HomeAway

A phone call to protest the unilateral decision by the Homeaway, Vacation Rentals, VRBO vacation rental listing company to impose up to a 9% fee on our guests said it all. Well sir,
Another service charges up to 12%! I responded by noting they don't charge us as owners up to $1,000 per property to list with them and secondly, we don't advertise with that company because we feel they are heavy handed in the charges to the traveler. With Homeaway's suite of listing sites, we have seen a precipitous drop in inquires since the decision was made to simply IMPOSE these fees on our travelers. The net effect is we are paying more for less! If you are considering listing your property with these folks, know that the historical success of listing here has been adversely affected by the company's ill advised money grab. And we know other property owners who are experiencing the same drop off. We are not unique.

We booked a short break through homeaway.co.uk

The owner took a huge damage deposit upon booking. After leaving they told us we had caused a stain on the fitted sheet. We were very careful and this was definitely not us, and we did clean the property thoroughly. They have retained 99 Euros of our deposit to apparently pay for a replacement sheet. HomeAway have been of no help and said it's not their job to mediate. They say it's not covered by their 'book with confidence guarantee'.

An expensive mistake, especially considering that the owner took 30 Euros of our money just to have the actual sheets in the first place.

They also, currently, have not published my negative review on the site - so be vary wary of the reviews on there.

I have been a host for over 5 years. I now have multiple properties & while Airbnb could make some improvements, they are light years ahead of Homeaway & VRBO. As an experienced host I feel that how they run their business & their customer service is the bottom of the barrel. Even their supervisors can't answer simple questions, are rude & poorly trained. As a host, this company just isn't worth your time. It's way more stress & problems than its worth.

I went on homeaway.com checking out rentals for our upcoming trip to Las Vegas. I checked out several places that said that the dates we wanted were available. I sent emails to book 4 places, getting replies from each saying they were not available. What a waste of my time waiting for a reply before trying to book another place! I won't use this site ever again.

You cannot trust anything you see or read on the websites run by Homeaway! They are not in the business of quality control or information integrity, just a middleman collecting fees and placing all accountability as far away from their website platform as possible. I was double charged for a single booking even though the first was rejected in their system and they stated as much to my bank but obvious they just issue a authorization for everything regardless. Then I was contacted by the owner stating the property was not available meaning a double charge and no place to stay! Zero system accountability. I had to go to great lengths to get everything reversed and have Homeaway take responsibility for their lousy platform and zero accountability business model. Not worth the headache. Another case of Internet commerce pirates laughing all the way to the bank while the people doing doing the heavy lifting get screwed.

No good at all. 1. Could not put our Motor Cycles in the garage because the owner lied and said it was rented out to someone and it was her car. We rented the house because it had a yard and garage. 2. The owner made it plain the her DOGS were going to use the yard for their business when each needed. Poop was left in the yard. 3. The cleaning staff was in and out of the garage getting cleaning supplies. 3. Back steps to porch rotten. No lawn furniture. 4. House needed to be dusted. 5. White Carpet needed cleaning. 6. Dirty front door glass. 7. Kitchen stove needs updating. When traveling I rent to live as well as we do when home. No CABLE TV, she wants you to watch DVD. Jet tub dirty. Cameras from office are turned towards house. Desk in office is set with window open to watch renters front and back. Will never use HOMEAWAY AGAIN.

I've now contacted HomeAway customer service three times. Every single time has been a painful experience. It is almost as if their agents speak english as a second language. On the last call, they transferred me to a "higher level" and the person I spoke with then was far more competent. It was an actual conversation between two people that achieved the goal of my call in a straightforward way - the OPPOSITE of what occurred with the other three calls!

HomeAway claims that they allow a year for renters to review the properties they rent, but that's not true. We rented a house in New Hampshire from HomeAway. It had some positives but many serious problems, including safety issues, maintenance and cleanliness. We waited to receive our deposit back before rating, and we tried to file the rating exactly 1 month after leaving the property. HomeAway said we were too late to rate it. Again, they advertise 1 year. The property was disappointing and HomeAway even more disappointing. Maybe that's how they keep the ratings high.

VRBO is a brand of Homeaway... and you will notice that they are pushing everyone toward the Homeaway name and trying to quietly eliminate the "BY OWNER" part. Why? They want to compete with AIRBNB which is a totally online booking venue. They don't want the consumer to feel that they are renting from an "owner"... they want to be the retailer or our homes. Eventually, they want to wrench all control from our hands so that we just get notice of bookings the way hotels do. Sad fact... they are letting go of the real identity of their brand and opening themselves up to compete for property owner listings with every other Tom, $#*! and Harry who opens a site. And, some smart person will realize this and think that the millions that Expedia has determined "not enough" is plenty of the pie... and duplicate the "old" listing model.

I would never use this website again! After searching and looking at listing for several weeks I found one that I had seen listed several times before and that was available for our stay. Only after I had already paid for this rental and was traveling to the location did I receive an email from HomeAway informing me that the listing may be fraudulent and not to send any money. I called them right away and they really didn't care about my situation. We were using the rental as somewhere for our family to stay while we had surgery. They offered me no help in finding another place and told me there was nothing they could do!

We had a horrible experience with HomeAway. They also don't accept negative reviews of the properties. I stayed in the Salzburg castle with my sisters at the end of June. The owner Christine very rudely told us we could not stay there as she double booked it, even though I confirmed with her an hour before. There were also 84 steps after reaching the top of the funicular which was not mentioned in the property description. And ALSO, the owner Christine has a room in the apartment and she comes and goes as she pleases.

Absolutely shocking company to deal with Worst customer service ever.
8 months before our trip to America, we booked our villa For 20 people 6 weeks before departure. After full payment had been made, our villa was changed,(Without informing us) to a new villa that would not accommodate us all.
They left us in an awful situation of trying to find a new American villa for 20 people over the Easter period With 6 weeks to go.

Even though it was their error, we did not have a full refund and had to wait 10 days before getting most of the money back. I had to chase both companies, Home and away and Executive villas( who you can never get through to) for refunds which was not Fully returned to us, no matter how many times I contacted them. It was one excuse after the other.
Be aware they say they have no responsibility after booking and you have to deal with the owner. They just take a finders fee are are no help after booking