Airbnb has become the biggest home-sharing and vacation rental service in the game – but there are plenty of alternatives to check out. Home-sharing has never been easier, and it provides a great way to escape without interacting with people outside of your family. As a result, home-sharing has taken off during the pandemic, as people are working from home.
In 2020, Airbnb doubled in bookings compared to the previous year, and it’s expected this number will continue to grow. Currently, Airbnb has an inventory of 7 million accommodations, but there are some new home-sharing companies that have joined the market in recent years and who are starting to steal market share. The Wall Street Journal published a great article that highlights the fantastic offerings from each service. Read what he discovered about each of these home-sharing alternatives in this summary:
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Sonder
“Sonder leases properties—lofts, studios, apartments and, as of October, a resort in Palm Springs—then designs them with a midcentury modern aesthetic, using a team of architects and interior designers, and rents and manages everything from cleaning services to food delivery through its app at an average nightly rate of $189. The company now has 5,000 listings around the globe, mainly in cities, including Savannah, Ga., and San Antonio.” – WSJ
These high-style listings are typically in desirable locations, with 24-hour management services via their app. They offer discounts for longer stays (14 nights or more) with a “stay-longer, save-more” incentive.
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Plum Guide
“This guide saves travelers the painstaking hours of research it takes to scroll through listings on various rental sites. Launched in London in 2015 and continuing to expand in the U.S. for this year’s holiday season, the company sifts through a database of all available vacation rentals in a given location, subjects those it likes to its own on-site test—based on criteria ranging from Wi-Fi speed to design credentials—and lists the winning 3%. There are 2,200 listings in the U.S., in locations from the Hamptons in New York to Joshua Tree in California.” – WSJ
Plum guide is for the extra finicky who want to avoid the risk of picking a less than desirable choice. This service will check for wobbly tables, subpar-thread-count, or apartment malfunctions. They also offer a detailed manual for each home, and their human concierge service assists with providing groceries, obtaining necessary accessories, and being there to help fix any problem that may arise.
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Plans Matter
“Founded as a kind of mini-Airbnb for modern design by architects who met as students at the University of Minnesota College of Design, this service bills itself as an aggregator of exceptionally designed private homes. It isn’t a booking site; rather, it is a listing of properties selected solely for architectural merit with links to the sites where guests can book them. The spare website is an education, with profiles of international architects and design notes—Still Bend in Wisconsin, for example, exemplifies Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian style—and a voyeuristic delight with excellent photography and a cool map.” – WSJ
If you’re a design enthusiast, then Plans Matter may offer the best bang for your buck. Renters might feel like they are living inside the pages of Dwell magazine as they immerse themselves in a little slice of private heaven. Plans Matter also offers a curated guide to the area with notable restaurants and historic sites that are specific to each individual home.
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Yonder
“Finding a decent farm stay can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. Scrutinizing everything from a working ranch outside Las Vegas to a dairy farm in Vermont, Yonder set out to improve those odds. The company launched in February, just before the pandemic steered the trajectory of travel away from cities and back to nature. The company offers 10,000 unique listings where travelers can do everything from help tend alpaca to completely hide out, far away from mask mandates and Zoom calls.” – WSJ
Yonder is a farm lover’s paradise, as the homes they list reside in the patchwork universe of agritourism. You can expect to find homes that plop you down on a family farm with full kitchen, beautiful porch overlooking a waterfall, and, even access to some furry farm friends. As an added plus, these bookings gives ranchers and farmers a revenue stream to help keep the farms operating successfully.
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Outdoorsy
“Founded in 2015, Outdoorsy is the Airbnb of RVs, from pop-up campers to elaborate touring vans worthy of Dolly Parton. When a small group of corporate refugees noticed that 17 million RVs in North America sat unused 350 days a year, they hatched a peer-to-peer marketplace for owners and renters and coined the motto “Never idle.” Now, the company has 50,000 unique vehicles to rent (in 14 countries) and spiking interest (the company says September bookings in Arizona were up 135% over last year, for instance, and 90% of all September bookings were first-timers).” – WSJ
As you may have guessed from the name, this service calls to the renegades and road trippers who are seeking a place immersed in nature. The good news is that you don’t have to be prepared to survive in the wild on your own. Outdoorsy provides free roadside assistance and a partnership with Kampgrounds of America, the world’s largest system of open-to-the-public campgrounds, to help with securing your spot on your travels. Outdoorsy also gives renters discounted access to over 500 properties across the country.