HomeAway

The ONLY confidence you will get is that you will NEVER ever see a dime of your wrongfully withheld "refundable damage deposit". They will make you jump through hoops in the process, hoping you will give up at some point. If you will have the stamina to keep up with this charade, like I did, you will end up with a pathetic boilerplate response that has zero to do with the facts presented, nor with reality in general. STAY AWAY!

Why does Homeaway not have the owners back when a customer uses the credit card system? You are pushing the credit card system on everyone, so I used it for the first time, someone booked my place, stayed there for 10 days and come to find out it was a stolen credit card two months later or the person who used it claimed his credit card was stolen. So someway immediatley pulled all the money back out my bank account (two months later) when technically it wasn't available and even had the audacity to charge me a $29 fee. How can this happen. Owners need protection from either homeway or the credit card processing company you use (Yapstone) for credit card fraud.

WARNING! If you do not update your calendar monthly, they HIDE" your listing from potential renters. I paid $100 extra for a "special offer" to my renters for 5 weeks, but because I didn't also update my calendar, half of what I paid is wasted because no renters can find my "HIDDEN" listing! I asked for cancel of special offer & refund of the remaining 2.5 weeks it's to run, and was told no they don't refund.

So I updated my calendar tonight and now my listing shows up... as a SPECIAL OFFER at the bottom of all other listings. I try to take good care of my customers and expect them to do the same, but apparently they are after every almighty dollar they can scam out of travelers and homeowners.

I will look for another site to use for my listing. It's already on TRIPADVISOR and AirBNB, so just need to find a good replacement for VRBO / Homeaway!

I've used VRBO for several years; this is my 1st with Homeaway. Just learned that it is now VRBO/HA, and very frustrating to use (to say the least, dependent on your problem with them). Can you imagine that this "new" firm can't employ minimally-competent software people to establish a working email service? I couldn't email the owner. This time, on the 2nd try with a service agent via phone, she had the brililant thought to call the owner(Italy), and we conversed in this way - yay! This was important as we had to confirm our 1st meeting. Sooo happy with the luck I had with THIS AGENT -Thank you, "Charlie"(young woman)! The 1st via chat was dumb as a rock, and when he asked "did you try to call the owner?", I knew I reached his gray-cell limit, and my end of my patience ("if I could call, would I be talking to you now? - duh). ---This is very discouraging; I wonder how I will arrange our housing on our next trip, since this firm is now a "zero"? :((

Went to Portland using VRBO which connected us to Barsala. They were extremely helpful, I had no problem getting our room, and they even gave us a free upgrade to an apartment right in the center of the city which was amazing. Their customer service was great, I had someone named Nika helping me through text the whole time and she was readily available to answer all my questions. In the future I will look to use Barsala and VRBO again whenever I need a place to stay.

Not only HA rolls out a non-trivial "service fee" IN THE MIDDLE of contracts that we owners paid for, and there was NO "service fee" under those contracts. T&C state that we the owners can reject any MATERIAL changes to the T&C, and the fee IS a material change - changing from LISTING service to commission based BOOKING service. Not only HA fails to answer what exact "services" it is providing for this now-MANDATORY service fee. Not only they constantly change the "rules of the game" on us. BUT NOW THE FEE IS NOT APPLIED EQUALLY AND UNIFORMLY TO ALL LISTINGS. WHICH MEANS SOME LISTINGS ARE HIT WITH THE FEE AND OTHERS DON'T THUS PUTTING FORMER IN COMPETITIVE DISADVANTAGE. If you ask me, this is DISCRIMINATION against some owners. HA should remove the fee all together AT LEAST until current subscriptions expire. After that, HA should see if it has any subscribers left.

I BOOKED A HOUSE FOR MY FAMILY CHRISTMAS/NEW YEARS VACATION AND I GOT JUST SO DISAPPOINTED. WE BOOKED THE HOUSE ONE MONTH BEFORE OF THE VACATION DATE WHICH WAS DEC, 26 AND 3 DAYS BEFORE THE COMPANY SENT ME AN EMAIL AT NIGHT SAYING THAT MY RESERVATION WAS CANCELLED. WE WERE COMING FROM ANOTHER STATE, WE WERE 10 PEOPLE AND THE TICKETS WAS ALREADY BOUGHT. THEY GAVE ME NO REASON ON THE EMAIL AND JUST SAID THAT I WOULD RECEIVE THE REFUND FOR THE WHOLE AMOUNT IN 3 BUSINESS DAYS. BECAUSE OF THAT I HAD TO RENT ANOTHER LOCATION (OF LAST MINUTE) PAYING ALMOST ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS MORE FOR A HOUSE A LOT OF INFERIOR.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND THE SERVICE AT ALL. THEY HAVE NO COMMITMENT TO THEIR CLIENTS.

We have used vrbo.com for years, to rent vacation properties and never had a problem. They are now related to Homeaway.com. This year we booked a property through the VRBO website 6 months in advance. To do this, you must pay the entire amount for the rental upon booking, with a credit card. My credit card statement cites payment to "Homeaway". (This property's page promised complete refund if cancelled within 30 days of check-in.)

2 months later, noticed the website description was changed. A review had disappeared. When I pursued details, I was told the apartment I rented was on another floor; no reply to my request for them to specify which window(s) had the promised ocean view. (First description said "full ocean view" but changed.) When I told them if I did not get the information I was seeking I wanted to cancel, they sent me an email that the rental was cancelled. This was June 5. Still waiting for the refund. The management first told me that Homeaway would do the refund. Homeaway told me the management must do the refund. Homeaway followed up on my request to their 'help' site to ask me for the manager's address and phone number! They said they would forward my complaint to the manager and 'put a note in the file'.

This manager is still advertising on vrbo. (Although they show no bookings.)

Has Homeaway become a web site address for scammers to bilk customers?

Does HomeAway/vrbo even care? I am so mad about the new service fee, which is keeping our bookings down, and is honestly embarrassing to explain when people ask what the fee is for. I've now responded to inquiries with an explanation that this is a fee us homeowners can't remove, and I apologize. Then I offer them the option of sending us a check instead to avoid the fee...(of course with a 30 day advance, in case the check bounces). This way they feel like they're saving money and getting a deal (and screwing it to the company that is screwing them), and I don't have to pay the credit card fee. But in the end, HomeAway is TAKING AWAY all of the ease of bookings they once raved about.

And on another note... this advertising campaign they've got going... not happy with that either. They are appealing to the "PARTY" crowd... the very group we try desperately to weed out. The latest VRBO ad to pop up in my mailbox says exactly that... PARTY with VRBO...

Seriously guys... do you have ANY idea what we homeowners... WHO PAY YOUR BILL... want?

Home Away? Stay away! My miserable experience with this business started the day following my booking. I was assessed a mysterious 'Pay per Booking' fee of about $40. When I phoned and asked about it upon my return a customer service agent agreed I should not have been assessed this fee. However, they did not refund it. Subsequent calls to the HomeAway customer service department were equally frustrating. They told me they were sorry I didn't find the experience satisfactory, but they were not prepared to do anything about it. The kicker came after I posted a poor review of the property we rented. The owners fired back in a hate filled, vitriolic diatribe filled with xenophobic comments, exaggeration, disclosure of personal information and untruths. Again I called and inquired about allowing this type of response to be posted. Had the response been vetted? A very polite, very articulate senior agent listened to my complaint and said there was nothing they were prepared to do about it. He did say he hoped to retain me as a customer. I said that was unlikely. I also said I would post a review like this one and recommend competitors like Airbnb and House Trip to friends and family.

Buyer beware! As a repeated user of VRBO over the years, we recently had a horrible experience with the "new" HomeAway/VRBO. We rented an apartment in London, paid up front and when we arrived the place was completely different from what was advertised. We moved out that evening and never stayed in the unit after repeated attempts to contact the owner - he ignored us for more than 7 days. Upon returning from our vacation, we contacted HomeAway/VRBO explaining the situation, sent pictures comparing the unit we booked versus the one we were put in and after only a few days HomeAway / VRBO comes back and says that the unit was nearly the same yet without a rug, a tiny couch, no balcony with views, etc.

We will continue to pursue this but if you are considering renting from the new VRBO/HomeAway company know that they totally side with the owner and not the renter.

When I sold my property, I contacted Homeaway to tell me how to easily transition the 13 future guests reservations to the new owner. I was told that I had to cancel all the guests reservations and they could re book with the new owner. I thought that was ludicrous. The new owner called himself and got totally different information. To make a long story short, between the two of us, we have spoken to 7 different customer support, who have made the situation worse, each one given us even worse advice. We were finally told to leave the bookings as they are, and as guests pay, I would just send new owner a check for that amount. That worked great until my listing expired. Now guests cannot pay... after I was assured that my listing would stay active until all monies have been paid. Customer support person number 8 told me that I need to pay for another full year's subscription for that to happen. I have gotten nothing but the run around from the start, and it's still going on after 6 weeks of speaking to an endless group of incompetent people. Worst customer service hands down from any company I've ever dealt with. To add insult to injury, I've spoken 3 times to the company that handles the payments, and I've yet to find an english speaking person. They also have wasted hours of my time with misinformation. I feel like I'm stuck in an endless circle. I'm a healthy person, but I swear, Homeaway is going to give me a heart attack!

DO NOT BOOK THIS VILLA- ORLANDO

HA-6T57KM
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I would like to make other travellers aware of the very strict cancellation policy of this property owner. During the COVID-19 epidemic, we were naturally forced to cancel our Florida holiday in Easter 2020. The property owner refused to reimburse us any of the money apart from the damage deposit of $750, which left us $2574. 40 out of pocket. I assume we would have been receiving this damage deposit after our stay regardless. The property owner even kept the money for heating the pool. Ridiculous! HomeAway urged all their property owners to reimburse their customers as this was unforeseen circumstances, however, HomeAway cannot force the homeowners to reimburse any money. I have spoken to five different people at HomeAway who have all tried to contact the property owner regarding our refund but the property owner has not replied to any of their emails or phone calls. The property owner was informed that our travel insurance was not covering our expenses but she showed no sympathy to our predicament. I would not recommend this property owner to any travellers as I don't want anybody to find themselves in the same situation as it has been very time-consuming and stressful. Do not book this villa!