Vrbo [NASDAQ: EXPE] US download numbers are in freefall. Average monthly downloads dropped from 1.8 million in Q1 2023 to 682k in Q1 2026, a -26.8% CAGR. The trajectory worsened through 2025: Q3 was down 29.5% year-over-year, Q4 fell 33.3%, and Q1 2026 collapsed 47.5%.
A seasonal pattern is still visible. Q1 remains the strongest quarter each year as travelers plan summer vacations, but the peaks keep getting lower. Q1 2026’s 682k average monthly downloads is lower than Q4 2023’s trough. The decline has become structural.
On the Q4 2025 earnings call, CEO Ariane Gorin said Expedia “returned Vrbo and Hotels.com to growth” and pointed to consecutive quarters of improvement. Expedia doesn’t report Vrbo-specific revenue, so we’re left parsing commentary. The app data says user acquisition has not recovered. Engagement is also declining, with monthly sessions per user falling from 14.3 to 11.9, the sharpest drop across all eight apps (6 hotels and 2 STRs) tracked. Vrbo’s revenue can grow even as downloads crater if Expedia is monetizing existing users harder through bundling, loyalty pricing, and higher take rates. Still, the top of the funnel is drying up.
The broader competitive landscape provides important context. The combined hotel app group (Hilton [NYSE: HLT], Marriott [NASDAQ: MAR], IHG [NYSE: IHG], Hyatt [NYSE: H], Wyndham [NYSE: WH], and Choice Hotels [NYSE: CHH]) grew monthly active users at a 20.5% CAGR over the same period, nearly doubling its collective base. Hotels are now at 0.95x Airbnb’s [NASDAQ: ABNB] user base, up from 0.91x in early 2023.
IHG One Rewards is the standout among hotel apps. It posted the fastest user growth of any app in the dataset at a 29.6% CAGR, outpacing Airbnb (18.9%). IHG gained 1.4 percentage points of share within the hotels category, likely fueled by its “Guest How You Guest” brand campaign and loyalty investments that now drive 81% of room revenue through direct channels. Hyatt was second at 26.9%, punching above its weight relative to its room count.
All eight apps posted negative download momentum over the trailing six months. This is an industry-wide phenomenon, not a Vrbo-specific problem in isolation. Still, Vrbo’s decline is far worse than the rest. Hotel apps and Airbnb are growing users through retention and reactivation even as new installs slow. Vrbo is the only platform where engagement is also deteriorating alongside downloads.
Airbnb remains the engagement leader at 22.6 sessions per user, roughly 2x the hotel average, and it is the only app where that metric is increasing.
