HomeAway

I booked a home and once I got there, owner would not leave for hours. Then had me sign a contract ( her own) stating all these ridiculous stipulations, cannot go into living room, cannot use pool without paying an extra fee, no opening windows, and the list goes on and that we cannot post reviews of our stay there was no recourse as I had no where else to stay after flying there. Do not use this company. They do not vet their homeowners and this one was literally crazy.

This site lists fraudulent properties and knowingly sells uninhabitable rental accommodation. Trying to get a refund is unlikely due to unfair clauses. Will never book with them again and urge others to rethink before parting with their money- fine if everything goes ok, but if there's a problem or you need help then you're doomed. And to add salt to the wound, they don't let travellers leave bad reviews, so you never get to share the truth

Never stay at Shady Shay Norton's place in West Hollywood unless you want to have your vaca ruined and be scammed out of money.

Due to the fact that home away seems to pay the home owner before services are rendered you could lose out in money. This owner promised me a full refund after jerking me around all day about checking in and then ghosted me and home away.

On top of that her apartment is illegal to rent. So home away does not check into those details.

I book this is san antonio tx and wen i get to it is nasty so i call the customer service and they told me that i have to wait like 4 or 5 hours till the home owner goes and clean the house after i had a long day travelling so i say no im not staying in that nasty house we we want or money back so i talk to a supervisor for nothing worse then the customer service so anyway i didn't stay in the house and they keep my money they are just stealing from people

I booked an apartment in Cape Town for Christmas period back in July. Money was taken from credit card immediately. When we arrived in CT, there was neither an apartment nor an owner to talk to. I still don't know what happened. We spent hours on the street with 2 kids and more than 500 for phone calls to the support line. With no outcome. Fake rents seem to be the new business model. Everyday they require new documents to be sent. Although they did not deliver anything and they know... stay away from HomeAway.

I received NOT ONE call or email saying my paid in full trip was canceled. We are to leave tomorrow and I can't find a phone number or absolutely no way to contact these people. I've tried to contact them without luck for 2 months. I'm so mad right now I can't hardly get threw this review. Trust me I will find the owner of this beach house and contact them personally. They will not get away with this bc my 4 children and grandchildren are devastated. That means this momma is on the war path.

Waiting on my refundable deposit of $500 (for a property of $290/n) with no one to contact. There is no number you can call and there is no way you can do anything else than just wait for their mercy. Contacted the property manager who confirmed that the property was left in an perfect condition which was conveyed to Homeaway the same day. At this difficult time when we all are feeling the financial pressures, they are illegally keeping our money. Will never book with them again.

I booked & paid an 8 night rental for a House (March 2020) 11 month in advance. Nearly 2 weeks later HomeAway contacted me saying the fee would be more that time of year and we need to pay extra $200 per night at their discount rate. I refused after getting legal advice, so they cancelled the booking with no comeback. Outrageous behaviour & totally deplorable

Booked in good faith, Covid-19 meant it was impossible to travel. HomeAway present as acting in your interest on their website but in reality tried to blame the home owner, only refunded the breakage deposit but not the balance. Suggested they didn't have it but refused to say where it was! 6+ frustrating, lengthy and repetitive conversations later and I still don't have my refund. STAY AWAY FROM HOMEAWAY.

We had success with previous VRBO but this time, it has been the worst of all possible worlds. Our travel plans were cancelled - everyone is staying home, around the world - and almost a month later they still haven't refunded our deposit, despite FIVE phone calls and promise after promise. Next, I'm going to my credit card company to dispute the charge. Was impressed by some of the things the company said early on; now, I know not to trust.

I wish there would be 0 star review! HomeAway took 900 of me, due to Pandemic and lockdown they supposed to refund my money but they only transferred 560! They are ignoring my messages, telling me I'm uneducated because I'm not British. Fretting me that they will ban me from social media because I'm trying to get in touch with someone who is not sending me automatically generated messages. Pure Scam!

The owner cancelled without reason 3 weeks prior to our trip. Have spent 2 weeks fighting for my refund. Website says 5-7 days to get money back if an owner cancels. Not true. Customer Svc. Is outsourced to Manila and they are no help and difficult to understand. Gave them the benefit of the doubt once. This is now the second time I've had an issued. DON'T BE ME!

I made a reservation for a cottage for over a month in advance. No where on expedia did it say I would be charged immediately over 75% of the entire price. Then I saw my bank account drained of $441.20 by "HomeAway". I canceled within immediately and within 24 hours. It's been four business days and no credit! I can't get a hold of anyone at their customer service since they keep dropping my call. I had to cancel my debit card and dispute charges. STAY AWAY!

I have been a commercial owner renting 6 homes in the Black Hills of South Dakota through VRBO for three years now. This company does not treat the property owners well. The customer service is overseas and good luck getting any help or understanding what they are saying. Last week I had over $1000 removed from my bank account by VRBO because a renter never showed up during the 2020 Sturgis Bike Rally and wanted a refund. I told the renter no because I could not rent the house back out on such short notice and my company policy did not allow for it (I have a 30-day cancelation refund policy). In the end the traveler disputed the charge and won so VRBO refunded them directly from my bank account and I was out an entire week rent during the busiest time of the year. These guys are just a bunch of crooks taking advantage of the property owners who have made massive investments into this business. VRBO uses every excuse in the book to pass the blame off, See attached photo of the email from them.

I've used HomeAway four times over the past six years and have been very satisfied. But this week, I've experienced nothing but frustration. The first home I tried to book showed my dates were available, but the next day I received an email telling me that my reservation was not confirmed. By the time I called HomeAway later in the day, the owner had pulled the listing from the website. Huh? I tried again with another property showing my dates were available, but first emailed the owner to find out if this was accurate. I received his reply telling me that my dates are available, but that he doesn't take reservations for high season in Florida this far in advance (8 months). Huh? I replied back, offering to adjust my dates and book for 2 calendar months. Haven't heard back from him. Don't really want to work with unreliable owners or websites like HomeAway/VRBO/VacationRentals, but what's the alternative for finding good rentals?

I would not recommend this holiday rental company at all, or the property we were looking forward to staying in, we paid a big' deposit and understand no refunds HOWEVER we are in unprecedented times and hoped the owners would bend a little... but no only 6 days paid £1400 deposit for June 2020 and they offered to rebook between Nov -March 21? Low season with a big family! In Newquay! So have lost all that money I wish someone could help but HomeAway have done nothing and I don't even have an account now... I would NEVER use HomeAway again

We stayed at 10 Old Dock Road in Plattsburgh NY! Never stay there! The place was a complete rib off! The AC didn't work and our family of three sweated there for four nights and couldn't sleep! The worst of it is when we left they charged us $200 for damages that were not true! They stayed complete lies! In fact they should have refunded our money for that stay not charged us more! Avoid at all costs! Wanted to add that the water smelled horrible too! And that my sister Ona Belser paid for this for me her brother so that this review has nothing to do with her!

When VRBO/HomeAway 1st began it was awesome service but appears they've hired the greed mongols and here's how they play you now...

So you find a rental and they list it at 162.50 per night. Oh wait but that's not all because what they don't show until you book is an additional $100 owners fee, a $49.00 service fee and then they top it off with $41.72 lodging tax. So now the $162.50 per night is really $353.22:-o! Oh of course you need to set aside another $150 for the damage deposit which hopefully you get back. I'm sure they don't treat the property owners any different and overcharge them too!

Hopefully a less greedy alternative shows up soon or someone figures a craigslist style platform that all property owners can utilize and so we can begin paying what the home owners are asking and not the hidden doubling of cost that VRBO/HomeAway has devised.

Last, HomeAway will sell you trip insurance on top of all this too LOL!

HomeAway allows owners (Branch Hill Estate) to give unfair traveler ratings. The owner of this rental bullied us asking for a 5 star review before we received our security deposit. Then after we asked for time to properly review the property, they gave us a false rating. When we asked for an explanation or correction, Branch Hill Estate would not respond.

Don't stay at Durham house apartment
Shocking customer service. I booked Durham House apartment in Beer we left early due to how dirty it was.
With covid we had expected it to be clean but the state of it was disgusting - we took photos and contacted The owner Sue Wesley she was rude and very nasty and HomeAway was hopeless.
Really to listen to all these bad reviews. Don't stay at Durham House apartment in Beer and don't use homeaway

I am an owner who rents my place out. They took back the $150 damage deposit on a rental, which they do on all rentals. However, for particular rental, they took out another $150 to make it to where my payout was very small. I never initiated an additional $150 "adjustment" to the customer/tenant. I got on customer service and they pretty much called me a liar and would not do a single thing about it. I never initiated another $150 refund. They were completely terrible to me.

Horrible service! I canceled well within the policy of the vacation rental. Homeaway will not refund my payment for almost 4 weeks! How hard is it to send money to a credit card company? Yesterday they said the money would be deposited today. Today they said they had an "error". The only error is their finances in that they don't have funds to refund. Will never use them again.

Website would not let me cancel my rentals even before my cancellation date forcing me to pay even though I can go during the Coronavirous epidemic. No option to cancel on cancel page just a Coronavirous warning. However, no actual cancel button. And prior a prior reservation i did cancel no confirmation number and a refund I never received.