HomeAway
Reviews and Complaints

My Money for vacation ID HA-T5V7KC property #781465, 45 days later still sitting in Homeaway bank never transferred to homeowner, so I had to write another $1600.00 check for this stay, a duplicate payment. Citi bank had this as a dispute already, so by chain of necessary events, that homeaway has done many of this per Citi bank, once form is completed the monies would have been seen in their bank on 01-28-17 at 7:59am. However, nobody at Citi has completed the dispute form, so monies have sat. However, homeowner wanted me to send him a check which Brendan Kuhlkin did so on 3/10/2017. I want be on phone with home away again, not one person and hours understood what I was talking about asking for more money. At this point since my monies, have been paid by check to Brendan Kuhlkin in full, Homeaway send the monies back in full of $1, 734.38 to Citi Bank Credit card.
Thank You,
Theresa Utt

We were looking to escape all the snow here in Northern Maine, so we chose this particular unit
(listing # 219238) because the pictures show fantastic, sweeping views of the ocean and because it boasts indoor/outdoor pools for our children. Imagine our disappointment upon arrival to enter the living room and discover our views being obstructed by heavy, opaque plastic in all glass windows facing the deck as well as the windows in the master bedroom. Instead of waking to light filled rooms with an ocean view, we awoke to the sound of loud drilling/sanding and it looked like we were wrapped in a plastic cocoon. We later discovered that we also could not go swimming in either of the outside pools as they too had been covered with the plastic and blocked off. Hardly the ideal vacation we were anticipating. We returned later in the afternoon to discover workmen right outside our master bedroom suite. We had paid in full prior to our arrival and the owner had sent us an email listing all the rules and regulations to be followed, but she never mentioned any construction being done to the building. Since my mother booked the condo, she made the call to the owner who immediately became very defensive and recalcitrant, insisting that this was not "ongoing construction" and that we should just remove the plastic from the windows ourselves or she could send a handyman over to do it. When asked how long this project was going to take, she stated she could not answer that question. She continued to deflect from our complaints stating over and over how beautiful the place is and tried to make it sound like this was just a small project that she hired someone to do. It was obvious from all the large scaffolding on the outside of the building that this was something being done to the whole North Tower, not just to her unit and so was the parking garage. We had to buggy-lug all of our belongings from across the street every day. We feel strongly that she should have advised us of this ongoing construction so we could have made a different choice in our accommodations. Instead of offering a refund or at least a reduction in the price, she rudely hung up the phone. To add more shock to our stay, we had a STRANGE MAN enter our unit UNANNOUNCED! He muttered "Oh sorry, I didn't realize she had rented this unit out." We felt secure in booking through Home Away / VRBO because of it's "Book With Confidence" Guarantee, however, after speaking with a Senior Agent of the Resolution Team we were told we'd have to deal with the homeowner ourselves. Don't bother paying the extra for the "Book With Confidence" Guarantee because they guarantee you NOTHING. You will be left to fend for yourselves.

Paid for a vacation rental home (3588212) at timberline ski resort in davis, wv in december 2016 for 2/3/2017 check in. Received email confirmation of payment. After reaching out to home owner and home away several times with no response from home owner, she phoned at 7:45 pm on 2/2 to cancel our reservations due "to busted water pipes" that she "found out about couple of weeks ago!" when we apprised home away of the situation, they were of no help telling us that would do nothing until home owner initiated a refund or we could travel to davis tomorrow and at check-in call them and claim "stranded traveler status. " fortunately home owner did process a refund later that night and then home away offered to "help" by suggesting other properties that we could rent at several hundred dollars more a day! Found same properties that home away suggested from a local realtor for $90 less.
Guess I learned what home away’s definition of payment protections service is?

My second time using HomeAway turned out to be a complete waste of my time.
Good Luck
looks like I have to type in 200 more characters into this space before I can submit this complaint. I hate having my time wasted by obnoxious a wholes
If expedia wants to run a Hostile Takeover of the company or already has taken over the company, it would be good to let owners and potential customers know about it.
Don't ya think?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HomeAway
"Type Subsidiary of Expedia, Inc."

I have had a listing with Honeaway for years but in this new system of theirs ( I subscribed previously ( Gold) but handed it off to a management company
When I failed to make mo ey with them I removed my listing with Honeaway and rented that house out long term
I then re figured my listing to my one bedroom ( Cozy Manuel Antonio Cottage) 309203
Since doing this I have received one booking ( on the same day I de listed the big house and get NO enquiries
I have the same property listed on Airbnb were I am a Super Host have made tons of money and the listing is identical to the one on HomeAway where I get NO business
I repeatedly call them only to receive boiler plate replies that tell me nothing and resolve nothing but then immediately after I receive an e mail from HomeAway wanting me to pat them on the back for doing nothing
I'm totally over Home Away and am only keeping the listing so intelligent clients who check one or more sites when traveling will find that the same place is available from Airbnb for less money and that I am a SuperHost with tons of great reviews
So who do you think they will book from?
Since HomeAway was taken over by Expedia they have gone to hell on a broomstick
I am now going to go to my page ( And put it on my WebPage ) that this property can be rented from Airbnb for much less money and that if they want to know what others think about the property check out my reviews on Airbnb
Ciao

Home Away sent an email to me today, stating that I can no longer advertise my vacation home with them.

I had no warning or explanation, they just said I wasn't following their rules.

The worst part is I have thousands of dollars of rentals coming in the next 3 months, and the company has locked me from my account. I have no names, emails or phone numbers to communicate with my renters!

I have never been so blindsided in my life...

I called them and they wont discuss anything with me. No complaints, no rules, no rationale, NOTHING.

They said someone may call me in 24 HOURS!

I feel completely violated...

We are eu citizens and travelling through usa. we have rented 2 (sfo and la) homes via homeaway. (#4039717 felix remennik san francisco homeonthehill july [protected]). we have refused to stay in one of the houses since it was a complete false representation of what was actually booked. different pictures, bad quality, spooky neighborhood and offered less beds than mentioned. after arrival we left within the hour and cancelled our stay for 3 nights.
We complained at homeaway but have not heared any thing from them since then. why should they? commisions have been paid and who cares. we gave them the chance to come with a solution, so far no reaction so we will end with a very negative comment on their site. for all who are reading this, make sure that you get what you want. there is no guarantee when problems occur. we paid over $7k rent of wich $2k is thrown away. sad and could spent money better on economy, homeless or tips instead this fraude.
Homeaway is not okay, better stay away.

My elderly mother owns 3 homes in Waco, TX that were listed on VRBO and payments were processed through PayPal. Things were great for years...then Home Away bought VRBO and made our lives miserable. Home Away forces home owners to process credit cards thru their division, Home Away Payments, and they charge a hefty price for processing. Then Home Away also charges the guest a very hefty fee for using their site. To top it all off...they then keep the money and won't transfer it to the homeowner. Their customer service reps hang up on us and won't respond to letters, emails or phone calls! We're done, canceling our Home Away account and going with AirBnB. Don't waste your time and money on Home Away!

We rented a condo through HomeAway and they not only charged us various fees they also collected the monies for the rental. Yet when a problem arose and we had to leave the condo 2 weeks early, all of a sudden they claim they have no involvement with the transaction. That we needed to work it out with the home owner. Who was unwilling to make any concessions at all. Stay away from HomeAway. And, I can tell you this we had used their services before. But, never will again.

I had renewed my listing for my beautiful vacation rental for the 9th year, with no concerns. Home Away# 265504 /VRBO 155160
I pay about $750. Per year for advertising my vacation rental on their site.

HomeAway decided to changed their practices and wanted to start handling all of the money transactions directly with my customers, instead of me doing this. They are also going to start charging all of my customers a service fee.
This is all new to me. My permission was never given for them to do this.
I have many, repeat customers.
I have always developed a relationship with my guests and have worked out payment that works for both the customer and myself.
The HomeAway site also moved my site to a different location. Making my rental appear as if it is on a lake that it is not on. They couldn't give me an answer when this would be fixed. But this makes me look like I am trying to be fraudulent with my guests.
I have asked them to cancel my account, and to refund me the prorated amount that I gave them. They told me that they have policies to not give refunds.
I paid for advertising only. Not for this fraudulent service! They told me that they reserve the right to upgrade their site as needed. Charging my customers the service fee is part of modern day business. They also now warn my guests about paying homeowners directly.
I just want out of this nightmare!
I have run a successful business that I am very proud of.
Placing my vacation rental on Lake Goodwin instead of Lake Crabapple is fraud. My guests need to know what they are getting.
Changing my contract with me in the middle of the year is terrible. I would like the contract canceled and I would like to get a refund on my remaining six months paid to them.
Don't ever rent or list through these company's . This is truly fraud!

HomeAway have introduced a charge on people renting property via their sites.

Their email informing me of this says quite clearly "The service fee is charged to travellers who book and pay through the HomeAway checkout. "

When I wrote to say the charge was scandalous, and while it will not affect me because I do not use their payment service, the reply I got is "The service fee will apply to all listings on our site, whether they accept HomeAway Payments or not. It will not apply to any travellers you have booked already."

The company deserves to fail. I advise everyone to avoid advertising with them or using them to book a holiday rental.

I am a rental house owner.
HomeAway deactivated our listings last Friday afternoon without any warning. In an e-mail after the fact, HomeAway stated that our listing "contains messaging directing travelers to pay offline to avoid our online secure booking checkout system in violation of our content guidelines." That statement was incorrect on two facts: we only advised travelers that there were options available; and once I was able to find a working link to their "content guidelines" I found no such restriction. (I did print out the guidelines in case they try to alter them later.) Nevertheless we deleted the wording immediately and asked for our listing to be reactiavted. However, their "special team" that handles such cases conveniently does not work on weekends, so our listhings have been missing all weekend and as of now (Wednesday late afternoon) only one has been re-activated. Every time we call they inform us that they can't estimate when our case will be reviewed. It is extremely frustrating.

We have been among their top 5% earners for 9 years now and introduced many guests to their site, this is how we are rewarded? We have demanded a refund of our subscription for the time lost, but that is probably a hopeless cause. I have also suggested that they make their services optional, like HA's trip insurance used to be. I let them know that we've had several guests state that although they have been using VRBO for years (one since the 90s), they will be looking elsewhere in the future; there is a deep-seated animosity to the Ticketmaster business model. If travelers truly value their services, they will opt-in. But again, this seems a lost cause.

We feel that HomeAway/Expedia doesn't care about owners any more because basically they feel they don't need to. It is time for us to find other websites with some owner focus. We are joining HomeEscape dot com which is a new site operated by some HomeAway refugees. It is free but not well known, so we plan to let as many people as we can know about it. Please spread the word and let us know if you know any other options.

I wanted to rent a property and found HomeAway website. I thought they were quite reputable and their site seemed 100% secure. So I made my reservation and after I paid I received no further information. Few weeks later I received a message stating that my booking was cancelled! I immediately contacted HomeAway customer service and asked what was going on. Their customer support was absolutely terrible, when I really needed some help they just said "no refunds" and that was the last thing I heard from them. I tried to call them many times but every time I was put on hold for like forever and then disconnected. Scam alert!

I will never use this site again. We tried to book a house about 3 months ago, we signed the contract. Then a week after they call us and said they double booked and we need to find another house. So we find another one. We call to confirm with this house about 5 days before we are going to leave. They said everything is set. Then about 3 days before we are about to leave they call us and say they double booked and we need to find a different place! This is 3 days before we are about to leave! This made me a nervous wreck! I hope my review on the lady's property is seen by everyone so they don't go through the same thing we did. Homeaway should also kick them off their site.

I used HomeAway service in the past, and decided to use their service again. I was shocked when I realized that now they are charging 10% service fee! It's absolutely ridiculous! No one ever informed me about this new charge and I'm disgusted with their lack of professionalism. The evil greed in their actions is just too much to accept. They charge an annual fee, plus 3% from the owners, and now they charge 10% to the renters. They will definitely lose customers. I will not renew my subscriptions and will never use this company again! Very dishonest company!

I was shocked when I found out that HomeAway was charging my renters a service fee! I immediately contacted the company to ask what this fee was. Their rep said that is was to maintain and support their customer service. Absolutely ridiculous! I already paid them huge amount of money and now they are charging my renters. Recently I received a call from my renters and they were angry about these additional charges. I smell a scam, there is no information about such fees on their website, I checked many times. Stay away!

We recently booked a reservation through VRBO for a ski vacation in Snowshoe, WV the week between Christmas and New Year's 2015 (VRBO#273113). Due to the extremely mild weather, the resort was closed due to lack of snow. As in no skiing. At all. We contacted the owner to try to move our reservation to different dates (when there would hopefully be snow) or request a partial refund in consideration of the extenuating circumstances. The owner ignored our messages. We contacted VRBO for assistance. They encouraged us to file a complaint. All VRBO did was forward our complaint to the owner, who responded with basically "too bad". VRBO's response was "that's all we can do." We then attempted to post a review on the VRBO listing for the unit to warn future travelers of our bad experience with this unreasonable owner. We were told that VRBO's review requirements don't allow reviews on the booking experience, only on the property. So, if I had wasted even more money to drive 18 hours round trip to go on a ski vacation with no skiing, I could have posted a review that I thought the couch was ugly. But apparently if I lose my entire rental amount due to an unreasonable owner during a once in 10-15 years freak weather phenomenon, then I can't post a review. BTW – Snowshow Resort provided full refunds to all people that booked properties they manage. I will never use VRBO again.

I purchased my vacation on Nov 29th and as usual I also bought the trip cancellation. I have the email saying you have paid and received the cancellation protection plan. I have undergone a surgery which will prevent me from going on my vacation. I first emailed the property owner who said she would be happy to cancel my reservation but would not under any circumstance issue any refund either partial or full. A little upset, Now I call the insurance company and they say that there is no insurance policy for me. The insurance company (CSA) said that without the email that has my policy number they cannot open a claim for me. So now I call VRBO who tells me to work it out with the insurance company. and They say there are no emails or records of my paying of the cancellation policy. Again, I have the confirmation email showing the payment and cancellation protection receipt. Edwards told me that after consulting the billing department while I was on hold he found that the protection plan was internally rejected but I was still charged. I went as far as to find the historic international exchange rates to prove that the amount paid in total included the protection policy charge and the rental price. Edwards (No last name). Was not terribly helpful. I was given a case number and told that there was nobody higher in the chain that I could speak with. I have no problem with Edward but if this is how the company processes this kind of thing then I probably won't ever recommend this company again. Edward case number [protected]

We booked a property through HomeAway. But one day before we supposed to check in the owner of that property called and said he cancelled our reservation. It was on Christmas. We had no place to go and the owner refused to give us our money back. We went to the nearest café and contacted HomeAway. Since the property owner ignored us, we asked HomeAway for help. But they said that the owner is the only one who can initiate a refund. This makes no sense, because HomeAway charged my credit card. This company works with many people and they should have perfect ability to initiate refunds. They are doing nothing to help their clients. I will never use this website again! They are real scammers!

We rented a house for 2 week vacation. But we had to leave the place one week earlier. The house we rented was not what was advertised. The property was very small and dirty, there were rats and insects everywhere! Also we had to change all smoke detectors as they were ringing all the time. The owner was keeping over $200 in deposits because we had a dog. He was afraid our dog could do something bad with his „beautiful” house. There was an awful smell in the bathroom and toilet too. We complained and asked HomeAway for help, but they did nothing. It is impossible to get a full picture, because they block all the negative reviews. Horrible, useless website!