If you have an investment property and are looking to make some extra money, or if you just have some extra space you’d like to use to earn income, short-term renting is a great option.
However, turning your property into a successful short-term rental doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes time to market your listing and also to learn what it takes to be a good host, so that you can attract positive reviews and lots of bookings.
To get to this point, one of the first things you need to decide is where to list your property. There are a lot of short-rental sites out there, all offering you different things at different prices.
Here are the seven best that you should consider using to make the most of your rental property:
Airbnb
It’s the most well-known, as well as the fastest growing, and that’s in large part because it’s one of the best.
The big advantage of Airbnb is that it will get your listing in front of more eyeballs than any other platform. It’s the first place most people will check when looking for a short-term rental, and it’s also one of the most trusted sites for this kind of service. Listing your property there allows you to tap into that trust.
As far as fees, Airbnb does not charge you to list your property. But when someone books, it will take at least 3 percent of the fee as a commission. In some cases, that fee can be as high as 15 percent.
One nice thing about listing on Airbnb is that doing so comes with a $1 million dollar insurance policy in case anything were to happen on your property.
If you’re looking to really market your place, it’s worth your time to put together a quality Airbnb listing.
Also read: 8 Best Vacation Rental Sites for Owners
Vrbo
The next site to consider is Vrbo, which used to be VRBO and also Homeaway. The two merged and now offer a lot to hosts.
One thing to know about Vrbo is that it only allows you to list entire homes or apartments. In other words, only private spaces. No spare rooms or cabins.
Also, Vrbo tends to cater to an older audience, making it an ideal choice for properties that are kid-friendly or that offer other amenities desired by families.
When it comes to fees, Vrbo lets you choose if you want to pay per booking or as an annual subscription, which costs $499 per year. The per booking fees are 5 percent with a 3 percent credit card charge.
It becomes profitable to pay for the yearly subscription if you plan to do more than $10,000 in listings in a year.
For this reason, Vrbo is a great option for those who have premium properties in busy locations. The fees savings will earn you even more money.
Booking.com
One really good option for listing your short-term rental is Booking.com. As one of the largest travel booking websites in the world, your listing will get tons of exposure.
Plus, people often use Booking.com to make reservations for other parts of their trip, such as flights or rental cars. This means you can have your listing in front of people when they are making decisions about their vacation, which can lead to more bookings.
However, you pay for all this added exposure; the fee for all reservations made on the platform is 15 percent.
Expedia
A very similar site to Booking.com, Expedia is one of the largest and most-trusted travel websites in the world. Putting your listing up on the site will get it next to listings for other things, such as flights and rental cars.
Fees are often a little lower on Expedia than they are on competitor sites, though the range is still between 10 and 30 percent. The exact charge will change depending on your listing and is something you should check before listing on Expedia.
Vacasa
If you’re looking to take a different approach, consider Vacasa, which recently acquired TurnKey to provide full-service short-term rental property management.
That means that in addition to listing your property for potential bookings, Vacasa will also take control of turning your property over and making sure it is ready for the next guest, freeing you from this responsibility.
However, if your goal is to make money, this might not be the best site. Vacasa charges 35 percent of the nightly booking fee for it’s services, which is considerably higher than any other site.
But if you want to make some money and not deal with any of the work and stress of managing the property, Vacasa might work perfectly for you.
Homestay.com
In addition to renting out your entire property to make a little extra money, you can also rent out a room or two, charge a little less, but also not have to deal with the effort that goes into renting the entire space.
For those who want to take this approach, Homestay.com is a great listing option for you. As the name suggests, this site specializes in helping people find rooms and other “homestay” type lodging situations.
This site also offers you some interesting alternatives. For example, you can also accept barter instead of money. Perhaps your renters can cook you a specialty meal or help you out with a task?
The standard fee for listing on Homestay.com is 3 percent. If you offer additional services to your guest, such as laundry or airport pickup, you can charge them a fee and help offset some of this commission.
Atraveo
Airbnb does exist in Europe, but if your property is on the “Continent,” then you may want to consider listing in Atraveo. It’s a very similar platform to Airbnb, but it’s widely popular in Europe.
Perhaps the nicest thing about Atraveo is that listing with them plugs you into their affiliate network, which means your property could be featured on advertisem*nts displayed on any number of some 50,000 sites.
Fees for listing on Atraveo are 15 percent for each successful booking, which is pretty much par for the course.
Don’t Limit Yourself to Just One Short Term Rental Site
To rent out your property as much as possible, and make the most amount of money, it’s important to list your property on multiple sites. But managing all of these different listings can be difficult, and it can lead to double bookings. These hurt your reputation with a site and can even cost you money.
If you want to list on multiple sites and don’t want the headache, use Uplisting. It combines all of your listings into one easy-to-use platform that lets you manage your short term rentals.
Your next renters are out there. Go find them on the best short term rental site for you.
