May 25, 2023

Discover the world’s top vacation rental channels with our Channel Ebook

by Beth | May 25, 2023

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To get more bookings and increase your revenue, you must list your vacation rental properties on a wide range of sites.

In addition to mainstream channels, you also need to find specialist sites that fit your niche. These might be luxury travel sites if you manage premium properties or wellness sites if you manage a retreat.

However, with so many channels out there, it’s difficult to know where to list your properties to get the most lucrative bookings. 

That’s why we’ve created this Channel “Who’s Who” ebook – the ultimate guide to best vacation rental channels, with information and exclusive data about 50+ channels. Using our industry expertise, we’ve put together this comprehensive resource where you’ll discover the top vacation rental channels in the world today. Download the channel ebook today and discover the best channels for your business.

Now, we’ll explain the different types of channels you can list on, and how to choose the right channels for your business.

The four “Must-Have” channels

Airbnb, Booking, Expedia and Vrbo are the top four vacation rental channels in the world right now. Every property manager should have their properties listed on these sites, regardless of location or property type.

The majority of the world’s best vacation rental sites, and listing on them will give you high visibility and exposure to a large number of travellers.

Mainstream OTAs get a lot of traffic; however, the competition is fierce. In order to stand out from your competitors, you must have:

  • A complete listing and profile 
  • Plenty of high-quality images
  • Excellent reviews and ratings
  • A good response rate
  • Reliable channel connections

Rentals United has verified, official API connections with all the top four channels. Your bookings will sync in real-time, and you’ll never have to worry about double bookings or pricing discrepancies. You can also manage other aspects of your vacation rental business, including guest communication, listing content and more. 

Book a demo to see these benefits in action.

Specialist channels in your niche

Discerning travellers are often seeking a specific type of property or experience. Instead of trawling through mainstream OTAs, they prefer to go to a specialist site where they know they’ll find the property and experience they’re looking for.

Specialist channels are on the rise, so it’s more important than ever to list your properties on all the specialist sites relevant to your business. These niche sites can be more profitable and help you attract your ideal guests who are best-suited to your property.

To decide which specialist channels to list on, you need to analyse your unique offering. Understanding what makes your property and location special will help you define your target guests and choose which specialist channels to list on. 

Here are some examples of specialist channels:

  • Homes & Villas by Marriott presents travellers with a curated selection of luxury private homes.
  • Makemytrip is a location-specific site with homes for rent across India
  • TheDyrt is the top American booking site for outdoor and camping holidays.
  • Golfhōm is a sports tourism site focussing on golfing resorts

Discover all these and many more specialist channels in our ebook. You can connect to them through Rentals United’s channel manager, which makes it easy to diversify your listings across as many sites as possible.

Why should you download the Channel Ebook?

When you download our channel ebook, you’ll get in-depth information about all the key vacation rental channels, including:

  • Average daily rate — Find out the average daily rate for bookings on each site. This will help you understand which sites are the most profitable.
  • Average length of stay — Knowing the average length of stay will show which sites are more suited for short stays and which ones cater to mid-term stays
  • Top performing country/region — Look at the top performing regions to find out which sites are best for your property location
  • Customer origin — This tells you where most travellers come from 
  • Merchant of record — Find out which sites allow you to be the merchant of record for bookings. 
  • Inventory type — Some sites accept all types of inventory, while others only list certain types of properties.

With this information, you can understand which sites would be best for your business and also benchmark your performance on different sites against average statistics.

Perfect your distribution with channel expertise

Our Channel Ebook gives you all the information you need to make informed decisions about the best channels for your business.

And, since all of the channels in the ebook are Rentals United partners, you can connect seamlessly with our channel manager and list your properties on all of them.

Download your free channel ebook today to perfect your distribution and increase your bookings.

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About the Author

Beth

Author

Preferred+ Software Partner 2026

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Frequently asked questions

Rentals United is a vacation rental channel manager built for short-term rental hosts and property managers. Rather than replacing your property management system, it plugs directly into it, syncing your listings in real time across 90+ booking channels, including Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Expedia, Homes & Villas By Marriott Bonvoy, all from one dashboard. With AI-powered analytics, and guest communication tools built in, it automates distribution and helps you grow bookings without adding complexity to your existing workflow.

 

A vacation rental channel manager — sometimes called a short term rental channel manager — is software that connects your listings to multiple booking platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, keeping rates, availability, and reservations in sync so you never risk a double booking. If you’re updating calendars manually, missing promotion opportunities, or leaving bookings on the table because a listing isn’t optimized, this is exactly the problem it solves. A revenue-first channel manager like Rentals United goes further, using AI-driven insights and multi-rate pricing to help you win more bookings on the channels you already use — properties using multi-rate pricing have earned up to 3x more revenue

No minimum size required. As a channel manager for vacation rentals of every size, Rentals United works for hosts managing a single property up to enterprise portfolios — it’s part of a network of 403,000+ properties connected worldwide. Whether you connect directly through Rentals United, through your existing PMS, or via our channel manager API, the platform scales with you, so you can add channels, features, and properties as you grow without switching systems.

Getting started is straightforward, whether you connect directly, through your existing PMS, or via API. After signing up, Rentals United’s onboarding specialists personally import your listings, connect your booking channels, and recommend the right channel mix for your portfolio. You’ll get strategic setup guidance on pricing and promotion features from day one, plus ongoing support from a dedicated account manager to keep your distribution and revenue performing as you scale.

Every Rentals United account comes with a dedicated Account Manager and access to channel experts who know both the platform and the short-term rental industry — not just generic technical support. Beyond one-to-one guidance on optimizing your channel mix, pricing, and promotions, you’ll have access to Rentals United’s knowledge base, API documentation, and ongoing performance reviews, so you’re never troubleshooting alone. Enterprise clients are also backed by SOC II-compliant security and operational reliability.

Rentals United takes data security seriously, protecting both your business data and your guests’ personal information with encryption, strict access controls, and regular security audits. Enterprise accounts are backed by SOC II-compliant infrastructure, the same standard referenced for our operational reliability, and our systems are built to align with GDPR requirements for handling guest and property manager data across Europe and beyond. Every integration, whether direct, through your PMS, or via our channel manager API, follows the same security protocols, so your listings, rates, and reservations stay protected no matter how you connect. If you have specific compliance requirements, such as industry certifications or data residency needs, our account managers can walk you through Rentals United’s security documentation before you get started.