Vrbo’s Performance Milestones: Visibility Is the New Currency

Uvika Wahi

VrboIndustry News
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Vrbo is introducing Performance Milestones in 2026, a new tiered framework that reshapes how hosts and property managers earn recognition, rewards, and, most importantly, visibility.

This isn’t coming out of nowhere. Back in 2024, Vrbo retired its Boost Program, which allowed hosts to buy temporary bumps in search results. At the same time, it tightened Premier Host standards and made clear that quality, not spend, would drive visibility going forward.

Performance Milestones are the next phase of that strategy. They formalize the link between quality and visibility, introduce new tools to measure performance, and create a tiered system where only the best listings rise to the top.

A “Cozy House” rental priced at $120 per night. The listing has a 4.8-star “Exceptional” rating, “Premier Host” and “Enhanced Coaching” labels, an Offer Strength Score of 90, and a progress tracker labeled “Unlock Milestones” with locked icons.
The listing displays key metrics such as review rating, Offer Strength Score, and progress toward unlocking milestone tiers.

What Are Performance Milestones?

Every listing on Vrbo will be evaluated against three milestone levels: Good, Great, and Excellent. Each tier comes with stricter criteria and greater visibility benefits.

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  • Milestone 1: Good
    • 90%+ acceptance rate
    • ≤1% cancellations
    • 4.0+ review rating
    • Rewards: eligibility for new badges, increased search visibility.
  • Milestone 2: Great (Premier Host)
    • 99%+ acceptance rate
    • 0% cancellations
    • 4.6+ review rating
    • 5+ reviews
    • Rewards: all of Milestone 1 + Premier Host badge, inclusion in guest filters, priority support, eligibility for Expedia-funded PR and marketing.
  • Milestone 3: Excellent (Premier Host + Top 1%)
    • 100% acceptance rate
    • 0% cancellations
    • 5.0 review rating
    • 10+ reviews
    • Rewards: all of Milestones 1 & 2 + a Top 1% badge and maximum visibility.
  • The big shift: Premier Host is no longer a stand-alone badge. Instead, it becomes the foundation of Milestones 2 and 3. If your listing reaches “Great” or “Excellent,” it will carry Premier Host status.
Visual showing Vrbo’s three Performance Milestones: • Milestone 1 (Good): 90%+ acceptance rate, ≤1% cancellations, 4.0+ rating, no review count minimum. • Milestone 2 (Great): 99%+ acceptance rate, 0% cancellations, 4.6+ rating, 5+ reviews (includes Premier Host status). • Milestone 3 (Excellent): 100% acceptance rate, 0% cancellations, 5.0 rating, 10+ reviews, with eligibility for Top 1% badge.
Vrbo’s Performance Milestones framework outlines three levels—Good, Great, and Excellent, each with stricter performance requirements. Metrics include acceptance rate, cancellation rate, review rating, and review count minimums.

Vrbo’s updated property performance dashboard. The interface shows a three-tier milestone system with locked indicators for Milestones 1 through 3. A highlighted tooltip describes Milestone 1 as offering “increased visibility” through a higher sort order in search results, reflecting the new performance-based visibility model.

Vrbo’s property performance dashboard illustrates the progression through Milestones 1 to 3. Each milestone unlocks based on listing performance, with higher tiers offering increased visibility and additional benefits.

Premier Host in the New World

For years, Premier Host was Vrbo’s top recognition badge. It was account-level. If your portfolio qualified, every listing carried the badge. In 2024, Vrbo began tightening standards: 95% acceptance rate, ≤1% cancellations, 4.4+ review average, plus a bookings and review minimum.

By 2026, Premier Host will be fully integrated into the Milestones system. That means:

  • Premier Host begins at Milestone 2 (“Great”) and continues into Milestone 3 (“Excellent”).
  • Small operators with one standout property can still achieve Premier Host recognition for that listing.
  • Larger managers will need each property to qualify individually. One strong listing can shine, but weaker listings won’t automatically carry the badge.

So while Premier Host is no longer the final destination, it remains the baseline recognition for professional, reliable listings, with Milestone 3 adding a new layer of elite visibility on top.

Table comparing current and future Vrbo Premier Host criteria. Current criteria are host-level, requiring 5+ bookings or 60 booked nights, 3+ reviews, 4.4+ review score, 95%+ booking acceptance, and ≤1% cancellations. Future criteria are listing-level, with 5+ bookings or 60 nights, 5+ reviews, 4.6+ review score, 99%+ acceptance, and 0% cancellations.
Comparison table showing the shift in Vrbo’s Premier Host criteria. While current qualifications are based on host-level performance, future criteria will apply at the listing level, with higher thresholds for guest review scores, booking acceptance rates, and cancellation rates.

The Visibility Equation

Vrbo is not being coy about what Performance Milestones are meant to do: control visibility.

  • Milestone 1: Increased visibility.
  • Milestone 2 (Premier Host): Visibility in more filtered searches.
  • Milestone 3 (Premier Host + Top 1%): Maximum visibility.

On top of that:

  • Premier Host recognition includes a badge, a filter travelers can use in search, and co-marketing opportunities. That includes Expedia-funded campaigns, email features, social media, and PR exposure.
  • The Top 1% badge (Milestone 3) is designed as a halo tier to highlight only the very best listings in the marketplace.

What’s less clear is how much incremental push listings get from one milestone to the next. But the pattern is clear: Vrbo wants to make visibility a privilege earned through quality, not a default.

And this matters more now than ever. Expedia has begun distributing Vrbo listings across its entire ecosystem: Expedia.com, airline partners like Delta and Alaska, fintech apps like Revolut, and 160,000+ travel agents worldwide. Quality will determine which listings surface in these new channels.

The New Elite: Top 1% Badge

At Milestone 3, Vrbo introduces the Top 1% badge. Requirements are brutal: 100% acceptance, 0% cancellations, a perfect 5.0 rating, and at least 10 reviews.

This is Vrbo’s answer to Airbnb’s Guest Favorites and its experimental “Top 1%” collections. It creates an ultra-elite trust signal designed to stand out in crowded search results and across Expedia’s distribution network.

Importantly: these listings are still Premier Hosts, but with an added badge to signify they’re the very best of the best.

Enhanced Coaching and the Offer Strength Score

Performance Milestones are backed by new tools designed to help hosts improve.

  • Enhanced Coaching offers personalized recommendations to show how to move up a milestone.
  • Offer Strength Score is a new transparency metric that shows how competitive your listing is in search and how it stacks up against similar properties in your market.

While Vrbo hasn’t revealed exactly how the Score is calculated, it almost certainly builds on the current set of ranking metrics: acceptance rate, cancellation rate, review count, review average, bookings, views, and performance against a competitive set.

The key change: Vrbo isn’t just telling you your raw numbers. It’s putting them into a single competitive score and giving you direct feedback on how to improve.

Mobile interface showing Vrbo’s Premier Host scorecard. A progress bar at the top indicates “3 out of 5 goals” completed. A warning message below encourages hosts to review their scorecard to meet Premier Host requirements. Individual performance indicators for acceptance rate (checked), cancellation rate (crossed), and average review rating (checked) are visible.
Vrbo’s scorecard interface displays a host’s progress toward Premier Host qualification. The visual tracks goal completion and highlights specific performance areas such as acceptance rate, cancellation rate, and review rating.

What This Means for Property Managers

  • Small operators: One strong listing can shine on its own and earn Premier Host.
  • Large managers: Each property must stand on its own merits. No more blanket badge across the portfolio.
  • Seasonal or remote properties: Stricter cancellation rules mean these listings face higher risk of disqualification.
  • Everyone: Visibility is now gamified. The higher you climb in milestones, the more distribution you unlock.

Marketplace Cleanup

Vrbo has already confirmed it has removed underperforming listings from the platform to improve overall quality. This isn’t just about rewarding the best, it’s about eliminating the worst. Performance Milestones formalize this cleanup: if your listings don’t meet the minimums, they simply won’t surface.

What to Watch For Next

  • How much visibility actually differs between milestones.
  • How the Offer Strength Score is displayed, weighted, and used in ranking.
  • Whether current Premier Hosts will be automatically mapped to Milestone 2 or re-evaluated.
  • If the Top 1% badge will be global, regional, or market-specific.

Takeaway

Vrbo’s Performance Milestones reframe recognition as a tiered path where visibility is the prize. Premier Host hasn’t gone away. It’s now embedded into Milestones 2 and 3 as the recognition baseline for great hosting. On top of that sits the new Top 1% badge, designed to highlight the very best listings.

In short: the funnel is wider, but the filter is tighter. Managers who consistently deliver reliability and guest satisfaction will not only keep bookings flowing, they’ll win more visibility across Vrbo’s newly expanded distribution network.

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