FlipKey vs. Airbnb: Which Is Right For You as a Host?

If you’re starting your hosting journey, the easiest way to reach potential guests is to list your rental space on a popular vacation rental platform. Airbnb is a major player in the vacation rental industry, so many new hosts choose to list their properties there, but there are also a lot of other listing sites, and FlipKey is one of them.

In this blog, we’ll compare FlipKey vs. Airbnb to help you better understand how these two vacation rental marketplaces differ and what they offer for short-term rental hosts.

You may also want to check out our article comparing Agoda vs. Booking.com, focusing on their target audience, pricing, and benefits for hosts. 

No matter what OTA you choose to list your STR property, managing your listings will be less time-consuming if you automate repetitive tasks using vacation rental software like Hospitable. Our tool can save you hours every week so you can focus on providing exceptional guest experience.

Look at this comparison chart of FlipKey vs. Airbnb to see how these well-known brands differ and find out what each offers. We compare these companies across categories: number of listings, global presence, property types, core audience, service fees, and host payouts.

FlipKey vs. Airbnb: General Facts

FlipKey was founded in 2007 as a house-swapping and vacation rental listing website, but in 2008, it was acquired by TripAdvisor Rentals, a leading vacation rental marketplace with more than 830,000 properties in 190 countries. FlipKey operates as one of their 25 travel brands and has more than 300,000 rentals worldwide.

According to Similarweb, FlipKey is popular in the United States, which accounts for about two-thirds of their web traffic, and in Germany, Australia, Turkey, and France. The website is more popular among travelers in their late 50s and early 60s, with about 21.61% of its website traffic generated via this age group.

Airbnb is an American company founded in 2008. It operates an online marketplace connecting people who want to rent out their homes with travelers looking for homey places to stay during their trips. Airbnb’s latest data shows it has over 7.7 million active listings, covering 100,000+ cities and towns in more than 220 countries and regions worldwide.

Airbnb’s core audience is also in the United States, followed by Germany, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. The majority of Airbnb guests are in their late 20s/early 30s.

FlipKey vs. Airbnb: Property Types

Regarding the types of rental spaces you can list on FlipKey and Airbnb, both vacation rental platforms allow hosts to list private rooms and entire properties. You can use both sites to list traditional types of rentals, such as apartments, studios, houses, cottages, or condos.

Both sites can also appeal to travelers looking for more unique stays by allowing hosts to market such accommodations as villas, castles, houseboats, treehouses, etc. The only difference is that, unlike Airbnb, FlipKey doesn’t allow hosts to list shared spaces.

FlipKey vs. Airbnb: Features

Both vacation rental booking sites are easy to use. Listing on FlipKey takes only minutes—you need to create an account and complete steps to provide the required details, and your property is automatically listed on Tripadvisor. But as of July 26, 2024, TripAdvisor Rentals has temporarily suspended the onboarding of new owners.

Hosts on FlipKey can set their prices and booking policies—choose guest payment options, determine cancellation policies, set up a damage deposit, add house rules for guests, and other requirements. FlipKey also provides hosts with essential data to help them track processes. For example, hosts can see stats like the number of booking requests, secured bookings, and cancellations.

Listing your property on Airbnb is also easy—you need to sign up and create a listing in the host section of your profile. To make things even easier, Airbnb added features like Airbnb Setup that will match you with a Superhost in your area who’ll guide you through the process from your first question to your first guest by phone, video call, or chat.

Airbnb hosts control different aspects of their rentals and can set prices, security deposits, cancellation policies, refunds, house rules, check-in/check-out times, and other particulars. Airbnb provides hosts with helpful content (hosting tips and articles) in the Airbnb Resource Center. Hosts can also access professional hosting tools like Multi-calendar, Insights, Rule-sets, Teams, Tasks, and more.

FlipKey vs. Airbnb: Fees

Property owners can publish their listings on FlipKey for free. The company will only deduct 3% from your guest’s payment. The booking fee for guests generally ranges from 8% to 16% of the total booking value (excluding taxes).

The service fee that Airbnb hosts have to pay is more or less in line with FlipKey’s model. Most Airbnb hosts are charged a service fee of 3% of the amount they take in. Guests also have to pay the booking fee, which is typically about 14% of the booking subtotal.

As you see, both Flipkey and Airbnb charge a commission fee for each booking made through their site, which can significantly impact your profit margins. But you don’t have to rely solely on OTAs to market your property—create a direct booking website and focus on increasing repeat direct bookings.

You can easily build a fully functional direct booking website with Hospitable, and we’ll list your property on Google Vacation Rentals. Then travelers will be able to find your property when they use Google to search for accommodation during their trips, and you’ll get direct bookings without investing in promotion and avoid paying high third-party fees.

FlipKey vs. Airbnb: Taxes and Payouts

In some markets, including the US, FlipKey is required to collect basic taxpayer information from owners and report it to tax authorities. Tripadvisor Rentals collects and remits occupancy taxes to local authorities in some markets for its partners, including FlipKey.

FlipKey supports payments via PayPal or bank transfer. Unfortunately, they cannot make payments via online-only banks (branchless or internet-only banks). So, depending on your chosen currency and location, PayPal may be your only option.

Airbnb also requires hosts to share taxpayer information. Depending on your property location, Airbnb might also automatically collect and pay occupancy tax on your behalf. It also offers professional hosting tools to help you collect taxes directly from guests if you’re eligible to do so.

Airbnb allows hosts to choose from different payout methods, including Fast Pay, bank account, PayPal, Payoneer PrePaid Debit Mastercard, international wire transfer, Western Union, and MLC Card (available for Cuba hosts only).