HomeAwayReviews 1,751

We tried to book some holiday accommodation with Homeaway in Australia, and we found ourselves wasting our time for almost one full week, without success. We didnt get an answer within 24h for the first 2 properties we made a booking request for, so these booking were cancelled, and with the other 2 properties we tried to book, the price quoted on the website was significantly lower than what the owners requested when they contacted us, so these 2 bookings were cancelled as well. Each time, we had to provide our credit car details, and commit to pay 50% of the fee, So obviously we could only made one request at a time. While we were wasting our time, other properties were being booked, and we are lucky we finished up finding something, not through Homeaway, though! I sent a customer feedback to Homeaway, and I never received an answer.

I used the Homeaway site is January to booked a holiday for July, paid my deposit and received my confirmation email from both the site and the property owner.

However 7 weeks before the holiday when I had problems paying the final balance, I contacted them to be told the holiday had been cancelled or lost in the system and the dates we had booked were now booked by someone else. They never once contacted me regarding this and after spending a full day ringing both them and the property owner whom both just blamed the other I was told they would refund my deposit but I would be without a holiday and there was nothing they could do about it.

I asked to speak to a manager or supervisor and was told they didnt speak over the phone and that there was no email address for them.

The customer service was absolutely shocking and all that they did was blame each other, which did not help me and which ever one was to blame it certainly wasnt me.

They offered me more expensive holidays and said that they did not need to compensate me as they take no responsibility for any problems.

I would never recommend this site to anyone, in fact I would recommend you avoid at all costs. Unless you want your holiday totally balls right up. DO NOT USE.

I have been in so many issues with them almost for 9 weeks to get my refund! I used them to rent an apartment in FL. They put in in Sonder property! Very basic apartment has nothing of the basic options that anyone need. Second day they forced us to move to another apartment with a broken AC So I had to cancel the reservation. 9 weeks and I haven't received my refund and I stock between Homeaway and Sonder as no one want say we have your money a s we will refund you! So I had to dispute it and I will file a complain on the business bearu.
Don't use Home away or Sonder. They are scam!

Very disappointed with Homeaway.

The photographs on the Home and Away site were misrepresentative, out of date and misleading. A beautiful sea view was shown, being the main reason we booked the apartment, when in actual fact there was an ugly building site slap bang in front of the apartment, obscuring most of the sea view. I understand that these building works commenced two months before we booked, so the owner should have shown up to date photos.

To add insult to injury, the owner of the apartment retained our 200 euro damage deposit for damage we did not cause - this damage was in an area of the apartment which we did not use.

I complained to Home and Away, but Im afraid they were not at all helpful. They say they have 'proof' the damage was caused by us. I've asked to see this proof, but it still has not materialised.

Homeaway state they are purely a venue for advertising and are not directly involved with the contractual obligations of either side during the rental process. The booking is a private contract between us and the owne

Dont loose your money with them
As owners stop pay subscriptions or make bussiness with them. THEY DONT PAY BACK THE OWNERS AND THEY KEEP THE PAYMENTS FROM THE GUESTS
Make dispute to your bank and get your money from subscriptions and dont

I've been on Airbnb for over a year, and get paid instantly 24 hours after my guests have checked in. I signed up for Home Away, & have been waiting for 2 weeks! I've read that for new property listings, they can take 1 month! If I wanted to work for FREE, I'd give the rooms away to charity. I do not Want to Work For FREE! If you don't want to work for FREE, Avoid VRBO / Home Away! My listing is hidden until I get paid. I do not want to give anymore room nights away! All that cleaning and laundry is hard work!

I joined both Airbnb and HomeAway as a Host, I got many inquiries and bookings with Airbnb but not even one inquiry through HomeAway. I e mailed HomeAway twice asking them to check my listing but got no reply, so I tried to deactivate my account - there was no way for me to do this myself so had to contact their Chat service - I communicated with 2 different reps. But they were either unable or unwilling to deactivate my account and delete my listings. I have been able to turn off my listings but am unable to deactivate or delete. Terrible!

As a property owner using the various Homeaway sites for 10 years I'm disgusted of what this at one time Excellent company has become. They use to provide excellent customer service at a reasonable price. Due to their success they have become greedy more than doubling their yearly listing fees, forcing everybody to use their online booking and charging both renters and owners (that already pay a listing fee) exorbitant per rental fees. They treat the owners like dirt when the owners are the ones that provide them the properties to rent out which made them a success.

Rented a room in a home through Homeaway, owner totally misrepresented. I had to find somewhere else to stay at 2 a.m. after I couldn't stay at the place I rented. Contacted Homeaway and got the run around, they didn't care, said they would contact the owner... what do they think the owner will say? Such a joke! Why wouldn't they take the listing down until the complaint is resolved? Why would Homeaway continue to allow the consumer to be hurt? Never again will I use this or any other site operated by Expedia... Nothing but a bunch of scammers!

Malibu California Rental Disaster
We rented a property thru Home Away in Malibu for my birthday last year. I rented few months in advanced to celebrate with family and friends. We were schedule to stay from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon we had a total of 7 adults 2 teens and 2 kids under age of 7. My wife, a friend and I came to the house first. As we entered the house and opened the front door, we notice that the house was no kept up as it stated on the website. As we continue to enter to the house, we began to see that something was not right, but we gave the benefit of doubt. While making our rounds thru each room, we smelled a strong smell of gas, the stove was missing all the knobs and there where outlets throughout the house that were not working, so they found a solution by running construction extension cords around the house to make up for it. In any case, the gas smell was just too much and we had to call the Gas Company and the rental property. Gas company red tag the gas outlet and shut it off completely. At this point we had no gas, no hot water running on the entire house. The Home Away Company said to wait it off and that they will have a report man show up in no time. No one showed up until next mid-day. At this point no one helped to accommodate us and place us on a safer location. At the end of the day, we were 3 days with no hot water, no stove and no electricity. The most embarrassing moments of my life, mind you we paid a pretty penny for the rental. I have been strong along for a year trying to get compensated for this issue. Neither Home Away nor the renter has done anything to fix the issue. They did offer 2 days stay for free but they require for me to call the week of in order to get the property if available. For several months I have been trying to get information and neither party was helpful. I WOULD RECOMENT TO STAY AWAY FROM RENTING THROUG HOME AWAY. Worst companies that I have ever dealt with, I would not stop and will be demanding compensation one way or another. Moving forward, I will only rent through VRBO.