Accommodation generally makes up the lion's share of your holiday cost, but there are ways of keeping costs to a minimum a hotel alternative like a holiday rental or homestay could save you a lot of cash. Currently, there's a plethora of holiday rental platforms and short-term accommodation sites so let's review to make sure you get the best value for money from the most well-known multinationals to some of the lesser-known sites.
Airbnb
Airbnb.com.au has 6 million plus active listings and 4 million plus hosts. Worldwide Airbnb has listings in more than 220 countries and regions. Accommodation includes entire houses, rooms, or shared rooms in private homes. The site lets prospective guests and hosts screen profiles, read reviews and references of each other, and confirm that each other's phone numbers and social media profiles are verified by Airbnb. They charge guests and homeowners. Depending on the payment structure guests pay somewhere between 3 - 20% on top of the cost of the rental.
Stayz/VRBO
Stayz.com.au, formerly a Sydney-based company, it's now part of the gigantic 'HomeAway' family of brands, which in turn is owned by the US conglomerate Expedia Inc. It lists more than 50,000 Australian holiday rental properties and The site takes a hands-off approach when it comes to the management of properties, relying on self-regulation by property managers. Easy and free to list Stayz/VRBO charges owners about 5% which is generally passed on to the guests. Reviews are moderated for 'inappropriate content' but Stayz says it has no obligation to investigate the accuracy of reviews or responses from the property owners.
Booking.com
Traditionally recognised for hotels, motels and other larger holiday accommodations, Booking.com is now doing a big push in the holiday rental market, they boast more than 6.2 million homes, apartments, and other unique places to stay.
Search and Stay
In a market dominated by international behemoths and publicly listed multinationals, SearchandStay.com is a worldwide but Australian-owned and managed site launched in early 2020. With holiday rental listings throughout Australia, New Zealand and the world including Mexico, Sri Lanka, Uk and Wales and even Barbados, SearchandStay.com is the fastest-growing Australian-owned holiday rental platform. SearchandStay.com was built by Australian holiday rental owners who were becoming dissatisfied with the onus always being on the owner to provide the perfect holiday experience without the choice of declining a booking without risking "super host" status or being pushed to the bottom of listings. They saw a need for a request to book system, which many holiday rental platforms have now introduced. Designed to put the control back into the hands of the holiday rental owners, SearchandStay company also recognised a growing dissatisfaction with the enormous charges being put upon owners for listing, pay-per-booking and channel manager fees. With an owner focus and putting holiday rental home owners first, SearchandStay.com generates revenue through a minimal guest charge of 3%.
Aura
Aura.travel is another Australian-owned holiday rental site with a stripped-back system listing around 7000 Australian properties. Also charging a small guest fee it operates on very basic, stripped-back system. Unlike SearchandStay.com it offers limited automated guest booking and finance tools, no user reviews model with booking policies largely set by the property manager. While it's a site for booking holiday houses, apartments and self-contained short-term rentals, many of the properties found in searches are hotels, motor inns and bed and breakfasts.
Google Holiday Rentals
Just like searching anything else on Google Holiday rental listings appear alongside organic search results on Google. Travellers can discover listings by browsing relevant keywords in Google Search, exploring destinations in Google Maps, or filtering for Holiday Rentals in Google Travel’s dedicated lodging search. Google holiday rental listings feature content like approximate location, rates, availability, and booking link redirects.