14 Must-follow Vacation Rental Forums for Property Owners
Discover 14 essential vacation rental forums for property owners. Join vibrant communities, exchange insights, and stay ahead with your vacation rental business.
Have a break from your regular managing, cleaning, and marketing your vacation rentals to connect with a network of like-minded peers. The word for vacation rental forums!
In 2024, networking is key to the success of your vacation rental business. As a property owner, you know firsthand that it can get lonely out there.
With so many things to juggle and tasks piling up on your plate as new guests check in and out of your rentals, taking a step back to connect with like-minded people is vital.
In this guide, we'll share our favorite vacation rental forums to join, where you'll get advice, share wisdom, and learn the latest trends in the vacation rental industry!
What Are Vacation Rental Forums, and Why Should You Care?
Simply put, vacation rental forums are online spaces where people with the same interests can discuss and exchange ideas. They're a conversation oasis perfect for building connections and becoming part of a broad community.
Since online forums are specialized to specific niches, in our case, vacation rentals, you can find all the help you need to navigate this intricate business.
Got a burning question? Ask away, and people will help you. Need to "steal" bits and parts from property managers' experience? You're welcome to do so.
These are your shortcuts to increase your direct bookings with the help of people who've already been there and done that. And the best part? They're free of charge!
The Best Vacation Rental Forums for Property Managers
So, without further ado, here's a list of our favorite vacation rental forums for a short-term rental business:
1. BiggerPockets Forum
The mecca for short-term rental and Airbnb investments, the BiggerPockets forum, is where you'll find what's on top of other hosts' minds. Like a beating heart in the center of the vacation rental industry, this is a great tool to stay updated about market trends and competition.
What we love about this vacation rental forum is that it doesn't focus on a specific platform. Instead, you'll find topics on marketing, investing, legal, and industry challenges. The forum also highlights top contributors, so it's easier to know where to turn to for answers.
2. Community With Airbnb
If you're an Airbnb host, you'll probably want to join this grant community of over one million members, and you'll only need an Airbnb account to do so. Here, you'll find all things Airbnb, from new updates to top hosting tips.
Each discussion is categorized under topics so everything is easily discoverable. Specifically, you'll find the following topics:
- Ask about your listing
- Advice on your space
- Support with bookings
- Help with your business
- Community cafe
- Host circle (you need to have an active host account to join)
This Airbnb host club is perfect for finding solutions to almost every issue you face with your vacation rental operations for free. The community is quite active, counting more than 1.3 million posts. So, if you want answers or to connect with fellow hosts, you're in for a treat!
3. Airbnb Subreddit
The Airbnb Subreddit is a vacation rental forum created almost 15 years ago, with more than 364,000 users today. This is a safe space for guests and hosts to discuss all things related to the short-term rental business.
Reddit allows users to view the "Hot" posts first, find trending topics, and discover the most burning questions in the industry. Alternatively, you can sort discussions based on dates, top posts, or rising topics.
There are plenty of discussion topics to participate in, as well as exposure opportunities for future collaborations. All you have to do is stay active and provide your unique point of view. You can also discover vacation rental news to always stay on top of your game.
4. Timeshares / Vacation Rentals Forum by Tripadvisor
The Tripadvisor forum is already quite extensive, covering multiple travel topics in almost 4,000 categories. However, this specific topic focuses on short-term rentals, providing a stellar opportunity for vacation rental owners to connect with their peers.
While it's not as extensive as other forums on our list, new subjects are added continuously. So, if you're looking for solutions for your rental property, you just found an accessible online community to support you.
5. Lay My Hat
If you're an organization freak, you'll love this next forum suggestion. Lay My Hat has the traditional look and feel of online forums, yet it's still quite active and grows slowly by the month. It's explicitly aimed at short-term rentals and has more than 10,000 members.
What we appreciate about this vacation rental forum is that it neatly categorizes everything into subforums. So, even if you're a newbie, you can find your way around and easily navigate old discussions. This is welcoming, to say the least.
Some topics you can explore involve marketing and property management, but you can also scan topics based on location. This is golden, as you can find answers for your own area.
6. VRMB Community
If you're down to invest some money in vacation rental forums, VRMB Community is the way to go. Its founder, Matt Landau, started with a goal to unite the most talented property managers under one virtual roof. Nine years later and an exclusive community of 1,000 members, we'd say he succeeded.
The goal of his community is to encourage its members to create their independent rental portfolios by helping each other. He also offers templates, ebooks, courses, real-time Q&As, networking events, and meetups for those purchasing the monthly package.
7. Quora
Although not solely dedicated to the vacation rental business, Quora is a fantastic question-and-answer website with over 400 million active members.
Got a question regarding your property management business? Post it online and get valuable advice from other hosts. Want to share your input regarding rental properties? Be our guest.
You can search the forum for topics, discussions, and people. But even if you don't find what you're looking for, you can always start your own threads to get the most out of the collective knowledge.
8. Globalhosting
Okay, we hear you. This isn't the most aesthetically pleasing vacation rental forum on the web, but don't be fooled by looks. Globalhosting remains a widely active online community with regular posts and discussions.
Similar to Lay My Hat, they have everything neatly categorized into topics so that it's easier to navigate them. Additionally, there's a corresponding Facebook Group with approximately 2,500 members.
9. Airhosts Forum
That's not your typical affiliated Airbnb forum. In fact, even if you don't have an Airbnb listing but are a passionate host, you can find valuable insights here. For example, vacation rental owners ask:
- How to secure more bookings for their rentals
- How to achieve a superhost status
- How to supercharge their vacation rental listing
You can find support in this group even if you have doubts about your rental property. And it's free of charge!
Facebook Groups as Vacation Rental Forums
10. Say Yes To Houfy
If you're a property owner on the hunt for more independence, Say Yes To Houfy is a community of more than 9,000 members ready to welcome you.
Here, we're fed up with large OTAs and mass listing sites and are unafraid to address the industry's issues. Discover the secrets of direct bookings and unlock a new side of your business.
11. Airbnb's Finest Hosts
This is a collection of wonderful Airbnb hosts willing to exchange ideas and hosting tips. With more than 20,000 members and a growing community, Airbnb's Finest Hosts has something to offer to homeowners of different levels.
Although primarily directed to Airbnb hosts, you can still join discussions and learn from peers' experiences. Also, this isn't Airbnb-affiliated, so the feedback is genuine.
12. Short-Term Rental University
Short-term rental university boasts more than 50,000 active users and a friendly environment for all hosts. Its founder, Richard Fertig, is a well-established name in the vacation rental industry and often jumps into discussions to share his input.
You can answer questions, get support, and learn from different perspectives and opinions here. Even if you need personalized feedback for your listing, you can post about it and get an outpouring of help from the group. Win-win!
13. The Host Nation | Airbnb / Short-Term Rental / Vacation Rental Community
Short Term Sage powers this Facebook Group with over 28,000 members. Here, you can learn how to start, automate, and scale your vacation rental business. As a bonus, you get free resources, tools, and courses.
Admins encourage you to ask questions, be active, and share your knowledge as soon as you join. Despite the group being relatively new (created four years ago), it has gathered a large community and addresses hosts at all levels.
14. Airbnb Host Club
Are you an Airbnb host looking for information, help, and support? Airbnb Host Club will solve that problem for you. This large community of over 22,000 members serves hosts on Airbnb, as well as different platforms such as HomeAway and FlipKey.
In addition to frequent discussions and exchange of ideas, hosts often share their listings and receive genuine feedback from others. As a result, they significantly boost their chances for success and gain the confidence to promote their properties.
Your Turn to Join Vacation Rental Forums
You can read the blogs and listen to the podcasts, but nothing compares to interactive, real-time communication. That's what vacation rental forums offer you.
Safe online spaces with like-minded peers who know your struggles because they've been in your shoes. This is your chance to ask away, network, and create your own tribe of people.
Join one or several of the vacation rental groups mentioned on this list and take the next step to a more sustainable business. And if you're ready to scale your vacation rentals at Houfy, we've helped more than 15,000 hosts achieve it. List your property today!
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