HomeAway UKReviews 62

Me and my family loved the family house we stayed in during the Christmas period last year, it felt so comfortable and relaxing.

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.

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.

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

Despite us cancelling our Villa reservation within the guaranteed 100% deposit refund period (due to COVID-19), and the property owner providing a full deposit refund of EUR 2,085 to HomeAway 3 weeks ago, HomeAway still refuse to pass this refund onto us. We've been in regular contact with HomeAway 'customer services' over the past 2 weeks, but are always fobbed off with stories of technical issues, and that they are working hard to resolve these. Each time we contact them we are told to wait ANOTHER 10 working days. I doubt we'll see the deposit again, so won't be using them again, recommendation is to steer clear.

Like hundreds of peo0ple in a similar position I had to cancel a reservation in Sardinia due to covid 19. This was on 15 March and the money has still not been refunded despite several phone calls and an email of 21 March using the following words the amount(of over 700 euros) had already been refunded last Mar 15,2020 and it should just take 5-7 banking days on your account. Well here we are on 2nd April and still no refund, I have written to Jeff Hurst a Mr Mortegon and their media department but no one has the curtesy to reply. The last conversation I had with customer services I was told that there were technical problems with some refunds REAllY

I had to cancel my booking for an apartment owned byJoanna Baker in Burgau and she emailed me to say that HomeAway had refunded my deposit on 17 March 2020. I have NOTreceived this money and my contact went straight to the owner as this is how the HomeAway system works and she responded on 21 March to say perhaps HomeAway were busy. I emailed a third time but this time she did not respond. Why has the deposit not been refunded to me? They have had ample time now and there is no contact from them so is this a case of a company using the pandemic to line their pockets? This is a disgrace especially given that we are pensioners in the vulnerable group and we need our money refunded now. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, THEIR LACK OF COMMUNICATION IS DISGRACEFUL AND THE WAY THEY DO BUSINESS IS VERY QUESTIONABLE. I will be looking into how I can escalate my complaint as I see no reason why they should be allowed to get away with this, look at Trust Pilot as well for more of the same. Highly disreputable!

AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID
AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID - I cannot stress this enough! Only use HomeAway if you want to pull your hair out and lose your money!

After a completely shambolic experience booking an apartment in Tenerife back in November for a trip in May2020, HOMEAWAY contacted me, explaining that the Apartment was 'no longer available' and that it was down to me to try and pursue the Owner (scam Artist) and if I have no luck, I then need to try and recover the fund through my own bank.

After months my bank kindly re-imbursed me for the owners part of the transaction but could not recover the so called service fee that had been taken by HOMEAWAY. Homeaway promised me in writing they would re-imburse me for their fee in January. They have not! I have now contacted them over 15 times for them to continue to say "our team of technicians are investigating the refund and this may take some considerable time".

This is a stalling tactic hoping that I will simply go away and forget the refund. I will not!

In summary,
1) HomeAway DO NOT vet owners and the properties they represent on their site (after investigating the so called 'Owner' in question I discovered he was just a scammer with no real trading credentials).
2) when you encounter any problems HomeAway completely expect you to sort it out yourself with absolutely no help or assistance from them whatsoever (would not even attempt to contact the 'Owner' on my behalf).
3) any promises they make to refund you for their fees are just stalling tactics, and cause further frustration.

Use Airbnb - they know what they're doing - they hold your money until you have entered the property - not like this lot who just pay random people your hard earned cash!

After months of stress I have now finally booked a replacement accommodation but it is far from what I wanted due to having less choice, time and money - thanks for nothing HomeAway! (and I mean nothing!)

We booked a villa early October in an area we knew well, in Menorca. We paid the full payment and received a an email with a reservation number and booking details, owner's name (but no contact details) we booked and paid for our flights corresponding to the booking.
By chance, on Saturday 16th November, we discover by checking out credit card statement, that on the 3rd October the money had been returned less £98. Why, and why weren't we told? We could have flown out next April for 4 weeks and have nowhere to stay.
My email to home away was not replied to, and via their app, I was told my email to the owner requesting clarification could not be sent and to try again later. Which I did, with no luck.
Further digging through their non-user friendly website, full of THEIR terms and conditions and privacy policies, I found some phone numbers, but I also stumbled across sitejabber and these reviews. I decided I would not waste any more time with them and walk away from my £98. Instead I contacted the BBC x-ray programme and asked them to investigate. No promises but if enough of you people reading this contract them as well we may get some answers and publicity about homeaway's bad practice. BBC Wales X-ray. Contact them now (I phoned but you can email) and put karma their way.

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.

MINUS 100 FOR AN APPALLING SERVICE
I wish I could give this company a minus 100, for it's continued customer service receiving scathing reviews, and still having the audacity to carry on being intransigent, unhelpful in not recognising their own misleading descriptions of properties, and not caring about customers or customer care. They accept no responsibilities or refuse to resolve complaints in an almost psychopathic, narcissistic manner.

Expecting 3 elderly people to spend 3 days in a described small studio apartment with 2 little chairs by small table, NO third seat or other seating in what really is a bedroom with kitchenette and en-suite, is unacceptable.

Company did not state monies paid were not refundable, within up to 180 days of arrival, until they sent booking confirmation. No offer to us upgrade to more suitable accommodation, just an appalling so what' laissez-faire attitude'.

Since then, (Now realise I should have read reviews first) I read a lot of the reviews posted, and HomeAway invite people to communicate with them, but that is a smoke screen. They are not interested in being amenable and trustworthy.

NO CARE OR CONCERN ONCE THEY GET YOUR MONEY.

Also, no concern that their descriptions leave a lot to be desired, and mislead customers.

Well done, on continuing to be a company people should avoid like the plague, and they are not caring in the slightest once you send them money.

Now matter being investigated by my credit card company.

Do the right thing by sending a full refund and apology, and show people you recognise your own need to change your customer service practices.

SHAME ON YOU!

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.

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.