I wrote one of the negative reviews, specifically about their travel insurance, aka Carefree Rental Guarantee. If the place has a ton of reviews that look genuine, you are going to be OK: essentially you are benefiting from the feedback of other customers.

If the place doesn't have a ton of genuine-looking reviews, do not under any circumstance think that you could reduce your risks by using their insurance. It will only protect you from extreme situations, i. E. if the building doesn't exist.

Don't book through home away or VRBO, or Expedia. If consumers and owner demand ability to contact each other to ask questions, avoid scams etc and bring their business elsewhere the company will either have to listen or will go out of business.

You can't. In my experience and opinion as a renter, they stink.

Where are you looking for your holiday? I rent my vacation home through honest real estate agencies in the area of my home, people who actually know my house. Now I have used Home Away to fill in the unrented time and am running into business practices I find unethical. They are holding a Pay Per Booking (one of their two plans for owners) amount for one month. My renters are only there for the week and I am known to HomeAway through a different subscription model. They have fine print so they can hold the first rental on a different payment model. SCAM. IL have no affiliation to the company but am on the site as an owner.

Homeaway has nothing to do with the quality of the properties THAT THEY ADVERTISE. That's all they do is ADVERTISE. Talk to the owner of the property to assure you are getting what you want.

You can't be certain. They will not assist you if you have a problem with the property. They will do all in their power to prevent you writing a negative review (it's very telling that there are so few negative reviews & those are very mild.) There are many other honorable sites to choose from. Learn from our experiences. Other sites WILL help you if there's a problem. Homeaway won't.

At the end of the day, HomeAway is a advertising vehicle for owners to reach guests. Each unit is as good as that owner makes it. I own 11 properties that I list on HomeAway and manage 6 for others. My customers are universally happy with the condos they stay in. Look at the reviews, are they current? Are they 5 stars? Speak to the owner and ask questions like, when were the pictures taken, does the property still look this nice? If you are not comfortable with the answers, don't rent from them. I think most guests have good experiences, it is the ones that get upset that take the time to tell about it.

Hi, I look for other places where the property might be listed. In general I ask a lot of questions and am as informed as possible about the property as I can. Many owners are willing to answer questions unless they are jaded or in a very touristy destination where rentals are limited. Verifying ownership through an independent source boosts my confidence. Best of luck!

I wrote a review & I dealt a LOT with Homeaway.co.uk as well as the owner who ripped me off. I've rented flats tons of times from other agencies & have never dealt with a landlord like this or an agency who did not help at all. I'd try to get your money back & run, don't walk away from anything to do with homeaway.co.uk. It's pretty bad when the owner's cleaner steals a Rolex, hundreds of euros, a travel card, etc. and then the owner makes me pay for her listing with homeaway which was NOT on her contract.

I wrote one of the negative reviews. However, keep in mind that there are 2 categories of people who are writing, i. E. renters & owners. A renter does not pay homeaway & interaction with homeaway is minimal, i. E. renters don't really deal with homeaway other than to get information about the property which they rent directly from the owner. Since you pay the owner, we usually try to do what we can to make you happy & you have the opportunity to write separate reviews on each owner which has nothing to do with a review written about homeaway. Almost all the negative reviews come from us owners who are actually homeaway's customers, i. E. we are the ones who pay homeaway, but homeaway pretty much doesn't care about how they treat us. That's why I plan to drop homeaway & VRBO & just deal with Tripadvisor, i. E. either Flip Key or Vacation Home Rentals.

Make sure you speak with the owner on the phone before you send them any money. Don't just pay with a credit card or correspond only through emails.

Hi Isabel
I shouldn't be too put off by the negative reviews.
People get frustrated because Homeaway can be very disinterested when there is a problem and the only way to get any sense of satisfaction is to let rip on a website such as this one.
As a potential renter, there are a number of safeguards in place and it is unlikely that you will have a problem.
I read below that the problem was not really with Homeaway but more with the owner of the rental property.
If I were you I would telephone the owner before booking and see how you feel about their response.
Make sure you receive and sign and booking terms and conditions document so that if the owner does something contrary to what they had originally agreed with you, you have some proof of the agreement between the two of you.

I have rented properties through Homeaway for over 12 years without any serious incident. They have recently tightened their security proceedures.

I hooe this is helpful.
Jane G.