A Home Rental Exec Reveals His Best Hack for Finding Cheap Vacation Rentals

Carl Shepherd was the co-founder of the major vacation rental platform HomeAway, which is now part of the behemoth known as VRBO. But that doesn't mean he feels any loyalty to his former company.

At a recent industry gathering (the Skift Short Term Rental Summit), Shepherd revealed from the stage that when plans his own vacations, he sidesteps the big booking platforms he helped create.

"I’ve pretty much quit using both VRBO and Airbnb personally," he said. "I found it humbling. I don’t because I’m not going to pay that fee. I’m just going to book directly with the property manager."

Generally, I don't turn to CEOs for travel hacks—they’re more focused on shoring up the bottom line for their businesses than saving customers money.

But I gotta say this one caught my interest. I decided to look into just how much money one could save by avoiding VRBO and Airbnb, and then figure out how easy it is to simply contact a home's property manager directly, as Shepherd does instead.

Short answers: You'll save a significant amount on vacation rentals. Here's how to do it.