Plum Guide vs VRBO: Discover the Key Differences

Curious about the difference between Plum Guide and VRBO? You’re in the right place!

Among the many travel platforms available, VRBO has become a recognisable name in the industry—and rightly so. With its vast collection of rental properties available, it provides travellers with a variety of impressive choices. At Plum Guide, though, we’ve taken a different approach. Since our launch in 2016, we’ve had a single, unwavering mission: to ensure every guest can book their holiday with complete confidence. For us, it’s all about quality and satisfaction.

Unlike other platforms, we carefully vet every property, handpicking only the top 3% across three price categories. Our philosophy? It’s not about having the most homes, but the best ones. Curious about how we stack up against VRBO? Keep reading for a friendly comparison of what makes Plum Guide unique in the world of travel.

Explore our handpicked collection of homes.

Plum Guide specialises in offering top-tier private vacation homes, handpicked to represent the finest properties in their areas.

VRBO features a vast variety of accommodations, ranging from homes and apartments to cabins and villas.

Plum Guide focuses on a niche audience of sophisticated and selective individuals. These travellers demand the highest standards and uncompromising quality in every aspect of their stay.

VRBO caters to a broad range of travellers, however specifically targets families booking holiday rentals.

Plum Guide, puts every home through an extensive three-stage quality assurance process. To earn a place on the Plum Guide platform, properties must pass a meticulous and comprehensive series of evaluations. This ensures that every detail is scrutinised to provide guests with the highest standard of accommodation.

VRBO features a ‘Premier Host’ program that awards a badge to properties, aiming to inspire greater guest confidence. However, the platform does not conduct prior vetting of the properties listed.

Learn more about the Plum Test

Plum Guide prides itself on its selectivity, ensuring that only the best are approved to list their properties. The difference? Every host undergoes a rigorous vetting process prior to joining our site, and only those with a true passion for providing outstanding hospitality are accepted.

VRBO welcomes a diverse range of hosts on their platform - anyone can join. However, their Premier Host program is an invitation-only initiative that recognises owners and managers who consistently provide exceptional traveller experiences.

Click here and apply to become a Plum Guide host today

Plum Guide professionals verify and craft every home listing with precision, featuring stunning photography and reliable, detailed information. Unlike host-created pages on other platforms, ours are designed to ensure transparency and showcase the space accurately.

VRBO gives hosts the ability to create their own listing pages. Host-controlled listings can occasionally result in inconsistencies in information and biased descriptions, which may increase the likelihood of misleading or incomplete property details.

Explore our impressive collection of homes

Plum Guide and VRBO provide many similar features, but there are important differences between the two platforms that are worth exploring.

Plum Guide showcases each property’s standout features in a dedicated "highlights" section, offering a snapshot of its unique charm. By spotlighting key amenities, local attractions, and suggested activities, this section ensures guests know exactly what to anticipate upon arrival.

While VRBO offers substantial information about the properties listed, at Plum Guide, we prioritise total transparency with our guests to eliminate any surprises. That's why we go the extra mile, offering honest and valuable insights—our "home truths"—that guests will truly appreciate. We believe in being fully open, even if it means revealing details that might impact a home's reputation.

While exploring, you'll notice differences in the platforms, such as their cancellation policies.

Plum Guide provides seven levels of flexibility, ranging from Relaxed to SuperFirm60. VRBO, on the other hand, offers six tiers, from ‘Relaxed’ ‘Strict’. Our most lenient option allows a full refund up to 24 hours before your stay.

Learn more about our various cancellation policies

At Plum Guide, we prioritise guest confidence by discouraging host cancellations. Hosts who cancel reservations face a 20% fee, ensuring accountability. In the rare event of a cancellation, our Care team steps in to arrange a new, upgraded stay for you.

VRBO also imposes penalties on hosts, including fees or potential impacts on their Premier Host status, to maintain high standards.

The debate between Plum Guide and VRBO might appear somewhat skewed if we didn't factor in the perspectives of individuals with no ties to our company. This is where Trustpilot proves invaluable as a reliable measure of quality.

The Plum Guide boasts an impressive 81% 'Excellent' rating. While our platform enjoys an average rating of 4.4 stars out of 5 on Trustpilot, it's worth noting that many of our competitors in the industry have an average score of just 1.8 out of 5 (as of this writing), underscoring the exceptional satisfaction our guests experience.

This quality is also emphasised by guest comments:

“Wonderful stay, amazing property, and so many to choose from. Everything was as described. Really cannot find any fault at all.”

~

“Booking process was super easy, info on location and travel perfect and house itself could not have been better.”

~

“Nothing but praise for the whole experience in an apartment very befitting of everything that The Plum Guide promises.”

It’s not just our guests who are impressed with the Plum Guide—journalists have also been quick to sing our praises:

“In an increasingly crowded market of vacation home rental companies, Plum Guide stands out.”

New York Times

~

“Staying with The Plum Guide felt like being in the sort of chic home you wished you owned and far from standard, impersonal holiday rentals. Airbnb should watch its back.”

Harpersbazaar.com

~

"Every single Plum Guide listing deserves a spot on someone’s bucket list."

Condé Nast Traveller

Explore our handpicked collection of homes