Airbnb may have invented the category, but between rising service fees (often 14%+ for guests), cleaning-fee surprises, and 15–20% host commissions on some plans, plenty of travelers and hosts are shopping around.
The good news: the short-term rental world is bigger than one app. Whether you’re booking a stay, listing a property, or thinking about launching a rental platform of your own, here are the eight best apps like Airbnb in 2026.
1. Vrbo — Best for Whole-Home Family Stays
Vrbo (part of Expedia Group) is Airbnb’s most direct rival, with one key difference: it lists entire homes only — no shared rooms, no hosts down the hall. That makes it the default for family trips and group getaways, and its inventory of larger houses, cabins, and beach properties often beats Airbnb’s in vacation destinations. Hosts appreciate the choice between an annual subscription or pay-per-booking commission, something Airbnb doesn’t offer.
2. Booking.com — Best for Combined Hotel + Rental Search
Booking.com quietly became one of the largest vacation rental platforms on earth, mixing millions of apartments and homes alongside its hotel inventory. For travelers, that means comparing a rental against a hotel on the same screen — and frequently lower guest fees, since Booking.com charges hosts (typically ~15%) rather than stacking a visible service fee on guests. Its “Genius” loyalty discounts apply to many rentals too.
3. Agoda — Best in Asia
For travel across Asia, Agoda (also Booking Holdings) routinely undercuts everyone on price, and its homes-and-apartments inventory in cities like Bangkok, Tokyo, and Bali is deep. The app-first experience, aggressive coupons, and pay-at-property options make it the regional specialist Airbnb never fully became in many Asian markets.
4. Plum Guide — Best for Vetted Quality
Plum Guide takes the opposite approach to Airbnb’s list-everything model: it claims to accept only a small fraction of homes after testing them against dozens of criteria — lighting, mattress quality, water pressure, the works. Listings are concentrated in major cities and premium destinations. You pay more, but the “hosted by a stranger, quality unknown” gamble is largely removed.
5. Hipcamp — Best for Outdoor Stays
Hipcamp is the Airbnb of the outdoors: private campsites, glamping tents, cabins, treehouses, and RV spots on private land, mostly across the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK. For landowners, it turns unused acreage into income with almost no setup cost — the hosting side of the marketplace is as interesting as the booking side.
6. Furnished Finder — Best for Monthly Stays
A huge slice of “apps like Airbnb” searches come from travel nurses and remote workers who need 30+ day stays without nightly-rate math and stacked fees. Furnished Finder is built exactly for that: hosts pay a flat annual listing fee, tenants pay zero booking fees, and leads convert into direct monthly arrangements. For hosts, mid-term rentals also mean fewer turnovers and steadier income.
7. Marriott Homes & Villas — Best for Loyalty Points
Marriott’s entry into vacation rentals curates professionally managed homes and layers hotel-grade standards on top — plus you earn and redeem Marriott Bonvoy points on every stay. Inventory is smaller and skews premium, but for the millions of travelers already sitting on points balances, it’s a compelling Airbnb substitute.
8. Direct Booking Sites — Best for Skipping Fees Entirely
The fastest-growing “alternative” isn’t an app at all: it’s hosts taking bookings on their own websites. Guests increasingly Google a property’s name to book direct and save 10–20% in platform fees; hosts keep full margin, own the guest relationship, and stop competing in a ranked feed. Entire communities and tools have sprung up around the direct-booking movement — which leads to the real opportunity in this list.
Quick Comparison
| Platform | Best for | Fee model |
|---|---|---|
| Vrbo | Whole homes, families | Host commission or subscription |
| Booking.com | Rentals + hotels together | ~15% host commission |
| Agoda | Asia trips | Host commission |
| Plum Guide | Vetted premium homes | Guest + host fees |
| Hipcamp | Camping & glamping | Host commission |
| Furnished Finder | 30+ day stays | Flat host listing fee |
| Marriott H&V | Points earners | Built into rates |
| Direct booking | Zero platform fees | None — you own it |
Want to Launch Your Own App Like Airbnb?
Every platform above proves the same point: the booking-marketplace model prints money for whoever owns the platform — Airbnb’s take is billions a year in fees that hosts and guests would rather not pay. And niches keep opening: regional platforms, mid-term stays, pet-friendly rentals, glamping, single-city marketplaces, or simply a direct-booking site for your own properties.
Building one no longer requires venture capital. Our rental booking theme for WordPress delivers the full Airbnb mechanic out of the box: property listings with photo galleries, real-time availability calendars, instant or approved bookings, seasonal and dynamic pricing, guest reviews, multilingual support, and payments via Stripe or PayPal — usable as a multi-vendor marketplace or a direct-booking site for your own units.
We’ve written a full guide on how to build an Airbnb clone with WordPress, and it sits alongside our other marketplace WordPress themes. Need custom features or a mobile app on top? Talk to our development team — a niche rental platform can be live in weeks, not years.
The Bottom Line
The best app like Airbnb depends on the trip: Vrbo for whole-home family stays, Booking.com for fee-friendly variety, Agoda in Asia, Plum Guide for guaranteed quality, Hipcamp outdoors, Furnished Finder for monthly stays, and direct booking to skip fees altogether. And if you’re on the hosting side, the most profitable alternative of all might be the platform you build yourself.
