I am looking at my bookings since December 1st and I have 1 VRBO and 41 Airbnb bookings. I have called VRBO twice this week and today spoke to a supervisor (still overseas), and she said my listings are all perfect and no changes are needed. I kept asking her why Airbnb is way out performing them and she had no answer. It sure would be nice to have the booking we were getting on VRBO before Dec 2025. Just curious if anyone else is noticing this or does this have something to do with the Hospitable/VRBO battle that seems to be going on?
Question
Are your VRBO bookings down?
Hi Kimberley, I’ve been experiencing the same. Very few bookings from VRBO Vs Airbnb. Actually none right now. Last year was like 10% I’d say comparing to Airbnb. We own properties in Austin.
+1VRBO has never been a contender in Galveston. That tradition continues..😕
I am in San Antonio and still relatively new to the STR game but VRBO was consistently around 1/4 of my bookings...airbnb being the other 3/4. But since December I have only had one vrbo booking. I accept all of their recommended price changes thinking that will help but it has not.
+3We operate in the Poconos, Smokies, Catskills & Fire Island. VRBO has been down in all but Fire Island over the last year for sure.
+1I’ve been with VRBO for months now and I have yet to get even one booking in spite of VRBO helping me run specials several times. I’m in Galveston TX.
I’m in the Dallas market and I may have only like 3 VRBO bookings. The rest either Airbnb or direct bookings.
+3Yikes
+1Hi Kimberley,
I have been using Airbnb and VRBO since 2017 and if I had to rely on VRBO, I would not have a holiday let business. I would say that about 15% of my bookings are generated through VRBO, the rest via Airbnb and a small (but growing percentage) being direct.
+3Hi Kimberley,
I have been using Airbnb and VRBO since 2017 and if I had to rely on VRBO, I would not have a holiday let business. I would say that about 15% of my bookings are generated through VRBO, the rest via Airbnb and a small (but growing percentage) being direct.
That makes a lot of sense
One of the reasons Airbnb still feels so much easier for guests is the communication experience. Guests always know where to go, what they’ve said, and what they might have missed. Direct guests don’t get that today.
There’s an active Community thread pushing to bring full messaging threads into the Guest Portal so Direct guests have a single place to return to, similar to Airbnb. Given your split between Airbnb and Direct, I think your perspective would be really valuable there.
If you’re open to it, would love for you to vote here:
https://feedback.hospitable.com/p/enable-chat-history-in-guest-portal
It feels like one of the missing pieces to help Direct catch up to the Airbnb experience.
Join the conversation and ask any questions here too
Enter your E-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.