The top Airbnb alternatives renters and managers should know

They include Sonder, Outdoorsy, Guesty, Hostaway, and WeChalet

It's been over 15 years since Airbnb launched, popularizing the concept of P2P accommodation, and forever changing the hospitality space. By allowing individuals to rent out their homes or spare rooms to travelers the company decentralized and disrupted the traditional hotel model, giving travelers access to a broader range of options, often at lower costs.

Of course, not all the changes that Airbnb brought about were: the company has faced numerous challenges, including regulatory issues, and concerns about housing shortages in popular tourist areas. 

It's also a limited platform, with a specific focus on urban places, while also being a closed system, which has left an opening for other niche players to come and fill in those gaps, on both the renter and the property manager sides. 

Here are some of the top Airbnb alternatives:

FOR RENTERSSonder

Description: "At Sonder, we’re on a mission to redefine hospitality by bringing exceptional stays everywhere."

Founded: 2014

Total funding: $839.6 million

Investors: Greylock, BDC Venture Capital, Spark Capital, Fidelity, BlackRock, Inovia Capital, Real Ventures, HarbourVest Partners, Valor Equity Partners, TELUS Ventures, True Capital Management, Greenoaks, Reshape, FounderFuel, G Squared, Structure Capital, Tao Capital Partners, TriplePoint Ventures, Moore Capital, Thayer Ventures, WestCap, Avant Global, Talent Resources Ventures, Akkadian Ventures, Peak State Ventures, Atreides Management, ScaleUP Ventures, Senator Investment Group, Sandy Cass, Alate Partners, Otimo Retail, YUL Ventures, The Gores Group, Lennar Ventures, A-Rod Corp, Principal Global Investors

What makes them unique: Sonder bridges the gap between Airbnb and a hotel, leasing and renovating apartments, and then renting them to guests. It offers similar amenities as a hotel, including check in, fresh towels, and dinner recommendations.Outdoorsy

Description: "We don’t own a fleet of identical, anonymous RVs that have seen millions of miles. We’re a peer-to-peer marketplace. We connect RV owners with other campers like them who want the experience RVing without ownership."

Founded: 2014

Total funding: $195.1 million

Investors: NFX, Altos Ventures, Greenspring Associates, iAngels, Moore Strategic Ventures, Autotech Ventures, Tandem Capital, Convivialite Ventures, Aviva Ventures, Berlin Ventures, SiriusPoint, Pacific West Bank, Monashee Capital

What makes them unique: Rather than renting out apartments or houes, Outdoorsy rents out RVs, allowing guests to see more on their vacations, and not be stuck in a stationary room their entire visitWander

Description: "Wander is a luxury rental company that provides smart home travel service"

Founded: 2021

Total funding: $132.3 million

Investors: Vijay Shankar, Credit Suisse, Bossanova Investimentos, Andreessen Horowitz, Alumni Ventures, Redpoint, Pareto Holdings, Edward Lando, QED Investors, Susa Ventures, Capital Factory, Fifth Wall, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Spacecadet Ventures, Thirty Five Ventures, Kevin Durant, Adapt Ventures, Packy McCormick, Cory Levy, Joshua Browder, Hanover Technology Investment Management, CapitalX, Andy McLoughlin, Predictive VC, Natalie Carnegie, Authentic Ventures, Sahil Bloom, Kyle Tibbitts, The Todd & Rahul Angel Fund, Julian Weisser, Advection Growth Capital, Adam Guild, Quinn Slack, Chris Quinn, Eric Cohen, Entwistle Ventures, Yuri Namikawa, Daniel Fohrman, Waqar Islam, Andres Kupervaser-Gould, Vinay Iyengar, Edoardo Marzocco, Matthew Kobach, Ryan Endacott, Taylor Adler, William Manidis, Allyson Dias, Jamie Cox, Kyle Carberry, Kenneth Cassel

What makes them unique: Wander owns its network of smart vacation homes, giving them control over the location and the technology. Meanwhile, guests can control the property with their smartphone, including opening the door, turning on the lights, adjusting the temperature, and accessing a Tesla in the garage.Homestay

Description: "Homestay.com connects host families with students and independent travellers looking for accommodation. The Homestay community offers you the opportunity to live with a local and to truly discover your destination."

Founded: 2013

Total funding: $3 million

Investors: Delta Partners

What makes them unique: Unlike a service like Airbnb, where hosts and guests may never interact, the idea behind Homestay is to encourage interaction between the guest and live-in hosts who open their homes to travelers, as a way guests a more authentic experience in their destinationWeChalet

Description: "WeChalet connects you with unique homes, condos and cottages for rent in nature. Our mission is to connect you together into nature, to appreciate its beauty and its importance, and to accelerate the call to protect the Earth that we all share."

Founded: 2019

Total funding: $900,000

Investors: Dax Dasilva, Dany Papineau, ACET

What makes them unique: While Airbnb focuses on accommodating travelers in urban areas, WeChalet exclusively offers properties outside of urban areas as a way to help people get back to nature

FOR PROPERTY MANAGERSGuesty

Description: "Guesty’s property management platform provides property managers and management companies with an end-to-end solution to simplify the complex operational needs of short-term rentals."

Founded: 2013

Total funding: $280.6 million 

Investors: MSD Partners, Sixth Street, Y Combinator, Vertex Ventures, AltaIR Capital, Amino Capital, Vintage Investment Partners, Magma Venture Partners, TLV Partners, Flashpoint, SK Ventures, Viola Growth, Eric Kwan, Bobby Goodlatte, La Maison ITF, Apax Digital, Journey Ventures, Kingfisher Investment Advisors, AMI Opportunities Fund 

What makes them unique: Guesty has a full integration with the Airbnb platform covering every feature of both services; the difference between them is that Guesty's customers are  businesses searching for a property management platform. Specifically, it is used by short-term property managers in the urban and vacation rental sectors seeking to centralize and optimize their management of multiple listings.Evolve

Description: "Evolve is a hospitality company with a mission to make renting a vacation home easy for both guests and homeowners. They help guests rest easy knowing our homes are verified, our support is 24/7, and if their stay doesn’t meet our standards, we’ll make it right. We also make vacation rental stress-free for homeowners, partnering with them to book more and keep more of what they earn thanks to our industry-low 10% management fee."

Founded: 2011

Total funding: $224.2 million 

Investors: Durable Capital Partners, T. Rowe Price, ArrowMark Partners, Foxhaven, Winslow Capital, PAR Capital Management

What makes them unique: Evolve supports property owners in handling various aspects of renting out their properties. Its services include marketing and advertising, booking management, guest communication, and property care.Hostaway

Description: "Hostaway is an All-in-One vacation rental software solution for growing property managers. We provide tools to automate and simplify marketing, sales, communication, operations, reporting and accounting. Our software is different from every other PMS and Channel Manager, because it is flexible and grows with your business. It’s customizable and we provide an amazing team that helps you set it up and cheer you along your path to success."

Founded: 2015

Total funding: $178.2 million

Investors: PSG Equity, Business Finland, Vendep Capital, DMZ, Mikko Nurminen, Lauri Sommarberg, Lasse Järvinen

What makes them unique: Hostaway integrates with Airbnb and other channels. but is more focused on providing tools for property managers to streamline their operations. Hosts and property managers often use Hostaway in conjunction with platforms like Airbnb to enhance their property management processes.

(Image source: ipropertymanagement.com)