HomeAway

On August 7-9, myself and nine others rented Jack Bell's yacht, otherwise known as the Morning Mist. This yacht usually resides in San Francisco, however, since we wanted to enjoy the water activities ( jet ski, boat, kayak), Jack Bell moved the location to the Delta, and anchored the yacht onto a "private island".

Beware: the private island consists of weeds, and a little bit of sand in front of the weeds that is only noticeable in the morning during low tide (false advertisement)... he made it seem as though it was beautiful when in actuality your trip will consist of staring at weeds.

Jack Bell and his wife Trisha were horrible. They should not be renting out their yacht. Long story short, we basically rented the yacht to conform and comply with their needs, as opposed to them catering to their guests (such as a hotel that rents rooms to others). We basically paid for them to be our guests.

Here is what you should expect f you rent this yacht:

1. You will be checked up on every two minutes (not exaggerating)

2. You will not be supplied with power after 1 a.m. (so charge your phones early, and don't you dare try to watch a movie. By the way, when the power is out, so is flushing power to toilets, so prepare for the stench)

3. You can not listen to the music you'd like ( as they stated, they are Christian- so you must cater to them)

4. Trish freaking out, stressing and pouring glasses of wine to cope with thinking her husband is practicing infidelity with women who are on the boat.

5. Trish spazzing out and yelling while running into her cabin stating, "I can't take this anymore" (very unprofessional)

6. Threatened to have the coast guard called on you because you drink alcohol.

7. Your food/ drinks being thrown out (they are inconsiderate- we made food and tea in which Trish threw out when she was making breakfast- even though the kettle was still hot... common sense would tell you that it was barely made and we are not leaving it there for you to clean, we will gladly do so ourselves)

8. Toilets not working. ( the smell of the toilets stunk so bad, it was hard to sleep with the stench)

9. Rude remarks from Jack Bell ( he made comments about a woman's weight on the yacht).

10. Tons of spiders and mosquitoes ( I went home with at least ten bites)

11. Murky water

12. Old water toys that break down (yacht, boat, jet ski).

Positive:

1. Breakfast is included, and is good.

As I stated earlier, these people rent their yacht out with expectations that their guests are there to conform to them, as opposed to them catering to their guests. They should not rent their yacht out since that is their expectation.

They provided each and every one of us with a horrible weekend.
Oh, and by the way, the yacht is not very pretty, it looks better in pictures.

I booked a property in NY with Homeaway and made a full payment to Homeaway 2 months before I was due to move into the property. Having arrived in NY from London I was then not able to make contact with the property owner and did not move into the property but had to find alternative accommodation at short notice with airbnb.

I contacted Homeaway trust and security department ASAP to advise that I could not get a hold of the property owner, they also attempted to contact the host and was also unsuccessful. I was told that my payment had not been made to the host but was being held with Homeaway's sister company VRP (vacation rental property) however I still could not get a refund as Homeaway do not give refunds. 3 days later although I had not moved into the property and Homeaway were well aware that I had not moved in (they advised me to go to the police station and report my issue as a crime) they processed the payment and paid the property owner. Luckily for me 2-3 weeks later; after returning back home to London, after numerous calls and emails to Homeaway, after carrying out my own detective work, after finding the host on social media, after finding out where he worked and emailing his CEO (as he had ignored emails, voice messages etc) I finally had a response from the owner, who has given a hell of a story regarding why he didn't respond to calls or emails.

A month after returning home I am now still fighting to get a refund, Homeaway have done nothing to help, they did nothing to try and stop the payment being processed in the first place and any responses from them has now been that the contract was between myself and the property owner, they are only an advertising platform. Avoid booking rental properties with Homeaway, they do not carry out proper checks, had this been a fraudster Homeaway would have processed a payment to them.

AVOID, QUESTIONABLE BUSINESS ETHICS, BREEDING GROUND FOR FRAUDSTERS

Up until this past weekend, I had good luck (apparently that is rare) with HomeAway.com and VRBO.com - I was not happy about their sudden increase in fees as most homeowners have stated here, but my number of bookings seemed to justify the fees overall.
This past weekend, I hosted 11 people, Mr. Younan Hasado, who caused well over $2,500 in damages to my home. A kitchen cabinet was completely torn from the wall, another cabinet door was split in half, there are missing shelves to the refrigerator, two broken windows, two broken window sills, excessive staining on the carpet, vomit on the furniture, a large hole in my vinyl siding, a bent metal entry door (which will not close and poses a safety issue) and the cleaning company is going to charge me double ($175) for the 16 bags of garbage - steam cleaning the furniture and carpets and cleaning all the vomit from every trash can and bathroom in the house.
As with all of my rentals, I selected to have guests pay for the insurance policy to cover damages. Beware, this is a scam as the insurance will only cover for ACCIDENTAL losses and they can refuse to reimburse for ANY damages they consider or deem as not accidental. Guess which category my claim falls under?
Both the insurance company and HomeAway.com are unwilling to take any responsibility and their answers are to refer me to each other. Although both are making money from the homeowners and guests, when it comes down to an issue for their failure to vet out the guests or provide honest and transparent information, neither will protect or defend the homeowner. I am left holding the bag and will be forced to hire an attorney, pay for the attorney, court costs and collection fees and in the end, will likely never recoup a dime.
HomeAway.com should be ashamed of their business model and scam-like predatory practices in roping the guests and homeowners into purchasing a fake insurance for $59 per reservation. To date, the insurance has received over $1,900 in fees from my reservations and it is only March.
HomeAway.com presents itself as a legitimate company and decrees how wonderful their process, customer services and hosting possibilities are, but they fail to tell both the guest and homeowner that in the event of a loss or problem, you are on your own.
I advise anyone reading this to pull their listings ASAP and at all costs, avoid the insurance company CSA Travel Protection Insurance Company.
Ms. Rose

Stayed in condo J102 from 06/19/15 to 06/25/15 with family of three adults, two teenagers and 14 month old baby. Good size condo with large main bedroom having it's own ensuite bathroom and bath and a walk in wardrobe. Downside - unfortunately there are 5 air conditioning compressors directly outside this room which come on and off all at different times throughout the night making it impossible to have a good night's sleep. Second bedroom has two single beds with another bathroom with a shower/toilet. Downside - the mattresses on the beds were thin and uncomfortable. Good size lounge and well equipped kitchen. Crockery and pans limited with many plates showing chips and wear. Be prepared to buy all products as there was only some dish washing liquid and one roll of kitchen paper and some alfoil. The lounge has direct access to a very small pool and two small spas. There is a cover over verandah with tables and chairs where you look onto the pool. There is an old sofa loung suite which opens to make a bed. This was neither comfortable to sit on and certainly not adequate for one adult to sleep on! Very poor Management communication and their customer service was nil. I say this as one evening we experienced lots of adults consuming alcohol (Beer) whilst sitting in the pool. The children didn't want to go in the pool as the noise was increasing as the night went on. Even at 11:30pm children were slashing and screaming in the pool. When I sent a polite message to Management of this unit I was told that it is permitted for people to drink beer and be in the pool until midnight. What they failed to check were two signs stating the pool closed at 10pm and security would enforce this rule. I never saw a security person the whole 6 days we stayed. We were told to wear resort wrist bands and yet we were the only guests wearing them. The good point is the condo is walking distance to The Schlitlerbahn water slide. Okay for a family holiday but not in anyway luxurious for the amount of money we paid.

I am in a staged house in fl, it's set up to sell not rent. It has no sheets on 2 of the beds, the master bed has sheets that do not fit and feel and smell dirty and the mattress is Grosse
The air didn't work when we arrived so had to stay in hotel 1st night, Internet wouldn't work with my wireless laptop, I had to call the owners internet company to try and fix, I ened up going to Walmart to buy a Ethernet line to hard wire it so I could get some of my work done, the owner sent out the internet people and he said the owner paid for the cheapest service offered and it didn't include wireless internet.
Then I saw cockroach s in the living room and had to sweep one outside. Than there were huge ants in the bathroom when I got up in the middle of the night. The house feels dirty...
Also someone came in the house while we were gone because there was a vacuum in the pantry, now was gone. I am out of here, I don't feel safe and it feel really dirty... I tried to find a number to reach homeway. No luck I should have looked up the reviews first
The old saying is true if it sounds to good to be true, it is... trying to get back my 1400. 00
STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY

Update from this slim ball owner. I received an email from the insurance company that I booked my deposit through on this property, stating that the owner tried to file a claim against me for $4800. 00 for a new air condition unit. What a joke! We only stayed there 1 night and the air was already broke, um that's why we couldn't stay there the first night and went to a hotel. I told the insurance company to deny the claim, I sent them all the emails and texts and yes they denied the claim.
The owner of this property is a millionaire, I wonder if this is how he got there. What a lowlife scumbag.
AS OF 1/26/16 This scumbag is still trying to fight my chargeback but I will win... I have God on my side...

I recently had my first experience of dealing with "HomeAway". It will certainly be my last. HomeAway SIMPLY SWALLOWED MY MONEY AND LEFT ME AND MY WIFE WITH NOWHERE TO STAY.

We had booked our accommodation on line and the confirmation from HomeAway said: "Your reservation is confirmed. PAID. We have charged your credit card for the full payment of this reservation."

They added: "To make arrangements for check-in please contact the property at least 72 hours before arrival. When we did this (by email), the owner of the property, a Mrs Yanni Tong, demanded that we pay $150 into her personal bank account before she proceeded. We told her that we refused to do this and that we would come to the property at the agreed time and would expect to be checked in. When we arrived at the property we were met by Mrs Yanni Tong's daughter, who demanded $150 in cash before she would let us check in. This we, again, refused to do. (The property, incidentally, is in Thames Street, Box Hill, Australia, and my wife and I had just flown from Manila. Imagine how we felt. WE HAD NOWHERE TO STAY.)

When we submitted a complaint to HomeAway we were given the reference Case # ******* and were then embroiled in never-ending correspondence with different people in the HomeAway organisation but received no satisfaction whatsoever. They just wasted our time.

However, it was HomeAway that took our money, not Mrs Yanni Tong, and it is HomeAway that is refusing to give us back our money. What a company!

In our correspondence with HomeAway we have discovered that they are interlinked with other companies called Travelscape, LLC (that's one company), VRBO and VacationRentals.

So maybe Travelscape, LLC, VRBO and VacationRentals are all good companies to avoid.

I hope that what I have written will be a warning to other travellers.

Dr David Clarke

Homeaway complaint
Ibiza town, property number #******* contact: encar

1. Owner cancelled booking, doubled prices, then re advertised

We booked our family villa holiday Aug 2017 for June 2018 holiday.
We contacted owner December 2017 to confirm all ok prior to booking 8 return flights.
January 2018 we received emails from owner (whom we had spoken to and she confirmed all was ok, 4 weeks prior) stating she did not know how booking was made, it was not her, she was cancelling and refunding payment. However, if we would like to re book, our dates are available - albeit the price had been more than doubled!

We now had 8 return flights booked and no accommodation.

We contacted Homeaway, they were not interested and we were not even allowed to leave a review, as we had not stayed there.

They suggested we go through their on line complaints procedure, we did, we received 1 email acknowledging our complaint, advising they would investigate. Then nothing, except an email to rate them on their service on the matter!

2. Refunded payment £142 less than paid. Homeaway not interested

I paid original reservation deposit, about £1,400 and homeaway book with confidence insurance fee, about £350 through the homeaway web site using my barclaycard.
Upon receiving my refund, some weeks later, it was £142 less than originally paid.
This was due to international payment charges incurred on payments out and payment refunded and the fact that the euro exchange rate had weakened from original booking to refund.
I explained all this to homeaway and they werent interested. They said they were bank charges, nothing to do with them.
I reminded them that we had done nothing wrong. We had booked through Homeaway, paid through homeaway, it was cancelled through homeaway by their customer, and we were refunded through the homeaway process. Why should we not receive every penny we had been originally charged?
I then contacted Barclaycard directly and explained the situation. They were very professional and informed me that it is the merchants duty to refund original sum in full, including all charges etc. Barclaycard then said they would credit my account immediately and take the matter up with homeaway. Hooray for Barclaycard

Summary
Homeaway holiday bookings - BEWARE
You are NOT protected through homeaway
You will get NO help from homeaway
All homeaway are interested in is their fees and an automated booking process.
Anything that does not fit this formula, they will not rectify.

I have advertised my property on Homeaway since 208. If you had asked me 3 years ago to rate the company I'd have given them a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars. If you asked me now I'd give them less than zero! When Expedia acquired Homeaway in Nov of 2015, the press release read, "It's a Game Changer". I've personally come to find out that the underlying message there was that it was a game changer for the owners and at the owners expense. In the past, I had a wonderfully successful steady stream of rentals and income for my single vacation home investment property in the Pocono Mountains of PA. At exactly the same time as the Expedia acquisition and since, I've experienced a steady decline despite having made no changes to my Platinum listing and keeping current on all of the recommended tools to keep the highest possible search position. My business is now less than half of what it was and there is no end in sight to the decline. It's uncanny that I have noticed many other owners reviews with the exact same experience. Homeaway has become a greedy bully of the worst kind at the expense of the owners and now also at the expense of the renters. This site at one time recognized the owners as their customer base and has completely flipped. They now see the vacationers as their customer base and at the expense of the owners. They recently started charging travelers 6-9% fees to use the on-line booking service and are now forcing owners to have to use that service or suffer the consequences of reduced visibility on the site. The algorithm and best match B. S. they are touting is nothing but a cover. They are using their technology platform and monopoly of the market to line their pockets. My Premium annual fee was about $900.00 which I believed to be a fair price for the performance. So lets say they now drop that to $300-$400 but exact 6-9% in fees from the travelers. That would equate to approximately $3870. 00 based on my 3 yr avg revenue 2013-2015. You do the math. Travelers have a budget and they have lots of choices and this practice does nothing but force home owners to drop our rates in order to remain competitive. The Expedia acquisition has ruined Homeaway and has ruined my business to the extent that I now have my property on the market. Very sad indeed. I only wish that I'd realized what was happening and sought out alternatives sooner. I'm absolutely disgusted with Homeaway and will not be renewing my listing with them and I urge other owners to do the same before its too late for you as well.

Homeaway WORKS, if you know how to take your own precautions. ASK FOR MORE PHOTOS. BUILD UP AN OWNER-RENTER RELATIONSHIP and use YOUR JUDGMENT. ALWAYS phone the owner using the phone number provided on the ad and speak several times to the owners about the property and amenities and confirm the dates. Call for instructions on how to get to the property etc. You will easily be able to check and especially if you ask for a few more photos of the property, than provided on the site. Agencies may visit the property to take photos, but they do not control the properties, so do not expect an agency to be able to guarantee everything is perfect. You have to ask owner to take photos himself of an area not shown on the ad, for instance. Be SMART! The correct owner with standards will be happy to communicate additional important information as the owner too, needs to be feeling 'safe' about the renter. WORK TOGETHER on the choice of suitability.
The REAL crooks are the rash of British agencies which charge 20% -40% commission on the rental and put the price up without offering anything more than you would get from Homeaway as they have most of the time not seen the property themselves EVER and do not care about the damages to the properties or the problems of the owners. If they have a problem they just remove the property from their listings. The worst agencies are the ones pretending to be 'exclusive' which are based in a Tax Haven! They really are not to be trusted!
We have rented with Homeaway since 2008 and they provide the best selection of properties in the world for the least cost to owner and renter. The agencies charge both 4 times more and do not protect either the owner or the renter when there is a problem. They just call themselves 'exclusive', charge and drop the property if there is a problem caused by the renter! THAT is far more dishonest.
It is always better to rent DIRECTLY from the OWNER and it is essential to contact them before you book. Owner and renter must talk directly to each other and this is what Homeaway is for and why we definitely prefer them to the pompous agencies we have used to rent our property.