HomeAway

Here is why I am leaving:
* No longer possible to contact customers before they pay and thereby offer a better and more personal service, adjusted to the specific requirements of the customer.
*Exorbitant 12 %increase for so called service fee when no service is provided
*All kinds of newspeak/jargon to justify extra rules and charges
*Used to be called owner s direct, no longer direct...
*From what I read on the internet I am part of a groundswell of resentment at such greed on the part of this company.
I will not be renewing my subscription, along with many others.

I have had a vacation rental listing on Homeaway's VRBO site for over 5 years. I have always felt I got value for my fees. However, while keeping my fees constant, they now are attacking the poor guests-- and guest with more expensive rentals pay a larger fee. I don't think this is right-- Homeaway is charging the fee to move into areas they do not belong-- such as lobbying for the vacation rental industry and services a guest may or may not be willing to pay for ( "best price guarantee"). I am looking for an alternate site to book my business.

I am not yet in my rental, but we are finding several problems (Venice, Italy). The air condition is broken. Message sent by owner and now it says no wifi. False advertising. I am one of the persons that send messages on trip advisor, and I will make sure this is placed on the post so nobody else gets this false advertising. We had a fantastic experience I. The past in Paris, and Barcelona. So we thought this was going to be fine. Well, that owner will get bad marks for false advertising.

I rarely leave reviews for companies, however, customer support for this company is shocking. To cut a long story short, I was unable to book a holiday at all, due to continual processing errors with their website/app. Following numerous and lengthy conversations with customer support, no solution was found. No apology or explanation was given. If I could award 0 stars I would. If a company is so shocking when you are actually trying to give them money, I dread to think what they must be like when you require a refund. Terrible.

Speaking from a property owner point of you, this company has become extremely greedy! They now charge property owners 300 Euros for each listing, they 'force' you to accept payments made only through them otherwise you can no longer advertise with them, and of course you only get paid after the customer has checked in and on top of that they also charge you a 3% process fee for every booking.
They do not realise it but at some point people (property owners, customers) will punish the company and its unbelievably greedy policies!

We booked with homeaway back in January 2020. Owner of the property rejected the booking straight away - i was fine with that. But when I tried to claim my refund on my card, thats when the trouble started. Owner of the property did not cancel the booking so we couldnt get our money back immediately. Homeaway wanted me to jump through hoops before they would help. So I went to my cc co. Finally got my money back. Homeaway wanted me to update them. So here it is. Homeaway are unhelpful, useless. Will never use you again and Ive told my friends what happened. Have a nice day

Look elsewhere. We booked a home for a September wedding in January, 2018. The owner took full payment (over $1000). In late March we received an email stating the rental was cancelled and our money would be refunded. No reason, no personal contact, no apology. We contacted HomeAway and were told we had no recourse, that there was no requirement that owners follow through, and that "things happen to change an owner's situation". Yes, like a better rental deal, I am guessing.

I reserved (and paid) for a rental 5 months in advance. I received an EMAIL-no phone call-but an email stating me reservation has been cancelled. There was not reason listed. I contacted VRBO because that is who I thought I was renting under but apparently not. There was a link that on the cancellation email to contact the property manager but it didn't work. I called VRBO and they were able to get me a phone number. Since then, I have left 4 voice mails and have not received a call back! If I go into the site and try to rent the same property-it is available during the time we had it rented but for $1000+ more! Again, nobody will return my phone calls and I am beyong frustrated.

After finding a rental, getting a price quote including total price including taxes and fees, entering all our information, and clicking"book this stay", then we get a page that says the damage deposit is $1500 of which some or all may be refundable OR we can buy their trip insurance for $60.
On principle I consider this blackmail. $60 isn't a huge amount, but isn't it a "fee"?
A $1500 damage fee seems quite ridiculous for a 2 day stay of 2 senior adults.

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.

I had a problem after a rental that the owner had decided to not return all of my deposit. Trying to contact HomeAway is a nightmare and only after using Chat and more than 10 messages, I was answered, but actually not even considered my explanations.
They hide behind their rules' at all costs to protect their homeowners and give renters no ability to claim or explain. Airbnb all the way from here on out. HomeAway disgusts me at this point. Totally biased to their homeowners. They do not care about your rental experience at all. They completely took the homeowner at her word. They had no interest in my side of the story at all.
Just to note I have been using HomeAway since 1998 (!) but no more

As a property owner be very careful when dealing with the HomeAway network. They charge fees upfront to the homeowner and then charge guests to book the property (their new service fee). Not only are they double dipping, they will monitor all your communication with guests and remove you from the site for mentioning other properties they may be able when yours isn't or push your listing to the bottom of the pile via their Best Match policy. Very, very frustrating to work with and they even admitted to having a department solely responsible for monitor your communication. Wow!

Three days before we were to go to the villa we booked in Tenerife our flights were cancelled and UK and Spanish borders closed. The property owner offered us a 50% refund or to look at re booking. She said 'stay in touch'. When it was evident that travel was going to be impossible for our party we emailed asking for our options. Would she meet us half way on the refund etc? We got no response. We contacted HomeAway. They said they would get in touch with her telling her to contact us. We were delighted to get an immediate response only to find it was from a property owner we had made an enquiry through but not booked with. Our property owner has still not responded and HomeAway say she has withdrawn her offer of any refund. Two of our party are nurses in the NHS so the loss if not only a precious holiday but also all our money is devastating. HomeAway blame the owner although we booked through them. Please don't use this company they have treated us very badly

Their website messed up my booking and I called them immediately after receiving the confirmation to correct it. They said they would void the transaction which made sense. I then proceeded to be charged by them and the property owner. When I called back referencing my case and resolution they acted like it never happened and said that they could not help me once they had processed the booking (5 minutes ago and you cannot help?!). They that I would have to deal with the property owners for any changes to my reservation. Thank god for credit card companies having your back. These people are thieves. Stay away!