Vrbo (originally Vacation Rentals By Owner) is a vacation rental platform founded in 1995 and now part of Expedia Group, which acquired its parent HomeAway in 2015. The brand was unified globally under the Vrbo name in 2019 and is positioned as the leading whole-home alternative to Airbnb in many Western markets.
Vrbo lists exclusively whole-property vacation rentals — entire homes, cabins, condos and villas — and explicitly avoids shared or shared-room listings. It earns revenue through traveler service fees and host commissions on bookings, and is fully integrated with Expedia Group's payments and supply infrastructure.
Vrbo is one of the two largest vacation rental brands worldwide alongside Airbnb, particularly strong in the United States where family-oriented travelers are its core audience. The brand is also distributed across Expedia.com and Hotels.com, giving Expedia Group's alternative accommodation supply visibility on its broader OTA storefronts.
Vrbo's positioning emphasizes "whole homes for whole groups," with no host-occupied or shared-space listings. The brand participates in Expedia Group's One Key loyalty program, allowing travelers to earn and burn the same currency across Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo bookings, a key strategic differentiator versus standalone vacation rental platforms.
Vrbo will charge all hosts and property managers a flat 12% commission from October 29, 2026, while sharply cutting guest fees.
Vrbo and Airbnb are leaning into paid placement just as personal AI booking agents arrive. One of them, Instinct, told Skift that paid placement carries no weight in its choices and that it defaults to booking direct.
Vrbo has made paid search placement available to all partners globally on a pay-per-booked-night model, six months after a nine-manager pilot. Visibility on the platform now has a price.
Vrbo has made sponsored listings available to every property partner worldwide after a six-month pilot, adding a pay-per-booked-night auction to a search results page that was previously organic only.
A Harris Poll study of 1,758 travelers for Vrbo finds 86% would pay more for a higher-quality listing, with cleanliness, fast host responses and verified recent reviews driving the premium.