedia allows travelers to plan their trips from more than 3 million properties, from luxury hotels and resorts to budget-friendly hostels and motels to vacation rentals. Many vacation rental listings include apartments, condos, cottages, cabins, vacation homes, ranches, castles, villas, chalets, farm stays, treehouses, and glamping.
Booking.com reports more than 31 million listings, from hotels to homes, apartments, and other unique places to stay. Travelers can book stays in different vacation rental properties, including villas, cabins, cottages, serviced apartments, ryokans, riads, country houses, farms, tiny houses, luxury tents, and even boats.
Expedia vs. Booking.com: How They Work for Property Owners
Property owners who want to list their STR properties on Expedia do it through Vrbo, which is part of Expedia Group. Expedia Partner Central is built for hotels, while vacation rentals are listed on Vrbo. From the Vrbo dashboard, hosts manage their listings, calendars, rates, and guest messages, and can use tools like MarketMaker market data and rate automation to make informed pricing decisions.
If you enable Instant Booking on your Vrbo listing, it becomes eligible for Vrbo’s Expanded Distribution, which can show your property on Expedia, Travelocity, Trivago, and other Expedia Group channels. Eligible listings are enrolled automatically, so you don’t need to create separate accounts, but placement on these sites isn’t guaranteed.
Listing your beach house or a ski rental on Expedia will extend your reach to more diverse travelers and increase your chances of attracting vacationers interested in booking a stay at your property. If you opt for Hospitable, you can manage your Vrbo listing right from Hospitable through the Vrbo Partner connection and switch it to Instant Book, which makes it eligible for distribution on Expedia. Your calendar, pricing, and guest messages stay in one place, so you can prevent double bookings.
Booking.com allows property owners to register on the platform and list their properties for free to get access to a global audience of guests. Hosts can manage their properties from an administrative dashboard called Booking.com Extranet and use the Pulse app to run their properties on the go. Booking.com gives hosts paid tools like Visibility Booster that can help you increase your revenue. All eligible residential or home-like properties are automatically enrolled in Partner Liability Insurance, which protects against liability claims from third parties of up to $1,000,000 for every reservation. In the U.S., vacation rentals also get Host Property Insurance, with up to $1 million in damage protection at no extra cost.
To learn more about how Booking.com works for STR property owners, check out our Booking.com host guide.
Expedia vs. Booking.com: Service fees
Expedia charges commissions on each booking made through its site, and the fee varies from 10% to 30%, depending on the accommodation type, the location of the property, and other factors. Generally, the average commission rate for hotels is around 20%.
Each vacation rental property site owned by Expedia Group may have variations in host fees and commissions. For example, Vrbo’s pay-per-booking fee is 8% of the total amount of the reservation, and it consists of a 3% payment processing and 5% commission fee.
Booking.com is also a commission-based platform. It charges a fixed percentage booking fee for each booking subtotal paid on the platform. The standard commission Booking.com charges hosts is typically around 15% per country, and it can vary based on your property type and location. If you join optional programs like Genius, Preferred Partner, or Visibility Booster, your effective commission rate may be higher.
As you see, while global OTAs like Expedia and Booking.com allow you to reach more travelers who can become your potential guests, they charge hefty commissions for their services. So, to maximize your revenue and grow a sustainable business, you should also create a direct booking website and focus on building stronger relationships with guests to encourage direct repeat bookings.
