7 best sites more popular than Airbnb - You Cant Belive

I'm not going to lie, we've used AirBnB a lot. Only one thing I like about Airbnb is the great deals and the Free Airbnb Gift Cards. We've found it to be an excellent way to find accommodation all around the world in lodgings that range from quirky to palatial, from budget to princely. But that doesn't mean we also keep the various AirBnB alternatives in mind when traveling and booking accommodation, and in this post we're going to share our favorite alternatives with you. If you're new to the world of peer to peer accommodation, take a look at Jess's guide to using AirBnB, which will answer all your questions about both AirBnB, and the majority of other peer to peer accommodation sites like AirBnB. So why would you want an alternative to AirBnB? Well, the thing is, AirBnB has become somewhat a victim of its own success. There's plenty of choice, but prices (and AirBnB's fees) have definitely started to increase since we started using the platform in 2012. In fact, often AirBnB works out more expensive than getting a reasonable hotel. In addition, at busy times, properties can book out a long time in advance. In some cases, it's also become quite the industry, losing the personal touch as landlords cash in, meaning the only human interaction you get is when you get your keys at the beginning of your stay, often from an apartment concierge rather than the actual host or owner. 1. Vrbo First up in my list of AirBnB alternatives is Vrbo, or Vacation Rentals by Owner. Whilst perhaps not as well known as AirBnB, these guys have over a million properties on their books and have been operating since 1996, a full 12 years longer than AirBnB. The Vrbo model is a little different though, as they only rent out vacation properties. This means it's not a hosted experience, and generally works best for families or groups of four or more looking for a slightly longer stay.  although there are certainly many properties suited to couples. Originally, Vrbo did not charge guests a service / booking fee, passing this to the host instead, but they changed that in 2016, adding a booking fee to bookings. Otherwise, the products are fairly similar. AirBnB offers a slightly slicker user experience, but it is much more popular. If you can't find what you're looking for on AirBnB, then definitely give Vrbo a try. If you are a property owner Vrbo have two different models - either you can pay an annual fee, or you can list for free and pay a fee per booking. Sign up as an owner on Vrbo here. 2. Booking.com Like I said, a couple of curveballs. Remember when people stayed in hotels, and someone would come to clean your bed and clean your room? Sure, we love apartments, but every now and then, you just want a hotel. And the best place in general, we've found, for getting a great deal in any hotel anywhere in the world, tends to be booking.com . But what you might not have realized is that Booking.com also has homes and apartments. So if you are already a fan of the site and want to keep using it for your apartment booking, you can.  They are normally our go-to choice for hotel bookings when we travel we find they have a great choice, the site is easy to use, and the prices are usually the best. So definitely worth trying for your apartment hunt too! For property owners, it's free to list on Booking.com, with a fee applied per booking. You can sign up as an owner using this link if you do so your first five bookings will be free! 3. HomeAway HomeAway is the parent company to Vrbo, so as you would imagine, there is a great deal of overlap on their listings. There are some differences though, as HomeAway does have a bit more inventory on their books, particularly smaller apartments, meaning you get more options if you're traveling solo or as a couple. Whilst there is some overlap between Homeaway, Vrbo and AirBnB, it's not as much as you might think. In 2014, only 6% of HomeAway properties were also listed on AirBnB. That number has no doubt increased by now, but the bottom line is that if you restrict yourself to AirBnB, you are missing out on a lot of great properties! For property owners, like Vrbo HomeAway has two models - an annual subscription where you pay no booking fees, and a free listing option where you pay per booking. You can sign up for HomeAway as a property owner here. They also own OwnersDirect, a separate marketplace which you can sign up to here. 4. Flipkey Flipkey is owned by TripAdvisor, so even if you haven't heard of FlipKey itself, you can rest assured that this is no fly by night setup. Like the majority of AIrBnB alternatives. It has fewer listings (300,000 rentals across 11,000 cities). That said, Flipkey doesn't offer shared rooms - it's private rooms or whole properties only. Flipkey also has a nifty search feature where you can search for properties that meet certain criteria such as pet-friendly properties, waterfront properties, properties with a mountain view and so on, which is pretty much nothing if that's what you're after. If you're a property owner, it's also free to list your property on FlipKey, which will put your property in the TripAdvisor search engine, searchable across all their sites. Property owners can register here. 5. Homestay For me, Homestay is what AirBnB was supposed to be. It's a genuinely hosted experience, meaning you always stay in a hosts home. This means you get a genuine, local experience, with the feeling of living with a local. We've used Homestay in locations around the world, including Paris, Savannah and London, and have always had a wonderful experience. It is worth mentioning that there are a few downsides to Homestay - the main one being availability. While they have properties in over 150 countries, they do not have the choice of somewhere like AirBnB (although the same can be said for almost every AirBnB alternative on this list!). For example, we tried to find accommodation in New Orleans on our recent trip there, and there were hundreds of locations on AirBnB, and less than ten on Homestay. Of course, the number of properties available is always growing, and there are a great many listed on Homestay that you just won't find anywhere else, like this place we stayed at in London. So if you want a truly hosted experience, this is definitely the place to start your search. In addition, all Homestay properties include breakfast, which is a serious win in my book. If you're a property owner, it's free to list on Homestay. Do bear in mind that Homestay is a hosted experience, so is by definition a bit more hands on. If that sounds good to you, you can sign up as a Homestay host here. 6. OneFineStay OneFineStay is quite like AirBnB, but at the high end of the property scale. Like $ 1,000 + a night kind of high end. Whilst the homes are owned by people, they are never a hosted experience, so you can experience some truly luxury properties all to yourself. As I said, these places aren't cheap, and OneFineStay only offers properties in five cities at the time of writing: London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Rome. Still, if you know what you want and budget isn't something that troubles you, OneFineStay could be just the ticket to a wonderful property in one of those cities. For property owners, OneFineStay is quite selective, with many apartments not making their strict requirements. Fees are also quite high to reflect the fact that this is a fully managed service. You can apply to list your apartment on OneFineStay with this link. 7. House Sitting Paying to stay somewhere is all well and good, but what if you could live all around the world, entirely for free? Sounds impossible? Well, it's not, thanks to the concept of house sitting. The way this works is that people who own houses occasionally want to leave them and go on trips. These can be for any length of time from a few days to weeks or even months. Rather than their houses sitting empty, they offer them up to people to stay in, usually entirely for free, in return for looking after the property, tending the garden, and generally keeping in order. In many cases, they also want pets that they want to look after putting a pet into a boarding house for a prolonged period of time can be expensive, so house sitting is a win-win situation. There are lots of house sitting options out there - one of the biggest and most popular communities to join is TrustedHousesitters. There is a fee to join, but once you are in, you will have a world of choice when it comes to free accommodation around the world! Pretty cool.