Airbnb rentals in desirable winter locations have already started to book up for the holidays, but for travelers seeking a home away from home, Airbnb is no longer the only game in town.
Home sharing, where it’s easy to avoid contact with others, has taken off during the pandemic. Spending on Airbnb doubled this past summer compared with the summer before, according to the data analyst Edison Trends.
But while giants such as Airbnb, with its inventory of seven million accommodations, and Vrbo, with two million, dominate the vacation-rental market, a number of smaller competitors, some with very specific niches, are carving out acreage.
There are hotel/home-share hybrids such as Domio, which provides furnished apartments in residential buildings that tend to have hotel-like features such as gyms and pools. There are sites that cater to specific niches, such as Golightly, a home-sharing and vacation-rental members club for women, Wavecation, for surfers, and Vegvisits, aimed at the growing population of vegans and vegetarians and offering amenities such as kitchens that have never been tainted by meat. At the high end, Villas of Distinction offers properties such as a $15,000-a-night five-bedroom spread in the Turks & Caicos.
Here’s a look at some new home-sharing companies that have sprung up in recent years. Some offer their own booking platforms, while others simply offer curated listings.
