Vrbo is the most downloaded online travel agency app in the United States for the
first half of the year, according to a list compiled by Boston-based data provider
Apptopia.
The Expedia Group-owned short-term rental platform ranks fifth among the 10 most downloaded travel apps in the U.S., beating
Hopper, Booking.com and Expedia (in sixth through eighth places, respectively). Airbnb has fallen from fifth to
ninth place on the U.S. list.
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Vrbo had 10 million downloads in the first half of the year in the U.S. – the same
amount that it had in all of 2021.
“The
reality is that pent-up demand to travel at the lowest cost is causing fierce
competition among OTAs, and we are witnessing them place their bets on growth,”
Apptopia’s mobile trends analyst Tara Kirkpatrick writes in a blog post.
For
worldwide downloads of travel apps, Google Maps, Booking.com and Uber rank
first, second and third. DiDi, Grab, and Lyft have fallen off of the global list.
(Didi and Grab are ride-sharing, delivery and payments apps.)
For
the first time, gas savings and flight-tracking apps appear on the most-downloaded
lists. FlightRadar2, which uses augmented reality to let users scan a plane in
the sky and learn the plane's origin, destination and schedule, ranks tenth worldwide. Upside, which gives cash back at gas stations, grocery stores and
restaurants, is the third most downloaded travel app in the U.S.