phyllis l.

I am a homeowner that advertises 3 properties on Homeaway - they are ridiculous to deal with - I have never received a bad review on any of my rentals 4 months ago I rcvd a bad review on my rental - problem is the people never stayed at my home - it was a bad review posted to my home - which hurt my rentals - it took a month to remove the bad review as it was for another home the renter stayed at! - I rate 5 star - now I just recvd another review (bad) which we were shocked at - only problem is this renter stayed at my villa 8 months ago - never complained once during or after the rental - I got a very poor review because a cable repair man didn't show up to repair the cable box that broke down during their rental - we have no control over cable companies - as we all know - yet these renters had the nerve to complain about this 8 months later and complain about the home - even though they saw a virtual tour of the property - everything in the home was new - bedding, appliances, etc - the review didn't even sound like our home - the renter had said in her emails the place was great! So I tried to resolve the matter with the renter - who has not returned my calls or emails - so Homeaway is printing this bad unsubstantiated review on my site - I think some people are just malicious or nuts -- and we got one out of hundreds of renters we have had - which is unfair - especially since we have tried to resolve the issue - but 8 months after is pretty hard to resolve- seems totally unfair - there should be a time limit on reviews - as its pretty tough to try to resolve an old complaint.

Another issue - they have a new book it now key - one renter used the key - but the property had just been rented to another party - so I refunded the funds immediately - got a confirmation from homeaway that the refund had been processed - a week later homeaway said they were depositing the funds into my bank account with a service charge - when I contacted them about their error - I was told it was a computer glitch - I have to send the refund myself back to the renter - but it will take another 7 days for the funds to actually be rcvd in my bank account which is totally unfair to the renter who was supposed to be credited immediately - looks bad on me as a landlord,

Since VRBO and Homeaway merged the service has gone downhill - they monopolize the rental market now - the service stinks - my costs have gone up $200 per listing - so I am now paying over $1600 per year - yet you can barely find my listing as there are too many on the site! A smaller website is much better - but they are being eaten up by this greedy company that offers no customer service to renters or landlords!