You’re ready to list your vacation rental. You’ve heard Airbnb and Vrbo are the obvious choices. Now you’re trying to figure out which one actually makes sense for your property, and whether the fees are worth it.

This guide gives you a straight answer.

We’ll cover how the guest audiences differ, the 2026 fee structures (both platforms made major changes in late 2025), what the cancellation policy overhaul means for your income, and what most comparison articles don’t mention: a third option that changes the math entirely.

One note on perspective: Stay was co-founded by HGTV’s Scott McGillivray, a real estate investor and TV host who built his career managing rental properties. His position, that hosts shouldn’t lose a percentage of every booking to a platform, is the premise this guide is written from.

We’ll be direct about that upfront, and equally direct about when Airbnb or Vrbo is the right answer.

Quick Answer: Airbnb vs. Vrbo vs. Stay

• Airbnb: if your property is urban, unique, or appeals to solo travelers and couples who book on short notice.
• Vrbo: if your property is a large vacation home or cabin that families and groups book weeks in advance.
• Both: if your property fits either audience and you want maximum exposure while building your review profile.
• Stay: if you want a direct booking channel where you keep 100% of what you earn, run alongside either platform.

How the Platforms Work Differently

Airbnb

Airbnb dominates with Millennials and Gen Z.

It’s the default search engine for solo travelers, with searches in this segment up 90% in 2025 and average stays extending to 17 nights. Its brand recognition is so strong that people say “I booked an Airbnb” regardless of what platform they actually used.

The tradeoff is control. Airbnb is built guest-first, hosts face penalties for canceling reservations and pressure to resolve guest complaints quickly before platform support steps in.

Your listing’s visibility depends on Airbnb’s algorithm, and when the platform changes its rules — as it did significantly multiple times in 2025 — you adapt or leave.

Vrbo

Vrbo is the stronghold for families and older travelers (45+), who typically book earlier, cancel less often, and seek whole-home experiences in traditional vacation markets.

Hosts have more control over pricing rules, cancellation windows, and availability settings on Vrbo, which helps when syncing calendars across multiple channels. The audience is narrower though — Vrbo tends to underperform in cities where travelers book short trips on short notice.

One important structural change: as of August 28, 2025, the annual subscription model is no longer available as a pricing plan for new Vrbo hosts. If you’re signing up now, you’re on pay-per-booking only.

Stay

Stay is a no-commission vacation rental marketplace co-founded by HGTV’s Scott McGillivray, built for hosts who want to own their booking business, not rent access to someone else’s.

The model is simple: hosts pay a flat annual fee and keep 100% of every booking. No commission, no percentage skimmed on cleaning fees, no cuts growing as your revenue grows. Travelers discover and book your property directly through Stay, and the guest relationship is yours from day one.

The difference goes beyond fees. On Stay, you own the guest relationship from the moment someone books — their contact information is yours, not the platform’s. You set your own cancellation policies, house rules, pricing, and minimum stays. No algorithm deciding your visibility, no platform changing the terms on you mid-season.

Stay integrates with most PMS. Use it alongside Airbnb or Vrbo while you build your review profile, or build your clientele entirely on your own terms.

The Fee Breakdown (Updated for 2026)

Both platforms changed their fee structures in 2025. Here’s what actually applies now.

Airbnb Fees in 2026

Starting October 27, 2025, Airbnb transitioned all PMS-connected hosts to a 15.5% host-only service fee. The change eliminates the split-fee model — guests no longer pay a separate service fee at checkout, and Airbnb deducts its fee directly from the host’s payout.

Independent hosts without PMS who previously used simplified pricing moved to the standardized 15.5% rate on December 1, 2025.

Important: the 15.5% applies to the full booking subtotal — including nightly rates, cleaning fees, pet fees, and extra guest charges. Only taxes and security deposits are excluded.

Vrbo Fees in 2026

Vrbo’s structure is simpler. For new hosts, there’s one model: an 8% fee per booking, split between a 5% commission and a 3% payment processing fee — all charged to the host. Guests pay a separate service fee on top of your listed price, typically 6–15%.

Important: Vrbo is phasing out the subscription model. Only hosts with an existing active subscription can renew. New hosts must use pay-per-booking.

Platform Fee Comparison

On a $50,000/year rental, the gap between Airbnb’s 15.5% and Stay’s flat annual rate is over $7,600 — every year.

Cancellation Policies: A Major 2025 Shift

This is one of the most significant (and least-covered) changes of 2025, and it affects Airbnb hosts differently than Vrbo hosts.

What Changed on Airbnb

Airbnb phased out its Strict cancellation policy by October 2025, moving most listings to the new Firm policy. A new “Limited” option and a universal 24-hour free cancellation period were also introduced.

Starting October 1, 2025, guests who book at least seven days before check-in can cancel within 24 hours of making the reservation and receive a full refund. This rule applies automatically, hosts cannot opt out.

What this means in practice: a guest can book your peak summer week in January and cancel the next morning with a full refund. Under the old Strict policy, guests canceling after 48 hours received only a partial refund, at least half the revenue was guaranteed. Under the new Firm policy, guests can cancel up to 30 days before check-in for a full refund.

Airbnb’s data shows hosts who switched from Strict to Firm earned 10% more on average — but that average includes urban properties where last-minute rebooking is easy. For seasonal destination properties, the risk profile is meaningfully higher.

Vrbo Cancellation Policies

Vrbo’s cancellation framework gives hosts more control and has remained more stable. Options range from Relaxed to Strict, with the Strict policy still available, a meaningful difference for hosts managing high-demand seasonal properties.

Vrbo’s most flexible option only allows full refunds up to 14 days before check-in — compared to Airbnb’s Firm policy, which allows full refunds up to 30 days out. For hosts with large vacation homes that fill months in advance for holiday weekends, this control difference is real money.

What Both Platforms Have in Common

You don’t own the guest relationship. On both platforms, contact information is withheld until a booking is confirmed. Repeat guests go back through the platform — and pay fees again — every time they rebook.

Your listing is rented, not owned. Visibility depends on an algorithm you don’t control. Both Airbnb and Vrbo changed their rules substantially in 2025 alone. Hosts adapted or left.

The fees never stop. There’s no point at which you’ve paid enough and earned access to your guests. Every booking, every year, a percentage of your income goes to a platform you don’t own.

Building a Booking Business You Actually Own

Every host on Airbnb or Vrbo is building on rented land. The audience, the guest data, the relationship, it all belongs to the platform. Change the algorithm, change the fees, change the cancellation policy — you find out when everyone else does. Stay is where that changes. 

A lot of professional property managers are already moving in this direction: reducing dependence on OTAs, building direct relationships with guests, and capturing the 8–15% they’ve been leaving on the table with every booking. Stay is built specifically for that shift.

The math is direct.

A host doing $60,000 in annual bookings who moves even 30% of volume to Stay keeps roughly $2,800 more per year compared to Vrbo — and $4,600 more compared to Airbnb. Shift more volume over time, and the number grows. Build a repeat guest base through Stay, and those guests never cost you a commission again.

Use it alongside Airbnb and Vrbo while you build your audience. Use it as your primary platform once you have one. Either way, it’s the only option on this list where what you build is yours.

How to Think About Stay Alongside Airbnb and Vrbo

Stay isn’t positioned as an either/or with Airbnb or Vrbo. The realistic approach most professional hosts are moving toward looks like this:

• Use Airbnb and Vrbo for traffic and discoverability — especially while building your review profile.
• Use Stay as your direct booking layer, where you send repeat visitors, word-of-mouth referrals, and guests you market to directly. Those bookings cost $0 in commission.

The math compounds. A host doing $60,000 in annual bookings who routes 30% of volume through Stay keeps roughly $2,800 more per year than if all of it went through Vrbo — and $4,600 more than Airbnb. Over five years, that’s a meaningful number.

Which Platform Is Right for Your Property? 

If you’re trying to decide between Airbnb and Vrbo: urban apartments, unique stays, and shorter-trip properties generally perform better on Airbnb. Large vacation homes, cabins, and beach houses aimed at families and groups tend to do better on Vrbo. Most professional hosts with the right property type list on both.

But the platform question every host should be asking isn’t Airbnb or Vrbo — it’s when do I start building something I actually own.

Stay is the answer to that question regardless of property type, market, or where you are in your hosting journey. The hosts who get there first are the ones who stop paying commission on guests they already earned.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Airbnb or Vrbo better for hosts in 2026?

It depends on your property type. Airbnb has broader traffic and works better for urban and unique properties. Vrbo is better for large vacation homes in leisure markets and gives hosts more cancellation policy control. Both charge significant fees, 15.5% on Airbnb for most professional hosts, 8% on Vrbo.

For hosts wanting to keep more of their earnings, listing on Stay alongside either platform is worth running the numbers on.

How much does Airbnb charge hosts in 2026?

Most hosts — including anyone using property management software — are now on Airbnb’s 15.5% host-only fee, applied to the full booking subtotal including cleaning fees. This replaced the old 3% split-fee model in late 2025. On a $2,000 booking, Airbnb keeps $310.

How much does Vrbo charge hosts in 2026?

Vrbo charges new hosts 8% per booking: a 5% commission plus 3% payment processing, applied to the booking subtotal including cleaning fees. The annual subscription option is no longer available to new hosts as of August 2025.

What happened to Airbnb’s Strict cancellation policy?

Airbnb phased out the Strict cancellation policy for new listings as of October 1, 2025, and automatically moved existing Strict listings to Firm. All bookings now include a mandatory 24-hour free cancellation window that hosts cannot remove. New listings choose between Flexible, Moderate, Limited, and Firm.

Can I list on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Stay at the same time?

Yes. Most professional hosts use a PMS to sync calendars across platforms. Stay integrates directly with HostAway, Hostfully, OwnerRez, Lodgify, and many others, so you can run all three without managing calendars manually.

What is the best vacation rental platform for hosts who want to keep 100% of their income?

Stay charges hosts a flat annual fee of $159/year per property and takes zero commission per booking. Hosts keep 100% of every booking received through the platform.

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Stay is a no-commission vacation rental marketplace co-founded by HGTV’s Scott McGillivray. List your property at staywithstay.com