Vrbo outranks other OTAs as most downloaded travel app

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.

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.