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Booking.com VS Airbnb

Compare Booking.com VS Airbnb and see what are their differences

Booking.com logo Booking.com

Find your next stay. Search deals on hotels, homes, and much more...

Airbnb logo Airbnb

Book unique places to stay and things to do.
  • Booking.com Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-20
  • Airbnb Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-29

Booking.com features and specs

  • Wide Range of Options
    Booking.com offers a vast selection of accommodations, including hotels, hostels, apartments, and B&Bs, catering to various budgets and preferences.
  • User Reviews
    The platform provides extensive user reviews and ratings, allowing users to make informed decisions based on the experiences of previous guests.
  • Price Match Guarantee
    Booking.com offers a price match guarantee, ensuring that users get the best available rates for their bookings.
  • Free Cancellation
    Many listings on Booking.com offer free cancellation policies, providing flexibility for travelers if their plans change.
  • Loyalty Program
    The Genius loyalty program rewards frequent users with discounts, perks, and special deals.
  • Multilingual Support
    The website and customer service support multiple languages, making it accessible to a global audience.
  • Filter and Search Options
    Booking.com features advanced search filters, allowing users to narrow down options based on criteria like price, location, amenities, and more.
  • Instant Booking Confirmation
    Users receive instant booking confirmations, providing immediate assurance of their reservations.

Possible disadvantages of Booking.com

  • Service Fees
    Booking.com may charge service fees or commissions, which can increase the overall cost for property owners and guests.
  • Overwhelming Choices
    The sheer number of options can be overwhelming for some users, making it difficult to choose the best accommodation.
  • Inconsistent Quality
    Since the platform includes properties from various providers, the quality and standards can vary significantly.
  • Limited Customer Service Response
    Some users have reported slow or unhelpful responses from customer service, especially during peak travel seasons.
  • Cancellation Policy Complexity
    The cancellation policies can be complex and vary between properties, which might confuse users or lead to unexpected charges.
  • Pressure Tactics
    The platform often uses urgency tactics like showing limited availability and recent bookings, which can create pressure and stress for users.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Users may have concerns about data privacy, as personal and payment information is collected and stored.
  • Dependence on Internet
    Booking changes or cancellations require internet access, which can be problematic for travelers in areas with limited connectivity.

Airbnb features and specs

  • Headquarters
    San Francisco, CA

Booking.com videos

Dont use booking.com

More videos:

  • Review - Is Booking.com a Scam???
  • Review - What is the best hotel booking site!? | Expedia vs. Hotels.com vs. Booking.com
  • Review - Should You List Your Property on Booking.com?

Airbnb videos

Airbnb vs Staying at a Hotel - Honest Airbnb Review From Guest Plus Tips

More videos:

  • Review - _After 1,000 Nights In Airbnbs, I Finally Booked An AIRBNB PLUS
  • Review - I Stayed At The Cheapest Airbnb In NYC
  • Review - IS AIRBNB PLUS RISKY?? (my thoughts)
  • Review - Airbnb Home Rental Nightmares
  • Review - Airbnb Plus April 2019 | Host Q&A | Airbnb

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Booking.com and Airbnb)
Travel
49 49%
51% 51
Vacation Rental
49 49%
51% 51
Online Bookings
51 51%
49% 49
Travel & Tourism
63 63%
37% 37

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Booking.com and Airbnb

Booking.com Reviews

Hotels for Business Travel: Key Players and Essentials
Booking.com: Known for its vast selection of hotels, Booking.com includes a dedicated section for business travel with features like invoicing support and flexible cancellation policies.
Source: medium.com
Best Tools for Planning a Vacation to Ireland in 2025
What's nice about Booking.com — either on desktop or for our purposes here, the app, is that you can find a wide range of accommodation, everything from camping sites to 5-star luxury hotels.
The 17 Best Websites for Booking Hotels at the Cheapest Prices [2024]
One thing that stands out about this site is its generous low-price guarantee. If you find a lower advertised price for the same reservation available to the public (not a member or special rate), Booking.com will refund the difference up to 24 hours before your check-in date. The offer needs to be online and available at the time Booking.com checks.
The Best Travel Apps for 2025
Booking.com is a site for booking accommodations, flights, car rentals, airport taxis, tours, and attractions. It's best known for helping you find great hotel rooms around the world that fit all your needs at the right price. Booking.com is part of Booking Holdings, Inc., which also owns Kayak, Priceline.com, Agoda.com, Rentalcars.com, and Opentable.com, so you may notice...
Source: www.pcmag.com
Top 30 Booking.com Competitors (Updated in 2023)
The top Booking.com competitors are Expedia Group, Priceline Group, Airbnb, Agoda, Hotels.com, Trip.com, Vrbo and others. Booking.com is one of the world’s leading digital travel companies, headquartered in Amsterdam, that offers lodging reservation services for approximately 2.7 million properties, including 400,000 hotels, motels, and resorts and 2.3 million homes and...

Airbnb Reviews

Best Tools for Planning a Vacation to Ireland in 2025
Airbnb is a popular choice for many people looking to vacation in Ireland. While you can book accommodation on a desktop computer, the Airbnb app is a convenient way to look for places to stay.
The Best Travel Apps for 2025
Airbnb helps you find a place to crash, whether it's a simple room in someone's home or a luxurious beachfront property. The site also offers other kinds of bookings for travelers, such as tours, classes, and workshops. Whether you use Airbnb to find a place to sleep or for inspiration about what to do on your next trip, you're guaranteed to see big, beautiful photographs of...
Source: www.pcmag.com
Top 30 Booking.com Competitors (Updated in 2023)
Airbnb is a popular online platform that allows individuals to rent out their homes, apartments, or rooms to travelers. With a focus on providing unique and authentic accommodation experiences, Airbnb offers a diverse range of options for travelers seeking alternative accommodations to traditional hotels.
12 Best Travel TRIP PLANNER APPs To Have in 2023
Not a big fan of hotel rooms? Perhaps you want to rent a room, a house, or a whole apartment for that homey feeling while being far away from home! Airbnb provides you with different spaces, from rooms, couches, to a whole apartment from locals in your desired place.
Top 20 Airbnb competitors and alternative booking sites
Airbnb’s growth is no secret: what began as a way to rent out an extra room in your apartment has grown into the largest community-based travel platform — ranging from private rooms to entire homes and boutique hotel rooms. Whether through Airbnb or one of the many Airbnb competitors and alternatives, hospitality businesses have the opportunity to reach new travelers.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Booking.com should be more popular than Airbnb. It has been mentiond 833 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Booking.com mentions (833)

  • How do people manage to travel with so little money?
    Mind you between airlines and hotel websites, services like booking.com or airbnb, tripadvisor, klook etc its gotten easier and easier and easier to not only pre book things but pre pay for everything, including guides and entrance fees. So if you know a year ahead of time your exact dates, book everything and pay for it then the $4k you saved for the trip becomes your spending money for the trip. But most... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Room Block opening?
    Others, try using Hotel.com and booking.com in advance, but they are not guaranteed rooms, and almost every year I see people trying to argue with the front desk that they have a reservation. If a hotel is sold out, and you find a room on a 3rd party website, you are responsible for your own misery. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Hotels
    Use booking.com I found a good rate last admin . I forgot my darn hotel though I wont lie lmao that whole week is a blur I can check my email though . Source: over 1 year ago
  • Other Sites for Long Stays
    I was planning on listing on houfy and VRBO just because there is no upfront cost so why not? Is there any reason not too? Is there any reason to try booking.com? There are a few other sites I checked out but none of them were even really operating in my area. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Airport pickup
    I'm getting 166k from Airport to monkey forest in Ubud on booking.com. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

Airbnb mentions (91)

  • Converting from a Developer to a Product Founder in 10 years
    Mars seemed like an awesome platform for me, but it's just a tool, the same as many others. If I want to build a ToDo list on Mars I need somebody to develop such a micro-app for me. Then I did a simple approximation on bigger products: an e-commerce store like Amazon, service marketplaces like Booksy or Renting platform like Airbnb. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • SPA Camping Question
    Hey everyone, I'm attending to SPA in July 28-30 this year. And I'm looking for a campsite, most of them are already booked by now. So I've found https://spafamilycamping.com/ I'm wondering if this website and place is legit. They are not on booking.com or airbnb.com and they charge 50€ per night. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Visiting Romania for Rockstadt Extreme festival in August 2023
    Any tips on finding a place to stay, considering everything on booking.com and airbnb.com is either all taken or quite far away. Is there maybe a local website or a motel that isn't on those websites? Source: about 2 years ago
  • Airbnb will now tell you about any annoying checkout chores a host requires before you book — and take off listings that get low reviews for chore lists
    I'm in the US and just popped over to airbnb.com to check -- there's a very prominent toggle that says "Display total price: includes all fees, before taxes". Source: about 2 years ago
  • Paris reasonable stays
    If you want, you can try using the chrome extension I am developing (its completely free). What it does is it while you are searching through booking.com or airbnb.com it looks for the direct link of the same place. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Booking.com and Airbnb, you can also consider the following products

Tripadvisor - The Tripadvisor mobile app is available for the Android and iOS platforms. It can be used to create reviews of hotels, restaurants, and to chat with other travelers on Tripadvisor forums.

Expedia - Save up to 60% with Expedia Mobile Exclusive hotel deals!

Hotels.com - Hotels.com is an online accommodation service that provides an interactive hotel booking experience.

KAYAK - KAYAK is a travel search engine that searches hundreds of other travel sites at once. Our helpful tools & features find you the information you need to make the right decisions on flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages.

Agoda - Smarter hotel booking just got smarter.

Skyscanner - Skyscanner.com compares over 1000 airlines to find you the cheapest airfares, fast.