Vrbo vs Airbnb: Which Is Cheaper? We Priced 7,251 Stays in 8 US Vacation Markets

Vrbo vs Airbnb comes down to two numbers, and most comparisons only show you the first one.
Search both for the same dates and group, and Vrbo's homes cost a median 23% more a night; for a couple's weekend, more than double in 4 of the 8 towns.
Match the homes by bedroom count, and the gap shrinks to 15%, or $33 a night, with Vrbo still dearer in 57 of 68 comparisons.
The difference between the two numbers is what each search shows you first: Vrbo leads with bigger homes.
We priced 2,022 Vrbo homes and 2,667 Airbnb listings in 8 US vacation markets, for a December weekend and a December week, for 2 and for 6 guests: 7,251 price quotes in all, with every fee and tax a guest pays included on both sides.
Below: how much more Vrbo costs and where, why it looks worse than it is, what the fees include, the discounts, and the ratings.

Key Takeaways

• Like for like, Vrbo costs 15% more than Airbnb, or $33 a night. Same market, dates, group size, and number of bedrooms: Vrbo was dearer in 57 of 68 comparisons, all fees and taxes included.
• For couples, Vrbo can look twice as expensive because it shows bigger homes. Searching for 2 guests, half of Vrbo's results had 3 or more bedrooms, against 10% of Airbnb's; Nashville's weekend median came out 2.25 times Airbnb's before matching.
• The gap is widest in Austin and closes in Gatlinburg. Vrbo cost 26% more in Austin and 24% more in Nashville, while in Gatlinburg the two came out level (Vrbo dearer in 4 of 9 comparisons). By home size, the gap ran from 10% at 4 bedrooms to 20% at 2 bedrooms.
• Both show fee-inclusive prices before tax. Airbnb's taxes then add a median 13% of the stay (17.8% in Nashville); our Airbnb vs hotel study puts the same markets against hotels.
• A week narrows the gap. Vrbo cost 10% more for a week and 22% more for a weekend, and a week's nights cost 0.64 times a weekend's on Vrbo against 0.70 on Airbnb.

Is Vrbo Cheaper Than Airbnb?

Usually not.
In 68 like-for-like comparisons, each one the same market, stay, group size, and exact bedroom count with at least 10 priced homes on each side, Vrbo's median all-in price was higher in 57.
The median gap was 15%, or $33 a night.

Market	Comparisons	Vrbo dearer	Median gap	Per night
Austin	10	10	+26%	+$80
Nashville	6	5	+24%	+$102
Destin	10	9	+22%	+$44
Scottsdale	9	8	+17%	+$42
Myrtle Beach	9	7	+13%	+$22
Gulf Shores	8	7	+12%	+$23
Kissimmee	7	7	+10%	+$22
Gatlinburg	9	4	-1%	-$5

Gatlinburg is the one market where the two come out level: Vrbo was dearer in only 4 of 9 comparisons, and at the median it was $5 a night cheaper.
Austin and Nashville show the widest gaps, then Destin.
Group size doesn't move the gap: it was 15% for 2 guests (Vrbo dearer in 29 of 34) and 15% for 6 guests (28 of 34).
Length of stay does: a weekend came out 22% dearer on Vrbo, and a week 10%.
Prices on the two platforms handle taxes differently on screen, so we checked the result both ways.
All-in on both sides, it's 15%.
Before taxes on both sides (Vrbo's taxes estimated at each market's rate), it's also 15%, with Vrbo dearer in 56 of 68, so the tax treatment doesn't drive the gap.

Why Vrbo Can Look Twice as Expensive for Couples

Search both platforms for 2 guests in the same town, and you're comparing different homes.

Vrbo's median result for 2 guests had 2 bedrooms, and half its results had 3 or more (24.0% with 3, 25.8% with 4 or more).
Airbnb's median result had 1 bedroom: 51.2% were one-bedrooms, 6.3% studios, and only 1.9% had 4 or more.
(Vrbo's rate data lists no studios: a studio shows up as 1 bedroom.)
So the unmatched comparison puts Vrbo's big family homes against Airbnb's one-bedroom apartments.
That's how a couple can see Vrbo at more than double Airbnb's price.
Before matching bedrooms, Vrbo's median weekend night for 2 guests was 2.25 times Airbnb's in Nashville, 2.18 in Kissimmee, 2.14 in Austin, and 2.06 in Scottsdale.
Across the 8 towns, a couple's weekend came out a median 1.85 times Airbnb's price, and a week 1.38 times.
Weigh Vrbo's results to Airbnb's mix of bedrooms, and the couple's weekend falls from 1.85 times to 1.27, so most of the gap is the homes each search shows.
Across all 32 unmatched comparisons, Vrbo was dearer in 26, by a median 23%.
Matched by bedrooms, the gap shrinks to 15%.
It doesn't grow with the size of the home: it runs from 10% at 4 bedrooms to 20% at 2 bedrooms.

For 6 guests, the picture flips at the beach.
Both platforms' results centered on 3 bedrooms, and Airbnb's held more homes with 4 or more (40.7% against 34.0%), so before matching, Vrbo came out cheaper for a week in Destin (0.77 times Airbnb) and a weekend in Gulf Shores (0.83).
For a couple, the practical step is to set the bedroom filter on Vrbo before comparing anything.

Vrbo vs Airbnb Fees and Discounts: What the Price Includes

Both platforms now show prices with their fees built in, so the old habit of comparing nightly rates and adding fees by hand no longer applies.
Vrbo says the price it shows includes all mandatory fees and its service fee, and that taxes are added at checkout (Vrbo Help).
On Airbnb, the price breakdowns in our data had a stay price, any discounts, and taxes.
Only 5 of 2,963 quotes listed a separate fee line (resort fees), so cleaning and service fees sat inside the stay price as Airbnb showed it.

What the quote shows	Vrbo	Airbnb
Cleaning and service fees	In the price shown	In the stay price (5 of 2,963 quotes had a fee line)
Taxes	Added at checkout	A separate line, a median 13% of the stay
Discounts	Strikeout price at 56.4% of homes	A discount line at 26.8% of quotes
Payment	Pay now (58.1%) or pay later with a deposit (41.9%)	Not in the quote

Taxes vary by market more than by platform.
Airbnb's tax line came to a median 13% of the pre-tax stay, from 7.5% in Kissimmee to 17% in Austin and 17.8% in Nashville.
One Gulf Shores quote itemized three of them: an Alabama lodgings tax, a Baldwin County lodging tax, and a Gulf Shores lodgings tax.
Discounts work differently too.
Vrbo showed a strikeout price (a higher "was" price next to the current one) at 56.4% of the homes we priced, a median 6.3% off, with the middle half between 4.1% and 9.6%.
Airbnb applied a weekly discount to 54.6% of week-long stays, and 158 quotes carried an early booking discount; across quotes with any discount line, it came to a median 4.3% of the stay price.
The week is where Vrbo narrows the gap.
Per night, a week cost 0.64 times a weekend on Vrbo and 0.70 times on Airbnb, so Vrbo's premium fell from 22% on a weekend to 10% on a week.
So the fair comparison is the checkout total on both, for the full length of the trip, and that's what our 15% uses.

Ratings: 9.6 Out of 10 vs 4.92 Out of 5

The two platforms rate on different scales, and both bunch at the top.

	Vrbo	Airbnb
Scale	10	5
Homes with a rating	2,018 of 2,271	2,469 of 2,667
Median rating	9.6	4.92
Top band	60.2% at 9.5 or higher	60.9% at 4.9 or higher
Median reviews	28.5	68

The top bands hold the same share of homes, about 60% on each platform.
The real difference is the number of reviews behind them: a median 28.5 on Vrbo against 68 on Airbnb.
26.8% of rated Vrbo homes had fewer than 10 reviews, against 11.2% on Airbnb, and only 17.7% had 100 or more, against 37.1%.
Thin review counts push scores to the top of the scale.
29.7% of rated Vrbo homes showed a perfect 10.0, while 17.8% of Airbnb listings showed a perfect 5.0.
Another 11.1% of Vrbo homes had no rating at all, against 4.9% of Airbnb listings marked "New".
On Vrbo, read the review count before the score.
Because the scales differ, compare ratings within a platform, never across.
Our Airbnb ratings study shows what counts as a low score there (a 4.8 sits in the bottom 28%).

For Hosts: Where Each Platform Prices Your Market

For an owner listing on both, what guests pay on each platform varies by market:
- Gatlinburg prices about the same on both (Vrbo dearer in 4 of 9 comparisons), while Austin runs 26% apart and Nashville 24%.
- Home size moves it less than you'd think: from 10% at 4 bedrooms to 20% at 2 bedrooms.
- Discounts are the norm on both: a weekly discount on 54.6% of Airbnb's week-long stays and a strikeout price on 56.4% of Vrbo's homes, so a list price without one stands out.
- 10.7% of Vrbo's search results were sold out for the dates, and at 41.9% of the bookable ones, the cheapest rate was pay later with a deposit.
These are what guests pay, each platform's own fees and taxes included; the data can't split a host's nightly rate from the platform's fees, and no single home was priced on both.
What we didn't measure is booking volume: a higher price on Vrbo can still fill the calendar.
Our Airbnb occupancy rate study covers how full the same markets get on Airbnb.
StayAPI reads both platforms' prices for a market (see the Vrbo API and Airbnb API pages).

How We Priced 7,251 Stays on Both Platforms

We picked 8 US vacation markets (Austin, Nashville, Kissimmee, Gatlinburg, Scottsdale, Destin, Gulf Shores, and Myrtle Beach) and two stays: Friday December 4 to Sunday December 6, 2026, and Saturday December 5 to Saturday December 12, each for 2 guests and for 6.
A dated search on each platform lists the homes available; a price quote per home gives the total for the stay.
On Vrbo, StayAPI's Vrbo search endpoint returns the homes, and the Expedia hotel rates endpoint prices each one by its Vrbo property ID (Vrbo is part of Expedia Group):

curl -G "https://api.stayapi.com/v1/expedia/hotel/rates" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d property_id=100162069 \
  -d check_in=2026-12-04 \
  -d check_out=2026-12-06 \
  -d adults=2 \
  -d currency=USD

{
  "property_id": "100162069",
  "rooms": [{
    "room_name": "Walking Distance To Beach! Beach Pointe Townhomes 601",
    "features": ["3 bedrooms", "Sleeps 10"],
    "rate_plans": [{
      "total_price": "$810 total",
      "strikeout_price": "$826",
      "deal": "Mobile Price $16 off",
      "payment_model": "PAY_NOW"
    }]
  }]
}

On Airbnb, the Airbnb search endpoint returns the listings, and the Airbnb pricing endpoint quotes each one for the dates:

{
  "listing_id": "50199099",
  "available": true,
  "pricing": {
    "nights": 2,
    "accommodation_total": 359.6,
    "service_fee": null,
    "cleaning_fee": null,
    "total": 406.35,
    "breakdown": [
      { "type": "accommodation", "description": "2 nights · Dec 4 – 6", "amount": 359.6 },
      { "type": "tax", "description": "Taxes", "amount": 46.75 }
    ]
  }
}

Field	Example	What it is
rate_plans[].total_price (Vrbo)	$810 total	The stay's total with taxes and fees, as Expedia shows it
rate_plans[].strikeout_price (Vrbo)	$826	The "was" price next to it
pricing.total (Airbnb)	406.35	The stay's total, taxes included
pricing.breakdown (Airbnb)	accommodation, tax	The lines that make up the total

We kept the first 150 Vrbo homes and about 200 Airbnb search cards per market, stay, and group size, priced every available one, and compared medians within each exact bedroom count.
The limits:
- One December weekend and one December week, priced on October 25.
- Vrbo's price is the cheapest bookable rate for the home, at Expedia's checkout total for the same listing (on one Gatlinburg home we checked, it came within 1% of Vrbo.com's price plus the 12.75% in taxes Airbnb charges there); Airbnb's is the one quote it gives.
- We couldn't match the same house across platforms (Airbnb's search results carry no coordinates), so the comparison is by group of similar homes.
- Comparisons match the exact bedroom count; at 5 or more bedrooms, only 3 comparisons had 10 homes a side (2 of them in Austin), so the figures by home size stop at 4.
- Airbnb's town searches reach neighboring towns (its Destin results include Miramar Beach and Fort Walton Beach, its Gatlinburg results Sevierville and Pigeon Forge), but limited to listings titled in the town itself, the gap stays 15% (Vrbo dearer in 54 of 64 comparisons).

Getting Started

1. Search both platforms for your dates and group, then set the same bedroom filter on each before you compare any prices.
2. Check one Airbnb listing's full price for your dates with the free Airbnb details tool.
3. For a week-long stay, compare the weekly prices on both, since Airbnb's weekly discount and Vrbo's strikeout prices change the totals.
4. If you build travel tools or manage rentals, sign up for StayAPI at stayapi.com (free tier, 50 requests, no credit card) and price a market on both platforms the way we did here. For a recurring feed across many markets, book a demo call.

FAQ

Is Vrbo cheaper than Airbnb?

Usually not: for the same market, dates, group size, and bedroom count, Vrbo cost a median 15% more, and was dearer in 57 of 68 comparisons.

Does VRBO charge more than Airbnb?

In our December pull, guests paid more on Vrbo: $33 a night more at the median, all fees and taxes included on both.
By home size, the gap ran from 10% at 4 bedrooms to 20% at 2 bedrooms.

Airbnb vs Vrbo: which is better for families?

On price, Airbnb was cheaper for the same size of home, while Vrbo's search leans toward bigger homes (half its results for 2 guests had 3 or more bedrooms).

What is the Vrbo service fee?

Vrbo includes its service fee in the price it shows, along with other mandatory fees, and adds taxes at checkout (Vrbo Help).
The rate data we read doesn't split the fee out, so compare totals.

Why do people use VRBO instead of Airbnb?

In our data, Vrbo's results skew toward whole, larger homes: for 2 guests, its median result had 2 bedrooms against Airbnb's 1.
That suits groups looking for space, even at a higher price.

Which is more reputable, Airbnb or VRBO?

By guest ratings, both sit high on their own scales: Vrbo at a median 9.6 out of 10 and Airbnb at 4.92 out of 5, with about 60% of homes in each one's top band.
Airbnb ratings rest on more reviews (a median 68 against 28.5).