HomeAway

We're owners of seasonal, vacation rentals and have used the HomeAway/VRBO web-sites on and off for years. We started with them over 10 years ago when it was called Cyberrentals. Back then, it was a flat annual fee and worked out great. Things have changed drastically, and not for the better. I'd expect the annual cost to go up as things do, but we were unpleasantly surprised when a couple of years ago, they started charging the tenants as well. I called and inquired about this and was told it was good for the renter and helped provide them better service. I didn't see it that way and I doubt the tenants did either. I felt it "picked their pocket", made money for HomeAway/VRBO, but did nothing for the client. We stopped using the web-site for a time but decided to give it another try as we purchased another property and wanted to garner some off-season rentals. Now in addition to charging the client an exorbitant amount, they block all phone numbers and e-mails. People used to be able to call me; now they can't. Of course they do this to ensure that people have to use the HomeAway web-site. The poor renters haven't any choice.
Here's the "straw"... If someone puts down a deposit - HomeAway keeps it until the tenant checks in. What if that's months away? They didn't used to do this, I've had people pay on-line with them in the past and it was deposited to my account in a timely fashion.
Let's recap:
1.) We pay to be listed on the web-site - obviously that's fair
2.) The Tenant pays again - to HomeAway to rent our listing, that amount is almost as much as our yearly fee to HomeAway on a 1 week rental.
3.) HomeAway keeps the money, I'm told in an escrow account, where (let's be honest), they're making interest.
I'm done with them - Does anyone have an alternative to this?

The customer service is horrendous. It seems that they cater to the property owners and are very inconsiderate of vacation renters. I had the worst experience with the property owner and the property on arrival of the property. We were unable to open the lock box as it seemed to be jammed. So I contacted the property owner who was extremely rude and called me an idiot. There was mold in the entrance way in the crack of the door, there were several blinds in the condo that were damaged, the shower water in the master bedroom would not shut off and ran for two days straight even though the property owner was contacted and so was Home Away who did absolutely nothing to resolve any of my complaints but stated that everything is at the owner's discretion and asked if I wanted to create a case, in which I have a case number but there was no follow-up on behalf of Home Away, mind you we stayed in this property for 7 days. The owner suggested that he had to call the plumber and asked if I could stay or leave one key in the lockbox for the plumber to get in. RUDE RUDE RUDE... Condescending, no remorse for paying customers. Considering I made the reservation an entire year before my stay, I was unable to get a refund one because we were there for a major event in which the schedule didn't come out in time enough for me to cancel my reservation. Going in I had bad vibes about the owner's ethics as he was rude in the first two emails that were sent to him at the very beginning. I paid my hard earned money to someone who has a "0" apathy and poor interpersonal skills for his renters/tenants. Again, I will never ever utilize Home Away... there was no resolve with them... they are the absolute worst. Very Angry consumer! Every time I think of this experience I become very upset because HomeAway did nothing to support me in this bad situation.

I have used Owners Direct (from today Home&Away) for over 14 years. They have, over the years provided the lions share of rentals to my overseas property to the point where they have appointed me one of their "premium" owners - so I must be earning them loads of "service charge" dosh and have kept my villa a viable proposition - so no complaints from this angle but it is a 2 way street - I am honest and provide a villa as described on the website. I do what I can to ensure my guests get value for money and want to come back - which they do!
HOWEVER - I have noticed, since Home Away took them over - a very clear decline in customer service standards. They are now a large Corporate company that are only interested in maximising their profits and providing minmum value. No regard for either the renter or the owner.
Whenever I have a problem they make it clear it is MY problem and not theirs. They hide behind Corporate gobbledy gook speak and NEVER answer the question you ask. The payment sytem they use is a mess.
On the occasions I have provided feedback with facts and specific incidents - I get the "feedback is a gift" speel but do not acknowlege they have a problem and need to fix it.
I guess I am like thousands of other villa owners in that we are between a rock and a hard place - Home&Away give us the advertising exposure we need but little else - but few good alternatives. Its like an abuse of power.
Rant over!

Hello, Long time HomeAway/VRBO homeowner here - property #*******.

I've spent a little over 2.5 hours discussing with your "resolution team" the fact that for 7 years my Silver Mill Keystone condo was listed under Silver Mill's address along with all the other properties located at 140 Ida Belle Drive. Today, however, it is no longer listed there with the other 17 2-bedroom units who have also been listed there for the past 7 years. Something drastic has changed causing my property -- and only my property -- to not be seen right along with all other units in Silver Mill. VRBO support have suggested that there's no way to include my unit at it's stated and physical address (like the other 17 Silver Mill units with whom I compete). One agent hung up on me when I asked if remedying this issue required an act of Congress or legal action. I find this treatment and explanation troubling to say the least. Rather than correct this location flaw in their system, they would prefer -- indeed fight to sustain -- my listing in "Dillon, CO" which is 10 miles away from the physical address listed. I'm baffled by their support team's resistance to correct the information and search results. When a company becomes so rigid that they reject basic facts and logic, it's probably time to move on. I've asked three times for a call from someone at VRBO who has a deep understanding of their search system and who can explain precisely why they have no desire to list my property where it is physically located, a seemingly defenseless argument. No managers are apparently interested in this unwinnable argument. This flaw in search (which has arisen only recently) is killing our reservations; our repeat customers have contacted us by phone indicating they thought we had removed our property from the rental program. That's how bad our specific findability issue is. Any have any recommendations for a better service. Bill & Sheryl French Silver Mill 8210, https://www.vrbo.com/*******

After successfully and exclusively listing my lakefront vacation rental property since 2011 with HomeAway/VRBO, I have spent much of the past week setting up listings with TripAdvisor, AirBNB, etc. February has historically been a busy month for me with many inquiries and bookings, but this year it dropped off to practically nothing (and that was BEFORE they added their greedy "Service Fee" for travelers). My business has it's own merchant account for secure credit card processing (never hacked or breached, unlike HA's "Secure and Reliable" payment processor OpenEdge/GlobalPayments, which was breached in 2012), and my listing is obviously being negatively impacted by my not using their payment processor. Add to that the new 4-10% "service fee" automatically added to the total rental cost and it's certainly understandable why rental inquiries from HA/VRBO have dropped to practically nothing...
My current HA/VRBO listing expires March 3, and at this point I have no intention to renew with such a greedy, underhanded company that shows such obvious disregard for it's customers... and quite obviously was trying to offset the bad press it's getting by posting fake 5-star reviews on TrustPilot.com!

My negative experience with HomeAway. HomeAway, Inc. is a vacation rental marketplace. We wanted to find an appartment for rent in Miami via this site. I found a pretty good condo and contacted the host. She asked me not to book her condo on HomeAway but to communicate directly with her. I was surprised to hear that but after some research I found out that it's a normal practice for HomeAway hosts. Ok, maybe it's a kind of their policy. The lady lives in Montreal so she asked me to bring prepayment in cash to her place... Ok... We agreed to meet today at noon but as she had asked us to give her a call before coming, I called her twice this morning. Both calls were dropped off. I texted her. No reply. Finally I sent the following message: "I am really sorry, but we decided not to book your property. We followed all the agreements <...> It seams to be very risky for us: if we have any questions or issues on site and you are not reachable it can be a problem. Best regards, Natalia". Her reply was really weird: "No problem Natalia. It's really up to you. During Friday night and Saturday I don't use my phone for religeous reasons. I thought that we agreed to meet today at noon. I didn't know you had more questions. It was never a problem for me with anyone else but like I said it's up to you. I will cancel your reservation. Thank you". So SHE asked us to give her a call before coming, we called her on SUNDAY as discussed (!) and it looks like finally WE did something wrong.
Conclusion:
1. I wanted to leave my complaint on HomeAway site but it was impossible as the property had not been booked yet. There is no customer support section on HomeAway site (!)
2. Why don't they remove accounts that want to get money in cash and off-line? As a customer I am not protected from fraud at all

We have listed our properties on HomeAway, VRBO and their sister sites for years. We had had good success until shortly before they were sold to Expedia. In the run up to the sale, fee structures were changed to effectively inflate the look of earnings by imposing fees on renters when the owners had already paid for annual subscriptions. Then they changed how listings were ranked. Then they started listing properties in locations no where near what a guest is looking for. If there were only one or two properties available, I could understand, but in our market there are over 4,500 listings in the immediate market and even at high season there is still a good selection. Then they took away the ability to communicate between owners and renters until after a guest has made a booking. Many guests in our market, (lots of older snowbirds) like to speak with someone before committing a few thousand dollars for their month+ vacation. Now they are forcing a nightly pricing editor that simply doesn't work for vacation rentals that often can only rent once per month.

Customer service call representatives have poor training and can't resolve problems. They claim no supervisors are available and say some will contact you. A few days will pass, and you might get an template email that doesn't address the issue. If you keep pressing someone will return a call, leave a voicemail saying the case has been closed, without resolving the problem.

I could go on and on about the failures of this company. Expedia fails to appreciate that this is not a nightly, rental market like hotels. Their ads promote vacation home rentals as an alternative to hotels but then turns around and tries to treat them as such.

I have an investment banking background. I understand what is going on and the risks of trying to grow a company. If you are an investor, do some serious due diligence before committing. If you are contemplating listing, expect to be forced to use platforms that don't work for most vacation rentals and certainly don't expect any help from customer service. If you are a renter, do yourself a favor, search the headline for the property you like and book directly with the owner like you used to be able to do, you'll save hundreds.

Homeaway takes no responsibility for their hosts. We scheduled a stay in our own city for this past weekend because we wanted to spend time at a private pool amid the Covid-19 pandemic as our apartment's pool has been closed since March and we are sick of being stuck indoors. Upon paying in full and reserving a property, we tried to open communication channels with the host for the week preceding our stay to no avail. We were regularly in contact with Homeaway customer service who seemed like they had no more control over the host than we did.

The morning of our check-in rolls around and we finally hear from the host 5 hours before we are supposed to arrive at the property. Thank god we're local! Apparently, there is an order from the governor stating that vacation home rentals are reserved for essential staff seeking isolation and they cannot accommodate us. Honestly, wasn't completely surprised by this but what is shocking is that they can still charge our credit card $700 if they are banned from accepting reservations! The host offered to refund or reschedule but has since characteristically vanished and is not returning our calls or texts.

Re-enter Homeaway customer service. It is now the week following our "stay" and we have been advised, after countless phone calls, updates, and "case numbers", that they do not control the flow of money following reservations and refunds are at the discretion of the hosts. In fact, they are so hands off they need to confirm with our unresponsive host that our reservation was not actually completed. Good thing we were in constant contact updating them on our situation! We have given both Homeaway and our host chance after chance after chance given the unusual nature of these times. Just know if you book with this site, there is nobody holding the hosts accountable and your vacation is not secure. We have been scammed out of our money. Book elsewhere with a more reputable vendor or you run the risk of being scammed too.

Found out that HomeAway is now charging a fee to the renter (up to 9-10%) for using my place. How did I find out? By accident, when a renter sent in a request with an unknown fee from HomeAway attached! Looked up some info on the site - what I got:

"to invest more in both marketing efforts to drive increased visitors to our sites, and in features to help make travelers more likely to book"

Called and spoke with customer service who then advises me that the fee will attract more customers - BS - I say - It's a money grab by a publicly traded corp. I guess my $1900 + a year for platinum level advertising wasn't enough? They are now taking a % of the profits and charging the customer. This was a slick way of rolling out a new fee that HomeAway thinks will have less complaints due to the guest getting hit. In actuality, guests do not want to pay these fees which in the end, will likely make them look elsewhere.

The kicker - I ask customer service who pays the merchant transaction/paypal fees on the profits HomeAway is solely making when a renter uses a credit card? I AM! WHY IS THE HOMEOWNER PAYING CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION FEES ON A BILL THAT HOMEWAY IS NOW CHARGING THE CUSTOMER FOR PROFIT? THE OWNER SEES NONE OF THIS BUT PAYS THE CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION FEES?- Response from customer service - We will note your concerns... REALLY?

My advise is dont advertise with them. I had 30 5 stars reviews my property is immaculate, well maintained & cut above many.

I had a guest that trashed my Games room which is part of the house with AC ect. Their 4 children aged 7 to 13 bashed the ceiling & all 4 walls with a pool cue, broke then end off the cue, then used the cue with no end to play pool, they put 17 tears into the newly covered pool table. The room was so bad it needed decorating, the pool table needed recovering. They left the pool deck with trash where they dropped it, the bins where full of maggots where they had thrown food into them, in high heat.
HomeAway will allow that guest that had no respect for my home, leave a 1star rating because I would not be blackmailed by the guest into refunding their Security Deposit. I am well out of pocket & now, the guest accuses me of fraud & much more & HomeAway will publish the report to trash my Business. I will of course be seeing HomeAway & the Guest in court for printing that I am a fraud & other information that is totally untrue.

On day 2 of this guests stay they wrote to me & asked to stay longer as the place was so nice. I have all the emails & pictures but HomeAway would not discuss with us & in fact I had to make 4 calls because 3 times HomeAway just hung up on me.

NOW HOW fair is this. Yes not at all

An update

Finally HomeAway saw sense & stopped th 3rd version of the review from being published but I had to point out that under UK law they could not use the material in the review because it was liable but what a fight to get justice. There is something wrong with their system that can trash innocent people that actually pay their wages with the costly advertising fees.

Buyer Beware! No booking with Home Away is guaranteed. You are likely to be let down at the last moment - just when you are getting ready to go on vacation. They do not honour their terms of business re trying to get alternative accommodation up to the first seven days of your vacation. See response sent to me.

Dear David,

Thank you for contacting Vrbo.com Customer Support.

My name is Yusra and I am the Team Lead for the Traveller Care Team.

We received your complaint that you send over to us regarding the property that you booked and paid for. We understand the owner cancelled your booking due to not being able to accommodate you.

We do apologise for the inconvenience this situation has caused you. We are an advertising platform and it is purely the owners responsibility to honor the agreement between yourself and the owner.

Has the owner refunded the funds you paid?

Unfortunately, we cannot compensate for any losses that you have occurred as per our terms and conditions.

We will log this as a formal complaint on the owners account as they did cancel the booking closer to the check in date which will negatively impact your listing.

We do always recommend all our travellers to take out travel insurance to cover these type of issues.

I'm more than happy to give you a call to discuss the above. Please let me know when it's a suitable time so I can call you or alternatively, if you prefer to be assisted via Email. Please reply back to this e-mail and I will be at your disposal.

Visit help.vrbo.com for answers to frequently asked questions.

Best regards,

Yusra
Vrbo.com Customer Support Lead

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