Number one platform by booked nights in apartments in 2024 in London is still airbnb, however their rival booking.com is quickly catching up. In this blog post I’ll review the pros and cons of these two major platforms as well as list a few smaller channels that hosts can consider to advertise their London properties on.
The main and biggest advantage of airbnb is how well it’s known across the globe and of course the number of potential guests that use it as a default platform when they look for short stays. Airbnb also has a very user friendly interface for hosts and an app, it’s very easy to create your listing, upload pictures, control pricing and calendar. Guests also have reviews as well as ratings from previous stays, you can also set your listing to only receive reservation requests, no instant bookings, so you can vet each potential guests before accepting them into your home. From safety and security perspective airbnb also offers guest ID verification, they take on the risk of processing guests’ credit cards and facilitating payments as well as offer AirCover - a type of insurance for your home in case guests damage it.
Having said that, their customer service for hosts has deteriorated significantly over the years, guests would also often abuse the system as airbnb in my experience would always be on the guests’ side. This means that if guests raise any issues with your apartment, airbnb would often refund or partially refund them without asking for any proof or confirmation of the host leaving you out of pocket.
Booking.com is another major global player for short stays in London. Historically they were only focused on hotels, however they’ve expanded into the apartment segment very successfully in recent years and currently have a similar share of booked apartment nights in London in 2024. Their biggest advantage is their global reach, they are very much present in the European market, so if you’re targeting Europeans I would definitely recommend listing your property on booking.com
The biggest disadvantage of booking.com is that they only offer the ‘instant book’ option, so you cannot really vet or decline potential guests, booking also doesn’t do any guests’ ID verification and offer an option where the hosts can facilitate credit card payments themselves. This payment option means that hosts are not protected from fraudulent transactions, therefore I would recommend choosing Payments by Booking, where booking facilitates payments and transfers the funds once a week to the host's bank account. Another disadvantage is that only guests review apartments, but you as a host cannot review your past guests, which in my opinion reduces guests’ responsibility while at your property. Furthermore, booking does not offer any damage protection or insurance, so hosts need to take care of that themselves.
Having reviewed two largest channels for your London listing in 2024 I should also mention a few smaller ones that some hosts choose to advertise on. It’s largely believed that the more channels you list on, the more visibility your property gets and the higher it will be ranked in search engines.
A third player that’s often used by London’s hosts is VRBO (aka Vacation Rentals By Owner, previously known as as HomeAway.com). This is one of the largest platforms in USA and it’s owned by Expedia Group, so by connecting to this channel hosts can list their properties both on VRBO and Expedia. VRBO’s platform’s functionalities are a mix of airbnb’s and booking.com’s features. VRBO does offer the option of ‘request only’, so you don’t have to have ‘instant book’ on, furthermore there’s a guest rating system, so you can vet your guests. VRBO also offers a payment solution as well as the possibility of charging guests’ credit cards if you prefer this option. Having said all that VRBO is usually quite a small channel in London’s short-term apartment rental market - usually making up 5% to 10% of overall reservations. The biggest advantage is that VRBO’s guests on average book longer stays, are well traveled and spend more per night vs airbnb/booking.com so if this is your target group - I would recommend listing your property on VRBO.
