Listing your property on Airbnb is one of the easiest and most effective ways to get bookings. You can sign up in minutes, and get your first bookings within hours. All for just a percentage of the booking price.
But Airbnb isn’t the only way to promote your vacation rental and get bookings. Not only are there other sites like Airbnb, but software platforms like Lodgify make it possible for you to create your own direct booking website and sync all your bookings across multiple channels.
If you want to take your vacation rental business to the next level (and eliminate booking fees to maximize your profits), a vacation rental management software platform like Lodgify can help.
Compare vacation rental software options with our spreadsheet.
View spreadsheetLodgify vs. Airbnb – Key Comparisons
Comparing Lodgify to Airbnb is a lot like comparing apples to oranges. They’re completely different services with different business models.
We’re comparing them here to illustrate the benefits of both platforms. And it’s important to realize that these aren’t mutually exclusive services. In fact, we recommend using them together to get the best of both worlds.
Here’s a quick overview of both Airbnb and Lodgify:
Airbnb is an OTA (Online Travel Agency), which basically means it’s a travel website that offers the ability to make bookings. Like Booking.com, Vrbo, or others, it’s a popular distribution channel, which means it’s an excellent way to get eyes on your property listing and get bookings quickly.
Lodgify, unlike Airbnb or other OTAs, is a vacation rental management software platform. You can use it to manage your bookings across multiple sites (e.g. sync Airbnb and Vrbo bookings), and even to create your own direct booking website.
Rather than choosing between Airbnb or Lodgify exclusively, we recommend using Lodgify and Airbnb together to take advantage of the benefits of both platforms.
A Closer Look at Airbnb
In many ways, Airbnb revolutionized the short-term rental industry. Airbnb has become a verb, much like Google, and for many people has become synonymous with the word vacation rental. While Airbnb certainly has room for improvement, it’s one of the best vacation rental listing websites for hosts. There are a lot of businesses that list exclusively on Airbnb and are fully booked and satisfied.
Here’s a look at some of the costs and fees associated with listing your property on Airbnb. You can also download an Airbnb fee calculator from Lodgify here.
- Host Fee: 3-5%
- Guest Fee: 10-14%
- Credit Card Fee: 0
- Subscription Cost: 0
- Insurance: $1M Airbnb Host Guarantee and Host Protection Insurance
If you were going to pick just one vacation rental listing website, we recommend listing on Airbnb.
Fortunately, by using Lodgify, you don’t have to pick just one. You can use their channel manager feature to sync bookings across multiple listing sites like Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and others.
A Closer Look at Lodgify
Lodgify is a popular vacation rental management software, best known for its website builder, which enables you to take direct bookings (independent of sites like Airbnb or Vrbo).
Not only can you use Lodgify to create your own direct booking website, but you can also automatically sync all your bookings with other channels like Airbnb and Vrbo.
Here’s a look at fees and subscription costs, as compared to Airbnb.
- Host Fee: 0% (Airbnb: 3-5%)
- Guest Fee: 0% (Airbnb: 10 – 14%)
- Credit Card Fee: Stripe or PayPal (~2.9% + $.30) (Airbnb: 0%)
- Subscription Cost: plans start at $32/mo (View pricing) (Airbnb: $0)
- Insurance: None (you’ll need your own)
You can use Lodgify to take direct bookings, but you can also use it to sync your Airbnb, Vrbo, and direct booking website calendars. Essentially, it’s more opportunities for bookings, without the risk of double booking.
So when comparing Lodgify with Airbnb, it’s again important to remember that you can use both and that Lodgify was actually built to integrate seamlessly with Airbnb.
How to Maximize Your Revenue Using Lodgify and Airbnb
One of the best ways to maximize your revenue is to use both an OTA like Airbnb (or others) and a vacation rental management software like Lodgify.
Even if you don’t think you’ll be getting very many direct bookings (it can take a while to get traffic to your website and to start getting repeat guests if you’re just starting out), the benefit of being able to list on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com without worrying about double bookings can also immediately increase your bookings revenue.
Airbnb benefits:
Airbnb offers an easy way to get instant access to an enormous pool of potential guests looking for vacation rentals. And for a percentage of your booking price, you will start to get bookings almost immediately.
- Thousands of daily searches in your area
- $1M Host protection insurance
Lodgify benefits:
With Lodgify, you have to ability to list on multiple sites at the same time (e.g. Airbnb and Vrbo), as well as to remove booking fees with your own direct booking website. That can be anywhere from 10-14% of the guest fee that you can remove.
- No booking fees (more profit)
- Sync bookings across multiple sites (more exposure)
We hope this Lodgify vs Airbnb comparison has been helpful. As we said, using Airbnb and Lodgify together (or more broadly, using vacation rental management software along with popular listing sites) is one of the best ways to maximize your vacation rental bookings revenue.
If you want to learn more about Lodgify, you can check out our Lodgify review, or go ahead and sign up at Lodgify.com for a 7-day free trial.
Also, be sure to check out our post on creating your own direct booking website, where we cover more information on what to consider when deciding to take direct bookings.
Note: Another type of vacation rental software that can dramatically (and easily) increase your bookings revenue is an Airbnb pricing tool like Wheelhouse. A dynamic pricing tool will automatically adjust your nightly rates, within your parameters, to optimize for maximum profits. Check out our review of the best dynamic pricing tools for more info.
And if you’re looking for more ideas and inspiration, we have other resources for hosts that cover everything from how to stock your Airbnb to how to market and manage your vacation rental business.
