HomeAway

So sorry to see another one go. Take a good idea, develop and grow it into a very profitable business with good customer service then greed slips in. Sell out to the big boys, loose site of customer service with the only goal to squeeze every penny out of your customers and end product doesn't resemble the original. Will be looking for a site not so greedy!

Stay away if you don't want to lose your money!
You pay a large deposit months before you intend to travel and it's up to the property owner if they will pay it back to you. In our case property owner claimed some damage (scratch on the wall) which has been there before we moved in (in fact there were lots of scratches on walls and the property was in need of refurbishment).
Customer service is not helpful at all. I have complained about a lot of things (like constantly disappearing electricity) and asked for compensation, but they didn't want to hear it. They said it's up to the owner who didn't want to hear either.
Basically the property owner can do some work to their property and make you pay for it by not giving the deposit back.
Home Away just take a large fee from you and if you've got a problem they wash their hands of.

We had success with previous VRBO but this time, it has been the worst of all possible worlds. Our travel plans were cancelled - everyone is staying home, around the world - and almost a month later they still haven't refunded our deposit, despite FIVE phone calls and promise after promise. Next, I'm going to my credit card company to dispute the charge. Was impressed by some of the things the company said early on; now, I know not to trust.

I want to give them zero stars! I booked a house six months ago for our trip to Disney. I just happened to check the website and it had been cancelled this morning! 6 weeks before we are to leave for our trip. I was never notified by email or phone. I called Homeaway and they could not tell me why and were no help at all they told me I needed to call the owner of the property. The owner will not respond to my inquiries or email and the phone number is not accepting calls at this time. I looked at the same house again on the Homeaway website and our dates are available again. So hopefully someone else's vacation does not get ruined.

I booked an apartment online, based on information and location listed.

They informed me by email, several days after my booking, that location listed for the apartment was incorrect. They asked if the new location was OK with me.

The actual location being several blocks away in less desirable area and near railroad tracks, I cancelled my reservation.
HomeAway acknowledged the incorrect listing, but denied responsibility and refused to fully refund my deposit.

This is a terrible website with lousy customer service. I encountered one of the worst people I have ever met when I rented a property through Homeaway. She (and her husband) was insulting and rude. The property did not fit the description and, when I calmly and politely confronted her about this, she immediately began yelling and told me to get off her property. I don't want to relive the experience by writing too much detail now, but, suffice it to say, that when I contacted Homeaway about my experience, I never hear anything back! I gave them plenty of opportunity to correct the situation, but they chose to ignore me. I plan on doing everything I can to bring attention to this horrible situation so that no one else ever has to experience what I did; this level of apathy should not go unpunished. What a horrible, horrible company.

Tropical storm Cindy hit the coast of Galveston the day we were scheduled to drive down and so we OBVIOUSLY decided not to go for the SAFETY of my family. (We have a one year old and three year old)
The homeowner has refused to refund our money, $1838. 00. She also tried to convince on the phone how nice the weather was down there...
Unbelievable.
I suppose she needs the money more than I do.
I filed a complaint with Homeaway and we are awaiting their verdict.
Property #******* -

Title says it all. Turns out that if a traveler cancels and the property owner refunds the complete charge (in accord with the owner's cancellation policy), then HomeAway will refund its service fee. However, if the property owner retains a portion of the charge (10% is pretty common), then HomeAway keeps the whole service fee. This is difficult to discover on HomeAway's website; in my case, it resulted in a total cancellation fee of almost 20%. I will not patronize HomeAway again.

It has taken me hours to get the refund for a house that I cancelled. I cancelled two days after booking with 5 months notice so I was due the full refund. The owner said that they had cancelled it with Home Away. Now I am still calling Home Away, over a month later, to get their service charge reversed. I will get all of the money back, but without my persistence this would not have happened. I wonder if they scam people and keep their money. This is a horrible business model.

They allocate 24 hours for the property owner to accept an offer. During that whole time, even if the property owner has accepted, they continue to show a "So and so has HH: MM: SS to accept your offer" on the Messages page, which to me is a statement that they have not yet accepted my offer. Yet apparently it was accepted and my card was charged (I used their supposedly secure payment system). I never received an email at the end of the 24 hours (and yes I checked my spam folder). This led me to think that the offer fell through and I booked elsewhere (directly w/ the owner). Then 8 hours later my credit card was charged. Great, now I'm double booked. Still no message and their support says it takes them 2-3 days to respond. The property owner didn't seem to understand the system either so I think the interface on that end must be just as bad.

Very very careful here. Most property owners use this for a landing site- you "book it now", they take your money- but no properties are ever available and certainly not at the "book it now" price. The property owner declined my reservation, but my payment is still pending - 10 days later. Tracked down the company that actually takes the payments www.rentpayment.com and got "release codes"- called my bank and these do not apply, need a fax number and they will send paperwork. Based on my service so far I doubt anyone will respond. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME HERE.

Never again!
We came on September 27,2015 to our apartment. When I opened the door, I was in shock! Two bedroom apartment for 4 adults: no windows, bad smell from bathroom,
No door in "master bedroom", in toilet no locker and the water flashing very bad. The back yard dirty with a lot of cats. This is not the apartment, it is a corridor between two walls with the door in and out.
We did not stay and went to the hotel. I called to the owner and ask him for reimbursement money. He told me, that its impossible, because the apartment meet all requirement. This is a shame! Larissa, USA.