Creating a website for your short-term rental has never been easier. There are a growing number of website builders designed for vacation rentals, and more and more templates to help you create your own. We’ve compiled a list of the best vacation rental website templates to help you easily create a website for your vacation rental or Airbnb (with or without direct bookings).
How to Create a Vacation Rental Website
Before we jump into the templates, let’s talk about the options you have when creating your own vacation rental website.
Because there are several different ways to go about creating a vacation rental website, which template (or templates) you use will depend on your specific needs. Here are your options.
Option 1: Use a Built-in Direct Booking Website Builder Feature
A simple way to create your vacation rental website is to use the built-in direct booking website builder feature offered by your property management software. Most PMS platforms offer a basic direct booking website builder, even if they’re a bit limited in terms of templates and features.
Example: tailwaterslodge.com – built with Lodgify
Option 2: Build a Direct Booking Website with WordPress (Advanced)
You can build your own WordPress website (with built-in direct bookings), using MotoPress, Homey, or another WordPress theme and plugin. This is an advanced option, and we only recommend it if you have experience building WordPress websites, or if you want to hire someone to build and maintain your website.
Example: arrivls.com – custom WordPress website
Option 3: Use a Website Builder and Add Third-Party Booking Links (Recommended)
The option we most recommend is to create a website (with Floorspace Pro, Squarespace, or Wix), and add “Book” buttons that link to a separate direct booking website (built with Uplisting, Lodgify, or another PMS), or to your Airbnb/Vrbo listings (if you don’t want direct bookings).
We recommend this option for a few reasons:
- More flexibility – Choose the template you want, not just the template that’s available with your booking software. Create custom pages and blog posts, and take advantage of other marketing features to help grow your business.
- Ownership / future proof – Don’t lose your website if you decide to change PMS / booking software in the future. Keep your website independent from (but still connected to) your booking software.
- Best of both worlds – Get the benefits of a direct booking site, without being limited by the templates and features of your PMS to create your website.
The two websites below are examples of a non-direct booking website (thecobbhaus.com) and a direct booking website (thebaches.ca).
Example: thecobbhaus.com – built with Squarespace + Airbnb links
Example: thebaches.ca – built with Floorspace Pro + Uplisting links
The Best Vacation Rental Website Templates
Now let’s look at some website templates. This list contains the best vacation rental website templates from most popular website builders (Squarespace and Wix), as well as a few WordPress themes, and our new website builder, Floorspace Pro. Depending on how you set these up, they can be used for either direct booking or non-direct booking websites.
1. Sunny Stays (Floorspace Pro)
First on the list of great vacation rental website templates is the Sunny Stays template. It’s a modern, minimal template, designed for hosts with multiple properties (like these examples), though it also works for a single property.
For a limited time, we’ll set up your website for no extra cost when you sign up for Floorspace Pro. Get started here.
2. Colima (Squarespace)
Squarespace has a Real Estate & Properties templates category. Here are our favorite templates for vacation rentals from that category (and other categories).
For more inspiration, check out this list of vacation rental websites built with Squarespace or our post on the best Squarespace vacation rental templates.
You can get started with a 14-day free Squarespace trial.
The Colima template is not in the ‘Real Estate & Properties’ category. But remember that the structure and layout are more important than the colors or fonts, which can be easily changed. Just because there’s a picture of a yoga class doesn’t mean you can’t replace it with a picture of your property.
3. Suffolk (Squarespace)
The Suffolk template features a classic design, that’s perfectly laid out for a vacation rental website. It’s similar to the Maple template, which is an older 7.0 template that’s been very popular for vacation rental websites.
4. Barbosa (Squarespace)
Barbosa is a modern take on a property website layout. The bold type and large photography can really make your website stand out.
5. Tropical Villa (Wix)
Wix is a popular website builder that has a wide range of themes. They have a ‘Hotels & B&Bs’ category with some great options for vacation rentals.
Check out our full list of the best Wix templates for vacation rentals.
Get started with a free 14-day Wix trial.
6. Seaside B&B (Wix)
7. B&B (Wix)
8. Booklium (WordPress Theme)
You can choose a free WordPress theme, or there are some paid options that are designed for vacation rental direct booking websites.
The Booklium theme from MotoPress is one of the most robust vacation rental WordPress themes when paired with the MotoPress Hotel Booking plugin.
9. Homey (WordPress Theme)
The Homey Booking and Rentals WordPress theme is another solid option if you’re looking for a complete package to build a vacation rental WordPress site. You can purchase the Homey theme on the Envato Marketplace.
Check out our post on the best vacation rental WordPress themes.
Here’s a look at the templates offered by some of the best vacation rental website builders.
10. Livingstone (Lodgify)
Lodgify earns a spot in this list because they have a variety of templates, and a relatively robust website builder feature. You can choose from 4 different direct booking website templates. Check out these examples of real Lodgify websites to see their templates in action.
This is our favorite Lodgify template. It’s minimal, modern, and features a big hero image to showcase your beautiful photography.
11. Brooklyn (Lodgify)
The newly updated Brooklyn 2.0 template has a sidebar menu and a big hero image on the homepage.
12. Capucine (Lodgify)
The Capucine template has more of a boxed layout. It’s bright and clean, and can put your properties in a good light.
13. Tideway (Lodgify)
The Tideway template is a sort of cross between a boxed and full-width layout. It features the booking form front and center.
Visit Lodgify.com to learn more.
14. Uplisting Template
Uplisting is one of the best comprehensive vacation rental management software platforms on the market. One of their many features is an easy-to-setup direct booking website. The Uplisting website template is modern, clean, and optimized for bookings. But they only have one template, and it’s not customizable, so it’s best paired with a Floorspace Pro or other website.
Visit Uplisting.io to learn more.
15. OwnerRez Template
OwnerRez is another comprehensive vacation rental management software. It’s a lower-cost alternative to Uplisting and has a lot of great features for property managers with several properties.
OwnerRez just has one template for their hosted websites. It’s very basic, but it’s clean and organized, and easy to navigate.
Visit OwnerRez.com to learn more.
Getting Started
Now that you’ve seen the list of vacation rental templates, you have some decisions to make. From Squarespace, to Wix, to WordPress, and all the vacation rental PMS platforms and their website builder features, there are lots of options.
We recommend signing up for Floorspace Pro, and we’ll help you get your website set up. Whether you want to take direct bookings, or simply link to your Airbnb listings, our Sunny Stays template is designed with your vacation rental business in mind.
