HomeAway

We rented an apartment in Brooklyn, NY, which was shabby and poorly maintained, and did not match the description of "elegant with modern appliances." The most glaring problems were a space heater in the bathroom with a frayed electric cord, constant loud noise from the entranceway and apartments above usually until 2-3 am, and our door being broken into by bursting the locks off the wood, possibly due to the lease renters not locking the doors to the street. The owner did not take any responsibility and Homeaway said their policy is to let renters settle disputes with the owner as they are only responsible for "bringing owners and travelers together." The owner of property #******* is a former lawyer, with on-line information stating he was disbarred for embezzlement from clients. Beware of renting at 154 Washington Avenue!

After several round of phone transfers & being placed on hold, someone eventually agreed to begin the process of returning our money. Yes, It's a Process! Rather than reversing the charges and refunding, there's a form to complete & 4-6 week wait for my money back. It feels like they're just trying to blow me off in the hope I'll go away. Considering we were charged FIVE times for an attempted rental due to their websites report "payment cannot process, please try again later" - I will not just go away.

We have rented from HomeAway.com for several years, both in the US and abroad. This year I visited the house for which we had paid over $3000. 00 for our annual family weekend. I found mold in the refrigerators, a section of roof collapsed, and the bedroom below with sagging ceiling, front cement steps basically collapsed, stained mattresses, and dirt throughout (and they knew we were coming!).

Homeaway instructed me to call the owner for a refund and refused to help any further. Luckily, he refunded our money a few days after I told him I had a "case number" with Homeaway's complaint department.

There are many sites that are in the same home rental business. Use them instead of Homeaway. Com or any of their "family" (VRBO etc.) We have been shocked by Homeaway's total lack of concern for their customers.

Been doing business with VRBO for 12 years, started as good service, has turned to crap since the acquisition by Expedia. I am not going to renew my 2 listings as they have done everything in their power to take more money from the owners and renters. It's no longer a good deal... I hope all owners revolt and cancel their subscriptions. That's the only thing that is going to teach these thieves a lesson. By the time they cancel this stupid change on payments, many will be gone and set up through another advertising source.

I have used this website in the past to find lodging. I will rethink that action as after staying at a very mismanaged property/mold, etc... I tried to write in a negative review. The owner disputed this review. After several phone calls and an email requesting 3 or more types of documentation - rental agreement, picture inside the property, receipt, etc. (1 of which should be more than sufficient). I found that the "customer service" at this company is almost completely totally lacking, in specific Ron was unhelpful and rude on call. I would avoid this company and try for other companies that are showing up trying to do this process right. Beware Homeaway, VRBO, and vacation rentals.com are all the same company.

Look out! This company holds your listing for ransom until you agree to their flawed logic. I have paid but now not getting the service and too many of their reps only read from scripted materiel and cannot make decisions. I asked to speak to a supervisor (Steven, if that's his real name) and it took half an hour and he could not nor would not address my issue and hung up on me! I tried to get him back on the line and was told he would call back (48 hrs ago!).

On October 2016 it took some navigating around the site to reach customer support's phone or email, no 'Contact Us' at the bottom of the page. Secondly, the owner gets to rate 1-5 on the following: overall experience, cleanliness, house rules and communication with no explanation/comments. Thirdly, I received my rating after having reviewed my stay which mysteriously they lost (a long but thorough paragraph which words I now eat). I had only a month to review, and then was locked out even in responding to or questioning the owner's rating - no open rebuttal. I could go on.

I gave it two because I did not have a hard time getting and staying at the place but would not recommend.

Simply put, HomeAway is not what it was when we signed up with them seven years ago. All of the other reviews left here have confirmed everything that we suspected - thank you very much for your input. We are a rental owner and our inquiries have dropped to almost nothing this year. In prior years, we were responding to inquiries several times or more a week. Now, it almost seems like a waste of time to even check to see if anyone has inquired. This lack of inquiries has also translated into a decrease in bookings. Consequently, we will NOT be renewing with HomeAway and will be looking for other sites to on which to advertise. Too bad - Homeaway used to be a simple, straight-forward way for "mom-and-pop" businesses to get wide advertising coverage without the customer needing to go through a middle man. That has all now been turned on its head - HomeAway is now just another money-grubbing big business just looking out for themselves.

Tried to reserve a property and began initial correspondence with the property owner. Home Away then sent me an email saying the property was a fraud and I should stop all correspondence. WHAT? You don't vet your properties before listing them on your website? Now some creep has my name and address, they are lucky I did not give this criminal my payment information. Their "security" department, just said, "Sorry, this one slipped through the cracks". Really? How can I ever trust that any property is valid. I would NOT use this site to list my rental property.

We requested a place in Beverly Hills, CA for a week stay. Found a place that was available for the dates we needed. The owner claims to contact you within a few hours... so we went ahead and booked our airfare, bought tickets to attractions, etc. Had not heard from her all day. Sent another message and she responded that it would be 2 days before she would be able to let us know? Days pasted. Nothing Now we are getting nervous. She finally responds days later with an email. "Changed mind my rental will not be available". That was it. If I didn't check my messages I would have never known... Yet she still has the full month available and there is no where to leave a review to ward future potential renters that is what gets me the most. What a joke. Being a popular place there are now no rentals left with this short of notice so we have round trip airfare and no where to stay. I will never again use HomeAway

In my Opinion Place was not clean for checking, AC control in cage and turn off at night, use surveillance to discriminate on guest and fabricate excuses to not return deposit. Home away don't help.
Booking with confidence isn't true. They are also VRBO