HomeAway UK

This is NOT a site to rent / pay for accommodation - when you "pay" for the accommodation a fee is taken from your card and then... you'll get an email telling you contact another company to pay the balance, potentially by bank transfer.

I assumed this was a horrible mistake - but HomeAway assured me - they just advertise - get on with making the bank transfer.

Thankfully I've managed to get my CC company involved and disputed the transaction. My advice: find the property on another site. Try using Google reverse image search (https://images.google.com) to find others using the same images in the listing - then go to the property provider directly.

The accommodation we booked in Spain did not exist. After half a day on the phone to the local provider they offered us a far inferior apartment - 20 sq m, no windows, winos on the door step instead of our "Luxury Apartment".

Homeaway were no help whatsoever - as far as they are concerned the contract is between you and the local provider. Their "book with confidence guarantee" appears to be a complete fiction.

It wasnt their fault that the accommodation failed to materialise - but their "its nothing to do with us" attitude absolutely stinks.

Will never use them again - three days of a holiday ruined.

All the accommodation owners resent the enormous rake-off made by homeaway - for which they get bugger all in return.

I requested accommodation, this flipped to a confirmed booking and money was taken off my credit card. I attempted to cancel immediately when an emailed confirmation was received and the home owner has refused to refund me my money, saying "go or lose the payment". Home Away have stood by and allowed this to happen saying the home owners unscrupulous sharp practice cancellation policy applies. I did not sign any agreement. I rang Home Away 4 times looking to resolve and they have no empathy or accountability. The customer service is shocking. I was told once that the agent "had authorisation to drop this call" and subsequently hung up.
I used Owners Direct (acquired by Home Away) many times before and it was excellent. This website should be avoided at all cost. I have never had worse customer service from a "reputable" company. I feel defrauded. I couldn't recommend any company less than this.

I stayed in a lovely log cabin for a 4 night break in Mid March. Could not fault the place, the owner an absolute delight, we met her at the cabin and she showed us round. Homeaway took our money and a deposit for damage. £100 held in case of damage, I contact the owner through their website (Homeaway) she says that they have refunded it on the 23rd March, I have contacted Homeaway through their online chat facility and they say it may now take quite a few weeks due to Covid 19. Personally I think they are going into administration due to lack of funds. The online agent said she would provide me with an email address to write to sending it to my email, guess what... NO EMAIL from Homeaway, please avoid this site and company at all costs, they take but do not issue legitimate refnunds

My husband and I rented a week in Beer, Devon at Durham House Apartment. We have visited Beer before so we knew the location.
On entering the building the carpets and tiled floors were dirty. The hand rail and general paintwork, which was all white emulsion had not been wiped clean., The mirror and shower door not cleaned. The seal on the glass shower door mouldy. The pipe behind the loo thick with dust and dirt. The overflow hole in the bathroom sink black. Carpets matted, stained and hair. Cooker vents greasy. Toaster full of crumbs. Food under fridge and seeped out of side of fridge. Extractor in bathroom extremely noisy and ran on a long time. A plug in air freshener on to disguise a dusty smell throughout. We took our own linen and bedding and we were very pleased we had. We did not cook and we only are fish and chips once in Beer beach. When i complained to the owner she implied we had complained about local restaurants which we had not even been to. I sent photos when we left the rental early. No acknowledgement of how dirty my photos showed the apartment to be. No apology but just insisting everything was clean and implying i was not telling the truth. The photos clearly verify what i have said.

I thought I had booked a holiday cottage through company and was looking forward to a well earned break. After not receiving a confirmation e-mail I tried on several occasions to phone them only to be non hold for 20 minutes plus and still no one taking my call. Finally spoke with someone only to be told I needed to speak with property manager, which I did and it turned out to be another holiday company who didn't have details of booking. Phoned HomeAway yet again and when someone finally answered they said it didn't look like booking had gone through but could not answer if a payment had been taken from my credit card and suggested I contact my credit card company. I did this and they confirmed they have taken some, luckily not full amount, but dispute resolution department of credit card now trying to get back from them. Absolutely horrendous and stressful experience to say the least. Do not use, steer well clear is my advice!

This farmhouse was truly a wonderful find. We spent a week here in April exploring the region and had no difficulty driving down in our hire car from La Rochelle. We loved the layout and character of this villa. It is clean, spacious and comfortable and really felt like a home away from home. Our kids were particularly delighted with the games room which was a godsend when it rained! The heated swimming pool and private garden made the entire stay so relaxing. We will definitely return. The Stafford Family.

How secure do you think your job is? The feed back from Home owners and holiday makers is astronomical. Greed will be you're down fall. They have moved the goal posts that many times orchestrating exploitation from owners and holiday makers. I will be looking for alternative site as we have two properties.
Service fee for what? You hold the home owners money making interest in your bank with it. Taking full control, it is not what home owners originally signed up for. Well you have had our subscription. But for the last time! Holiday makers please dont blame the owners. In the past there was transparency.

Stay away from this website. I wish I had read the reviews before using. Having been promised a 100%cancellation refund it has taken me a month of going round in circles and finally getting another home owner to tell me how to tell my owner what to get some of my money back. It was not -all of it but I have had enough and cant be bothered to fight anymore. I would give zero if it was possible. Expect no back up from the company whatsoever

I've advertised on this site for 12 years.

They have now changed the way the interact with advertisers and we now have a choice of four levels. We've always paid their fees on a yearly basis and now they want about POUNDS 800.00 for the advert.

Their communications are absolutely awful. They take too long to reply to emails and even then don't answer all the questions.

I will not renew with this site ever again as they are just after the cash. As an individual owner, you can not compete with all the agencies they now have premium advertising on their sites - my holiday apartment will never now get anywhere on the search results. A really poor decision.

In my opinion, go elsewhere for your advertising and avoid all the HomeAway brands as they are too expensive.

Terrible customer service. We booked a villa in Madeira which was cockroach-infested (amongst other issues.) We spoke directly to the agent and were promised a refund and he persuaded us that there was no need to go through Home Away. We booked into a hotel. Not what we wanted for our holiday but the best that could be done under the circumstances. Of course, the promised refund then never materialised, and the agent claims that he never offered it. In spite of our providing evidence of all this, Home Away say they cannot act against him because we didn't get the promise of a refund in writing. We are not covered by their guarantee either because we didn't go through them when we had the problem. They appear incapable of understanding that this was purely because the agent was so reasonable and apologetic and appeared happy to sort it out with us directly and this persuaded us away from notifying Home Away - but of course the refund didn't arrive. This must be perfectly acceptable behaviour on his part as far as Home Away are concerned, as they refuse to do anything about it. We are significantly out of pocket and Home Away's customer service appear totally unable to understand the problem or even to read the evidence we have submitted to them properly.