Vacation rental glossary

Plain-language definitions for the terms hosts, co-hosts, and team members use every day on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com.

A

ADR (Average Daily Rate)
The average revenue earned per occupied night, calculated as total room revenue divided by number of nights booked. A core profitability metric for vacation rentals.
Airbnb
A peer-to-peer platform where hosts list short-term rental properties to travelers. The largest vacation rental marketplace globally.
Amenities
Features and conveniences a property offers to guests, such as Wi-Fi, parking, a pool, or a fully equipped kitchen. Listed prominently on Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com listings.

B

Booking.com
A global online travel agency that distributes vacation rental, hotel, and apartment inventory to travelers.

C

Channel manager
Software that synchronizes pricing, availability, and bookings across multiple distribution channels (Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, direct booking site).
Check-in / Check-out
The arrival and departure of a guest. Most short-term rentals use self-check-in via smart lock or lockbox rather than in-person check-in.
Cleaning fee
A one-time fee charged to the guest at booking to cover the cost of preparing the property between stays. Disclosed separately from the nightly rate.
Co-host
A secondary manager who helps the primary host operate one or more listings. Can be granted partial access to bookings, messaging, and operations on Airbnb.

D

Direct booking
A reservation made through the host's own website or channel rather than through a third-party platform like Airbnb. Avoids platform commissions but loses platform protections.

G

Gap night
A single unbooked night between two reservations. Often left unsold because of minimum-stay requirements.
Guest Favorite
An Airbnb badge awarded to listings with the highest ratings, the most reliable hosts, and the best overall reviews. Introduced by Airbnb in late 2023 as a curation signal.

H

Host
The primary owner or manager of a vacation rental listing. Responsible for the listing, pricing, guest communication, and turnover quality.
House rules
Conditions a guest agrees to when booking, such as no parties, no smoking, quiet hours, or maximum occupancy. Posted on the listing and inside the property.

I

Instant Book
An Airbnb setting that lets guests book without host pre-approval. Listings with Instant Book often rank higher in search results.

L

Listing
A vacation rental property as published on a platform like Airbnb, Vrbo, or Booking.com. One physical property can be published as multiple listings on different platforms.
LOS (Length of stay)
The number of nights a guest books. Hosts often set minimum LOS rules (e.g., two-night minimum on weekends) to reduce turnover frequency.

O

OTA (Online Travel Agency)
A third-party platform that distributes vacation rental inventory to travelers, such as Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, and Agoda.

P

Photo checklist
A turnover checklist where each item includes a reference photo of the expected state and requires a verification photo before the item can be marked complete. The pattern listo is built around.
PMS (Property Management System)
Software that helps hosts manage reservations, calendars, guest communication, pricing, and operations across one or more properties.
Property
A physical vacation rental unit: a whole home, apartment, condo, cabin, or room. Distinct from a listing, which is the property's representation on a specific platform.

R

Rating
A 1-5 star score given by guests after their stay. Public ratings are aggregated and shown on the listing. Anything below 5 stars hurts visibility on Airbnb.
Review
Written feedback from a guest about their stay, posted to the listing publicly. Reviews drive bookings more than any other single factor.
RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Rental)
Revenue per available rental night, calculated as occupancy multiplied by ADR. The most useful single metric for comparing properties of different sizes and rates.

S

Short-term rental (STR)
A vacation rental booked for a stay of less than 30 days. The opposite of long-term rental. Subject to local STR regulations in many cities.
Smart lock
A door lock that accepts time-limited PIN codes or app-issued credentials, enabling self check-in without a physical key handoff.
Superhost
An Airbnb status awarded to hosts with consistent 4.8+ ratings, low cancellation rates, and high response rates. Signals reliability to travelers.

T

Team member
Anyone working on the operations side of a vacation rental: cleaners, co-hosts, maintenance staff, or inspectors. The general role label used in listo.
Turnover
The cleaning, restocking, and inspection process between guest stays. The single highest-leverage operation in vacation rental management — most 4-star reviews trace back to turnover misses.

V

Vacation rental
A short-term rental property, typically a whole home or apartment, rented to travelers. Used interchangeably with short-term rental.
Verification photo
A timestamped photo taken by a team member during turnover to prove a checklist item was completed correctly. The core proof artifact in listo.
Vrbo
A vacation rental marketplace owned by Expedia Group, focused on whole-home rentals. The second-largest platform after Airbnb in many markets.

W

Welcome book
A printed or digital document left for guests with house rules, Wi-Fi password, appliance instructions, local recommendations, and emergency contacts.
Whole-home rental
A property rented in its entirety to a single guest party, as opposed to a private or shared room. The dominant listing type on Vrbo and a large share of Airbnb.