- Vrbo took shots at its rival Airbnb in a Super Bowl commercial and a cheeky billboard campaign.
- Airbnb challenged Vrbo's phrasing to the National Advertising Division, an independent regulator.
- Vrbo said it would stop using some of its claims that imply Airbnbs always have on-site hosts.
Vrbo has taken a few big swings at Airbnb, its main competitor, in the past nine months.
First, the vacation-rental company ran a commercial featuring famously intimidating football coach Nick Saban. In the ad, which debuted in August, he pretends to be an overbearing Airbnb host, lounging in a hot tub with guests who plainly preferred to be left alone.
"When other vacation rentals make you share your turf with a host, try one you have all to yourself," the narrator said.
The spot also ran during the 2025 Super Bowl, when 30 seconds of airtime cost a reported $7 million.
In March, Vrbo put up tongue-in-cheek billboards, including one right outside Airbnb's San Francisco headquarters. The text on some billboards emphasized that Vrbo is host-free.
Now, a national watchdog group has ruled that Vrbo took some of its claims too far and recommended it stop using the commercial and billboard. Vrbo said in a statement to Business Insider that it will comply.
The National Advertising Division, an independent regulatory body founded in 1971, reviewed the Vrbo campaign after Airbnb filed a complaint. This week, the NAD determined that Vrbo inaccurately communicated to consumers that "Airbnb always has hosts that cohabitate with guests during their stay."
Airbnb filed the initial claim for the NAD to review Vrbo's campaign, but both companies' cooperation during the NAD review process was voluntary.
Companies typically file a complaint with the NAD when "they see advertising by a competitor that is unsupported or might be misleading," NAD attorney Eric Unis told Business Insider.
"We're pleased with the NAD's decision," a spokesperson for Airbnb told Business Insider.
Vrbo said in a statement to Business Insider that it took issue with some of the specific critiques in the NAD review but did not elaborate on them. Vrbo also said it would follow the recommendation.
"We stand by our messages and respectfully disagree with NAD's findings on two claims, but will comply with the required changes," a spokesperson for Vrbo said.
Advertising expert Ashley Rutstein told Business Insider earlier this year that confrontational marketing can be a fruitful strategy, especially when an underdog is trying to punch up.
Airbnb commands a 44% market share of the global short-term-rental industry, dwarfing Vrbo's 9%, according to a 2024 estimate by travel news site Skift.
Rutstein told BI in March that she believed travelers could easily find listings without hosts on-site via Airbnb, not just Vrbo, which weakened the Vrbo campaign's effectiveness.
"They had the right idea, but not the right execution," Rutstein told BI.
The NAD recently issued another ruling in a spat between beer rivals Molson Coors and Anheuser-Busch. Molson Coors claimed its competitor's light beers "taste like water," but the NAD found Molson Coors submitted no evidence supporting the claim.
Axel Springer, Insider Inc.'s parent company, is an investor in Airbnb.
