Agoda??

Right now, the only vacation rental websites that bring enough guests are Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. The other platforms don’t have many users yet. Houfy.com could grow if more hosts list their properties there, but at the moment it’s too small to compete.

I don't understand the rationale of being on Agoda, but not Booking.com if you are in the US. It's the same parent company, with Agoda being stronger in Asia. They seem to cross-list inventory, but I don't believe they do this for STRs.

I’m on a “what other platforms can I try” kick, and after a bit of frustration trying to create a listing on Agoda, I discovered that our listings are ALREADY on Agoda, by virtue of already being on Booking.com. Figured I’d pass it along, that the best path to Agoda for US-based listings is probably through Booking.com. 

So, what other platforms can I try? 

• Airbnb - Done
• Vrbo - Done
• Booking.com - Done
• Hospitable Direct - Done
• Houfy - Done
• Hopper (via Futurestay) - Done [might bail on this -- poor integration]
• HiChee - Done (not a booking platform per se… more of a reverse-lookup directory)

What have I missed? :-)

Interesting list. What did you need to do for the HiChee integration?

Houfy not really worth the time to create a listing; they want you to pay a subscription

​@Eli Stoughton HiChee isn’t really an integration per se… you just create an account, and go through the process of verifying your listings (proving that you own them)… and they will consolidate all the different OTA links for your listing into a single page, and you can provide your direct booking URL as well, so that guests see all the options together on one page. 

​@Homelike.ca the paid subscriptions are optional. The default is free. Guests pay a 5% fee. I’ve not gotten any bookings from them yet after 2 months or so, so you might be right that it’s not worth it.  

Yeah, it's completely useless. the idea is good, but the execution by the Houfy team is terrible ​@Tom Beerley 

Agoda is part of the same group as Booking.com. When you sign with Booking.com and allow distribution through their partner network, your property is automatically listed on Agoda.

The main advantage of Agoda is a slightly lower commission than Booking, which can allow slightly lower prices in large cities.

However, Agoda also has some drawbacks. For example, tourist tax is not collected in France, which means hosts have to manage it themselves.

In our case, we had Agoda listings many years ago, so we simply kept them active. It mainly helps us reflect the commission difference and occasionally reach Asian travelers, although the actual booking volume remains very limited.

In short, if you already allow distribution through Booking.com’s partner network, it’s generally not very worthwhile to maintain a dedicated listing on Agoda, unless you already have one running.