When investors research Airbnb alternatives, they're really asking a deeper question: which publicly traded companies operate similar business models or target the same markets, but might offer different risk-reward profiles? Comparing competitors by business model, market cap, growth trajectory, and sector exposure gives you a more complete picture than looking at any single stock in isolation. Here's how to think through that comparison.
Key takeaways
- Airbnb's closest competitors span online travel agencies, traditional hospitality, and niche short-term rental platforms, each with distinct revenue models and margin structures.
- Stocks like ABNB can be compared along dimensions including asset-light vs. asset-heavy models, geographic mix, and fee-based vs. room-revenue economics.
- Not every ABNB competitor is a pure short-term rental play; some are diversified travel and lodging companies with different valuation characteristics.
- Using a structured comparison framework helps you avoid the trap of comparing companies on a single metric like market cap or revenue growth alone.
Why look for Airbnb alternatives in the first place?
There are a few honest reasons. Maybe you like the short-term rental thesis but think ABNB's valuation already prices in years of growth. Maybe you want exposure to travel and hospitality but prefer a company with a dividend or a lower price-to-earnings ratio. Or maybe you're building a diversified portfolio and want to spread your bets across several companies in the same space rather than concentrating in one name.
Whatever the reason, the goal is the same: find companies that share enough DNA with Airbnb to scratch the same investment itch, but differ enough to offer a genuinely different risk profile. That means going beyond surface-level comparisons and actually understanding how each business makes money.
How does Airbnb's business model set the baseline?
Before comparing ABNB competitors, you need to know what you're comparing them against. Airbnb is a marketplace. It doesn't own properties. It connects hosts with guests and takes a service fee from both sides of the transaction. This asset-light structure means high gross margins, relatively low capital expenditure, and a business that scales without needing to build or acquire physical real estate.
Asset-light model: A business structure where the company generates revenue primarily through fees, commissions, or licensing rather than owning physical assets like buildings or equipment. For investors, asset-light companies often have higher margins but may face different competitive risks than asset-heavy peers.
That asset-light quality is central to how the market values ABNB. It also means that when you look for alternatives to Airbnb, you need to decide whether you want companies with the same model or whether you're open to asset-heavy competitors that trade at different multiples for good reason.
ABNB competitors: the main categories
The companies that compete with Airbnb don't all look alike. They generally fall into a few buckets, and understanding which bucket a company sits in tells you a lot about how it will behave as an investment.
Online travel agencies (OTAs)
Booking Holdings and Expedia Group are the most direct public comparisons. Both operate marketplace-style platforms that connect travelers with accommodations. Booking Holdings, in particular, has a massive vacation rental inventory that competes head-to-head with Airbnb in many markets. Expedia owns Vrbo, which is specifically a short-term rental platform.
The difference? These OTAs are more diversified. They also sell hotel bookings, flights, car rentals, and travel packages. That diversification can be a strength (more revenue streams, less reliance on one segment) or a weakness (less focus, harder to value the short-term rental piece separately).
Traditional hospitality companies
Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, and Hyatt Hotels compete for the same travel dollar, but their business models look very different. Marriott and Hilton have shifted toward franchise-heavy, asset-light models over the past decade, which makes them more comparable to Airbnb than you might think at first glance. They earn management and franchise fees rather than owning most of their hotels.
That said, their customer base skews differently. Business travel, loyalty programs, and standardized experiences are their strengths. They're not direct substitutes for the "stay in a local neighborhood" value proposition that Airbnb offers, but they absolutely compete for travel budgets.
Niche and regional platforms
Some companies focus on specific segments of the short-term rental market. Vacasa, for example, is a vacation rental management company that takes a different approach by managing properties directly rather than just connecting hosts and guests. Companies in this category tend to be smaller, more volatile, and harder to compare cleanly with ABNB. Some are publicly traded; others are private. The smaller public names in this space often carry more risk due to limited scale and thinner margins.
What dimensions matter when comparing stocks like ABNB?
A useful comparison isn't just about listing competitors. It's about choosing the right dimensions to compare them on. Here are the ones that tend to matter most for this group.
Revenue model and margin structure
Fee-based marketplaces (Airbnb, Booking Holdings) tend to have higher gross margins than companies that manage or own properties. When you're comparing, look at gross margin and operating margin side by side. A company with lower revenue but higher margins might actually generate more free cash flow per dollar of sales.
Geographic mix
Airbnb generates revenue globally, but the split between North America, Europe, and the rest of the world varies across competitors. Booking Holdings, for instance, has historically been stronger in Europe. Geographic concentration affects currency risk, regulatory exposure, and growth runway.
Growth rate vs. valuation
This is where it gets interesting. A company growing revenue at a faster rate might deserve a higher price-to-earnings or price-to-sales multiple. But "might" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. You can use the Rallies Vibe Screener to filter for companies by sector, market cap, and growth characteristics to see how valuations cluster across the travel and hospitality space.
PEG ratio: The price-to-earnings ratio divided by the expected earnings growth rate. A PEG below 1.0 has historically been considered a sign that a stock might be undervalued relative to its growth, though this is a rough rule of thumb, not a guarantee. It's one way to compare companies growing at different rates.
Capital allocation
Does the company pay a dividend? Buy back shares? Invest heavily in new markets? Airbnb has leaned toward buybacks. Some hospitality competitors pay dividends. This matters if you're building a portfolio with income goals or if you have a preference for how management returns capital.
A framework for side-by-side comparison
Here's a practical way to structure your research when evaluating alternatives to Airbnb. You can apply this to any group of comparable companies, not just this one.
- Define the comparison set. Pick 3-5 companies that share at least one major characteristic with ABNB: same industry, similar business model, overlapping customer base, or comparable market cap.
- Choose 4-6 comparison dimensions. Revenue model, margin structure, growth rate, valuation multiples, geographic mix, and capital allocation are a good starting set.
- Gather the data. Pull each company's most recent annual financials. You can find company-level research on the ABNB stock research page on Rallies.ai, and do the same for each competitor ticker.
- Look for patterns, not winners. The point isn't to crown a "best" stock. It's to understand which company fits your investment criteria. A value-oriented investor and a growth-oriented investor might look at the same data and reach different conclusions.
- Stress-test your assumptions. Ask yourself what would have to change for your thesis to break. If you prefer a competitor because of faster growth, what happens if that growth slows?
This kind of structured comparison is exactly the type of analysis you can run quickly using the Rallies AI Research Assistant. It can pull together financial comparisons and help you think through the tradeoffs between different names.
Common mistakes when researching ABNB competitors
A few pitfalls come up repeatedly when investors look for stocks like ABNB.
Comparing only on market cap. Two companies can have similar market capitalizations but completely different business models, margins, and growth profiles. Market cap tells you size, not quality or value.
Ignoring the model differences. An asset-heavy hotel operator and an asset-light marketplace are fundamentally different businesses, even if they're in the same "travel" sector. Comparing their P/E ratios without adjusting for this difference can be misleading.
Chasing the cheapest valuation. A stock that trades at a lower multiple than ABNB isn't automatically a better deal. It might be cheaper for a reason: slower growth, higher debt, weaker competitive position, or a business model the market views as less durable.
Forgetting about execution risk. Smaller competitors might look like they have more upside, but they also tend to carry more risk. Scale matters in marketplace businesses because network effects tend to favor the largest platforms.
Where do thematic portfolios fit in?
If you're interested in the travel and hospitality sector broadly rather than picking a single stock, thematic portfolios can give you diversified exposure. Instead of choosing between Airbnb and one competitor, you hold a basket of companies across the travel value chain. You can explore thematic investment ideas on the Rallies Discover page, which organizes stocks by investment themes and sectors.
This approach won't give you the concentrated upside of picking the single best performer, but it reduces the risk that you pick the wrong one. For many investors, that tradeoff makes sense.
Try it yourself
Want to run this kind of analysis on your own? Copy any of these prompts and paste them into the Rallies AI Research Assistant:
- What companies compete directly with Airbnb in the short-term rental space, and how do their business models, market share, and growth strategies compare? I want to understand if any of them are publicly traded alternatives worth researching.
- What are the closest alternatives to Airbnb? What competitors should I compare it to?
- Compare the margin structure and revenue model of Airbnb, Booking Holdings, and Expedia. Which one is most asset-light and how does that affect their valuations?
Frequently asked questions
What are the closest ABNB competitors in the public markets?
Booking Holdings and Expedia Group are the most direct publicly traded competitors, since both operate online travel marketplaces with significant vacation rental inventory. Marriott and Hilton compete for travel spending more broadly, though their business models differ from Airbnb's pure marketplace approach.
Are there stocks like ABNB that also pay dividends?
Some traditional hospitality companies like Marriott and Hilton pay dividends, which Airbnb does not. If income is part of your investment criteria, these names might be worth researching. Keep in mind that dividend-paying travel stocks often have different growth profiles than a high-growth marketplace like ABNB.
What makes an alternative to Airbnb a good comparison?
The best comparisons share at least one major characteristic: similar business model, overlapping customer base, or exposure to the same end market. A good comparison also helps you isolate differences, like valuation, margin structure, or capital allocation, that matter for your specific investment goals.
How do I compare Airbnb alternatives by valuation?
Start with standard multiples like price-to-earnings, price-to-sales, and enterprise value-to-EBITDA. Then adjust for growth rates using a PEG ratio or a simple growth-adjusted comparison. The key is comparing companies on the same metrics and understanding why one might trade at a premium or discount to another.
Is Booking Holdings or Expedia a better Airbnb alternative for investors?
It depends on what you're looking for. Booking Holdings has historically had stronger international exposure and higher margins. Expedia owns Vrbo, which is a more direct short-term rental competitor. Neither is objectively "better" without knowing your investment criteria and risk tolerance.
Should I invest in Airbnb competitors to diversify my portfolio?
Holding multiple companies in the same sector can reduce single-stock risk, but it doesn't eliminate sector risk. If the entire travel industry faces headwinds, all of these names could decline together. True diversification means spreading across sectors and asset classes, not just across competitors within one industry. Consult with a qualified financial advisor before making portfolio decisions.
Where can I research Airbnb alternatives side by side?
You can start by pulling financial data for each competitor from their investor relations pages or from stock research platforms. The Rallies AI Research Assistant lets you ask comparison questions in plain language and get structured analysis across multiple companies at once.
Bottom line
Researching Airbnb alternatives is really about building a comparison framework that goes beyond surface-level metrics. The best approach is to define your comparison set, choose meaningful dimensions, and understand the business model differences that drive valuation gaps between ABNB and its competitors.
If you want to go deeper on how to evaluate and compare stocks in the travel and hospitality sector, explore more stock analysis guides to sharpen your research process. Do your own research before making any investment decisions.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other type of advice. Rallies.ai does not recommend that any security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Before making any investment decision, consult with a qualified financial advisor and conduct your own research.
Written by Gav Blaxberg, CEO of WOLF Financial and Co-Founder of Rallies.ai.