VRBO ISN´T AIRBNB´S PROBLEM / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Vrbo Isn’t Airbnb’s Problem

Airbnb has a host problem, but not because of Vrbo

By Laura Forman

A Vrbo ad on YouTube says its guests book bigger places than on Airbnb./ PHOTO: VRBO

The battle over hosts between Expedia’s EXPE -0.61% Vrbo and Airbnb ABNB 2.35% seems to be in full effect, but the reality is that Airbnb has bigger fish to fry.

Vrbo has been luring Airbnb’s hosts for months now with ads that suggest its platform is more lucrative, something Airbnb has denied. 

In March, following a pilot period, Vrbo launched a program to attract Airbnb’s top hosts by offering increased visibility of new properties and transferring their review score from Airbnb’s site so hosts can join its platform with immediate status.

It seems to be working. 

Vrbo said it has had several thousand hosts participate in that program, which has led to sizable increases in booking value and nights booked per listing for those hosts. 

Neither platform outwardly discourages cross-listing, but it is time-consuming and somewhat convoluted, such that many hosts with a single property don’t do it without the help of a manager.

While data from short-term rental analytics platform AirDNA shows Airbnb has increased its overall active listings over the past 12 months, travel-news publication Skift reported Airbnb lost nearly 1 in 10 single-property hosts in the 12 months ended March 31, citing data from vacation-rental data provider Transparent. 

That data shows single-property hosts made up more than 70% of Airbnb’s total host population at the end of the first quarter.

As demand comes back, it is clear that Airbnb has a host problem. 

Some worried about sharing their homes during a pandemic; others were angered by the company’s decision to offer guests refunds for canceled bookings when it set in. 

Vrbo published guidance for hosts, but let them ultimately negotiate refunds themselves.

But in the grand scheme of things, Airbnb matters much more to Vrbo than vice versa. Vrbo says it has over two million listings, though not all of them are active. 

Airbnb says it has 5.4 million active listings.

Skift reported that Vrbo spent more than 10 times what Airbnb did on U.S. advertising in the first two months of the year, citing data from Kantar Media. 

Expedia doesn’t break out financials for Vrbo, but it spent 53% of its revenue in the first quarter on selling and marketing. 

Airbnb spent less than 26% of its revenue on its equivalent line item that quarter, even including the launch of its first large-scale marketing campaign in five years.

Vrbo has historically focused on the U.S. market, where the short-term rental market is undeniably hot right now. 

Jeff Hurst, president of Vrbo and marketing co-lead of Expedia, said this has been the best start to a year Vrbo has ever seen. 

But it is possible that Vrbo’s new hosts are making more money than usual right now because of the increased promotion they are getting, which is temporary. 

When that fades and business normalizes, hosts who switched rather than cross-listing could go back to Airbnb.

For now, Airbnb’s more international footprint is a hindrance. 

AirDNA data shows three of Airbnb’s 10 largest countries had year-over-year declines in active listings across all short-term rental platforms in February. 

Specific to Airbnb, the data also show its active listings are still down significantly in many major urban cities world-wide, where its business is the strongest. 

In places like New York, Toronto and Beijing, both available and active listings on its platform declined from February 2020 to April 2021, suggesting the loss of some of those listings could outlast the pandemic.

It makes sense that U.S.-focused Vrbo is thriving right now: Of the 10 largest countries for short-term rentals for Airbnb, only the U.S. posted growth in April versus the same month in 2019, according to AirDNA. 

Global demand was still down 31% on that basis.

That, not Vrbo, explains why Airbnb is rushing now to solve its host problem. 

As vaccination rates tick up world-wide, Airbnb is on the cusp of its own boom—but it has to have the yurts, treehouses and Airstreams onboarded to host it.