9 Best Vacation Rental Website Builders Ranked in 2024

You might assume that listing your vacation rental property on a site like Airbnb or TripAdvisor will get the job done. But posting photos and rates on one of these listing sites will only get you so far – you’ll also need to create a website if you want to build a profitable rental business.

A well-designed website can help you establish your brand, market your rental(s), and manage bookings. But with so many builders to choose from, how do you decide which is the right one?

To make your task easier, I tested dozens of popular website builders and built sites with each one. In the end, 9 builders measured up. Each has the right mix of features and functionality for the vacation rental space.

Of these website builders, Wix stands out as a clear winner – it’s easy to use while offering plenty of creative freedom and powerful tools to manage your rental business and keep guests coming back for more. You can try Wix for free or read on to learn more about my other top picks.

What We Look for in the Best Web Hosts for Vacation Rentals

To find the best builders for vacation rentals, I evaluated a broad range of website builders, focusing on the following essential features.

• Direct booking tools. Allowing travelers to look over amenities, rates, and availability and make reservations via your website eliminates the fees charged by listing/travel sites.
• Multiple secure payment options. It’s essential to give your guests different secure ways to pay on desktop and mobile. All of the builders on my list let guests pay by credit card, check, and bank transfer. Most don’t charge transaction fees.
• Good SEO, analytics, and marketing tools. There’s no point to having a well-designed vacation rental website if potential guests can’t find it. Every builder on my list has features to help your website rank higher in search results.
• Robust mobile capabilities. You need powerful mobile features so you can manage bookings, accept payments, and chat with potential guests from anywhere.
• Free SSL certificate. The surest way to turn off a potential guest is to have their browser identify your site as “not secure.” That’s why every builder on my list includes an SSL certificate with every plan.

1. Wix: Best All-Around Builder for Vacation Rental Websites1

Wix has a great combination of features and ease of use, with everything you need to make a site for any type of rental: single apartment, inn, B&B, hotel group, luxury resort – you name it.

You’ll find dozens of templates in the Travel and Tourism category. Once you pick your template, it’s easy to personalize it using Wix’s drag-and-drop editor. To streamline things even further, Wix offers an AI website builder. It can create a fully functional site based on a short questionnaire. I like using it as a starting point in my website creation.

Vacation rental templates usually come with the Wix Hotels app built-in (and if not, you can add it with a click). The Wix Hotels app gives you all the tools you need to manage your rental property and allows guests to book and pay online. What’s more, you can enable 50+ payment options for online and point of sale (POS) transactions.

You can use the free plan as long as you want, but a paid Wix plan will open your site for business1. With the Core plan or higher, you’ll get a custom domain name, online bookings will be enabled, and you can accept online payments.

Features

• Rental channel management. Add the Channel Manager to the Wix Hotels app to keep your property’s details and availability updated on 150+ services, like Airbnb, Expedia, and Booking.com.
• Commission-free booking. With the Wix Booking app your guests can pay online. While you’ll still have to pay transaction fees, you won’t have to pay additional host fees, guest fees, or commissions – so you’ll save a lot compared to listing sites.
• Business tool suite. Wix Ascend gives you marketing, financial, workflow automation, and task management tools that can help scale your vacation business. Start for free, then upgrade if you need more advanced features.
• Personalized SEO. Wix’s SEO Wiz tool gives you a personalized SEO setup plan. It walks you through the steps of getting your site indexed on Google and optimized for search engines.

Read our expert Wix review for more details.

2. SITE123: Most Beginner-Friendly Builder for Your Rental1

No builder or property management site can beat SITE123’s sheer simplicity. Though there are no rental-specific templates, you can repurpose any design by integrating content from Tripadvisor, Google Maps, social media, and more.

Thanks to SITE123’s intuitive point-and-click editor, it takes just a couple of clicks to customize any design element. For example, you can easily convert any template from a one-page site to a multi-page site, and vice versa. However, the tradeoff for this simplicity is that customization options are more limited than with builders like Wix.

SITE123’s free plan is a good way to test the platform, but it’s quite limited in terms of features.You’ll likely want to upgrade to the affordable Premium plan1 to add a custom domain, remove SITE123’s branding, integrate payment gateways, and allow guests to submit online booking inquiries.

Features

• Mobile-friendly sites. Data shows that many travelers prefer to book stays on mobile devices. All SITE123 templates are fully mobile-responsive, which ensures they are easy to navigate and load quickly on any size screen.
• Multilingual functionality. Depending on your plan, SITE123 can automatically translate your website into different languages for site visitors. It’s a nice feature that can broaden your reach to potential travelers.
• Versatile gallery designs. SITE123 has attractive gallery designs to help you display your rental in its full glory. You can choose a slideshow or a carousel style display, or something less traditional such as a round image gallery
• Payment options. With a Gold Plan you can enable SITE123’s multi-currency setting to accept payments in up to 80 different currencies. Your guests can pay using their preferred payment processor, such as PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, or 2Checkout.

Learn more in our full SITE123 review.

3. Squarespace: Best Templates for Showing Off Vacation Rental Pictures1

While many builders rely on one basic design, every Squarespace template looks unique. These templates come with features that make it easy for prospective guests to browse property details, review rooms and rates, check amenities, and learn about things to do. You can also add hover effects and set images to open in a full screen lightbox when selected so site visitors can get a closer look at your property.

Squarespace’s scheduling and booking tools let visitors reserve a room by entering their preferred dates, number of guests, and contact information. You can even use pre-built menu pages or add Menu blocks to share their restaurant menus. Potential guests can contact you with questions via live chat, email, or phone.

Plus, Squarespace now offers an exciting integration called Acuity Scheduling. This booking widget, created by Squarespace, perfectly integrates into Squarespace websites, allowing visitors to make direct bookings with ease. I feel like it can be a great addition to your vacation rental site, as it eases the booking process for both you and your guests.

While Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan, you can use the 14-day free trial to try Squarespace risk-free1. When you take features and fees into account, Squarespace is pretty cost-effective compared to other options for your vacation rental site, putting it near the top of my list.

Features

• Link third-party rental channels. You can use “Book Now” buttons and image click-through URLs to link to platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo. You can also embed an external channel to allow guests to book a stay without leaving your website.
• Minimal transaction fees. Squarespace’s Business plan charges a transaction fee of just 3%, and the two Commerce tiers don’t charge any transaction fees at all. (Payment processors may still impose their own fees.)
• Marketing tools for various channels. Squarespace’s paid email marketing add-on lets you launch effective campaigns to keep your guests returning. Also, with the free Unfold app, you can create compelling Instagram posts with custom templates and graphics
• Sophisticated blogging. Squarespace lets you organize posts with tags and categories, add featured images and excerpts, and optimize for SEO with customized URLs and title tags.

For more info, read our Squarespace review.

4. Webador: Built-in Interaction Tools to Engage Your Guests1

While Webador only has one template built specifically for vacation rentals, all its designs are adaptable. Though the customization options may feel limited (no built-in image editor or animation features), you can modify your site by adding photo albums to showcase your rental and social buttons to easily connect with your guests.

Speaking of easy connections, Webador offers a great set of built-in tools to simplify direct communication. For instance, you can add a rating system and a comment box anywhere on your site to engage with your guests and allow them to rate your services. Also, Webador lets you embed an up-to-date map of your location to ensure visitors can easily find you.

Webador has a solid free plan that gives you access to all templates and unlimited storage and data traffic. However, to remove Webador branding and ads from your site, you’ll have to upgrade to the Pro plan. It’s an affordable investment that also provides other useful features, like unlimited photo albums and custom forms.

Features

• Grid-based editor. With Webador, every element you drag and drop onto your page automatically snaps into a grid, ensuring your layout stays clean and appealing.
• Forever-free domain name. Most website builders charge an additional fee for a custom domain after the first year, but with Webador, the price of your domain name is included in your plan.
• Built-in video player. Webador allows you to upload your own HD videos to your site, with 5GB of storage for videos included. Videos can give potential guests a virtual tour, which can prompt them to book your vacation rental.
• Detailed statistics. Webador’s reporting tools give you insight into your visitors’ geographic location, device used, most visited pages, and more to help you boost conversion.

Read our in-depth Webador review to learn more about the platform.

5. IONOS: Affordable, AI-powered Web Building For Rentals1

IONOS is a solid option if you lack time or website building know-how. All you have to do is answer a few basic questions about your site, and IONOS’s artificial intelligence builder will generate a suitable template for you. Alternatively, you can opt for one of its prebuilt designs, but the choice is quite limited.

IONOS’s higher-tiered plans come with more advanced features. For instance, AI SEO Text Generator creates SEO-optimized page titles and descriptions to help improve your traffic rankings. Also, you get access to an integrated booking tool and analytics tools to get an insight into visitor statistics and your site’s performance.

Because IONOS has very affordable website builder plans, it’s an excellent choice for individual property owners, small inns, and B&Bs. While it doesn’t have a free plan, IONOS offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, which gives you ample time to test the platform before making a commitment.

Features

• Get featured in online directories. IONOS’ List Local and List Local Plus add-ons get your site listed in 35+ online directories, including Yelp and the Foursquare City Guide. This can boost your online visibility with travelers. (Fees apply.)
• Third-party integrations. If you subscribe to the Plus plan or above, you can use custom code to embed content like videos, Google reviews, mailing list sign up forms, and more. There’s also a widget for integrating your social media content.
• Image editing. You can use photo editing tools to format, crop, and edit images without leaving the website builder. It makes showing off your properties much easier.
• Personalized customer support. You can receive personalized support from a dedicated consultant who will answer your questions, discuss your site’s performance, and provide strategies for success. You can reach them through phone, email, or chat during standard business hours.

Learn more about IONOS in our in-depth review.

6. Shopify: Streamlined E-commerce for Vacation Rentals1

Shopify, known mainly for its e-commerce expertise, is a great option for building your vacation rental website. What I like the most about Shopify is the streamlined interface and modern designs that are made to sell. Well, in your case, rent. While it may not specialize solely in rentals, Shopify offers a useful suite of tools and templates for property owners.

If you’re looking to expand your online presence, Shopify’s ecosystem offers plenty of tools. They go from integrated blogging features for sharing travel insights to sophisticated email marketing tools for nurturing guest relationships. What’s more, its analytical capabilities offer crucial insights into website performance and booking trends. This can help you make strategic decisions for maximizing your property’s potential.

Features

• Customizable templates. You can choose from a variety of professionally designed and fully customizable templates. You can incorporate booking calendars, property galleries, and rental rates into the template design using Shopify’s intuitive editing tools or by integrating third-party apps.
• Third-party booking integrations. Shopify’s massive app store has hundreds of third-party booking and reservation apps, including some like BookE ‑Rent Property & service, which are designed especially for rentals. These apps provide essential features like calendar syncing, availability management, and more.
• Secure payment solutions. Shopify offers secure payment gateways that support popular payment methods, ensuring hassle-free transactions for guests. This means your guests can book with confidence.
• SEO tools. You can boost your vacation rental website’s visibility with Shopify’s built-in SEO tools. From optimizing meta tags to creating SEO-friendly URLs, these tools help drive more organic traffic to your listings.

Read our expert Shopify review for more details.

Other Notable Website Builders for Vacation Rentals

7. Lodgify

Lodgify’s comprehensive property management software includes a reservation system, payment processing, and the ability to connect your site with your presence on popular listing sites. Templates come with relevant pages and sections – such as for room types and amenities – but no blog. While you can’t tweak every aspect of your template like you can with Wix, you can change the colors and fonts, and upload images.

As you progress to higher-tier plans, be aware that costs escalate. Monthly fees will rise with the number of rentals under your management, and there may still be additional booking and transaction fees. Because of this, I think Lodgify is better suited to large property management companies.

8. Web.com1

With its intuitive website builder, Web.com lets you create visually appealing and functional websites without technical expertise. It offers a range of templates suitable for various industries, including vacation rentals. After choosing a template, you can use the drag-and-drop editor to customize your site to reflect your unique properties and brand identity. You also get booking calendars and integrations with online payment systems.

One of the main advantages of Web.com is its extensive suite of services, which extends beyond website building to include domain registration, hosting, and online marketing tools. However, this does mean Web.com’s plans are a bit pricey. And while Web.com is an all-around good option, it doesn’t excel in any particular area like the other options on my list.

9. WordPress.com1

With its extensive library of themes and plugins, WordPress.com offers lots of flexibility so you can create highly customized and feature-rich websites for your rental properties. Plus, its blogging functionality is a pretty big deal. You can use it to create engaging content and attract potential guests through regular updates and informative posts.

I need to point out that navigating WordPress.com’s multitude of customization options can overwhelm beginners. To make the most of WordPress.com, I’d suggest installing some third-party plugins, which do require the pricier plans. But if you can commit to that, it’s a very versatile platform.

Choose the Best Vacation Rental Website Builder to Turn Site Visitors into Paying Guests

Your property type, target market, technical skill, available time, and budget are important to consider when deciding which builder is right for your vacation rental. You may also want to choose a builder that offers seamless integration with rental listing and travel services.

If you want an all-in-one solution, Wix is my top pick overall1. With the biggest template selection, easy customization, and booking/rental channel management, it’s the complete package.

On the other hand, if speed and simplicity are your top priorities, SITE123 has what you need1. Its beginner-friendly editor is best for getting online quickly. Plus, you get advanced language tools to help you attract international visitors.

If your priority is a stylish website, Squarespace’s visually-inspired templates1 will present your rental property at its best. Another reason to choose this builder is the wealth of useful third-party integrations.

The table below compares every builder in this review to help you pick the one that’s right for your rental property.

FAQ

How do I create a free vacation rental website?

A free plan can be a good way to start out, especially if budget is an issue. That said, you’ll have to upgrade to accept payments and add advanced features. SITE123’s paid plan is a good low-cost alternative – it runs just a few dollars per month.

Which is the best builder for vacation rentals?

When you take features into account, Wix is the gold standard for vacation rental sites. That’s because Wix offers the templates, design flexibility, and advanced tools to meet the needs of any kind of vacation rental business. Individuals and small hospitality businesses only need to pay for what they need. And on top of all that, it’s incredibly user friendly.

Can I integrate external listing/travel sites with my website?

Most builders make it easy to integrate and manage bookings from popular listing and travel sites like Airbnb or Expedia. With some builders, like Wix and Lodgify, you simply add the app for the rental channel. Squarespace lets you integrate listing/travel sites by embedding URL code to display third-party content on your site.

Do I need to use a dedicated vacation rental builder for my site?

While dedicated vacation rental builders can be useful, they tend to have basic templates and limited customization. The best general-use builders offer most of what these dedicated rental builders can do and much more. See our list of the best site builders for 2024 for numerous examples.