After many years advertising I amongst others will be leaving this company after they introduced fee grabbing off my potential renters. Thinking of listing your holiday property then think again about using these companies. How can they justify asking a renter to pay a fee of 49 Euros on a potential booking of just over 500 euros and charge me to list as well. Seems strange that enquiries have suddenly dried up!
Been very happy with homeaway for 3 years but now expedia involved running a mile from them. Having signed up and paid for full years advertising they have removed my listing as I will not sign up to online booking and their added fees. To do this before end of my renewal is criminal. Oh well will not be renewing. Wont be getting another penny off me. Should now be known as keepaway.co.uk
I wrote a review about HomeAway which did not put them in good light. I wrote to the President himself and he got his legal team on the case. It is now resolved in my favour and all monies I was entitled to have now been returned. The actual booking service was good, it was just the after service care! Fairs Fair.
Saturday night I received a text saying a James Havering wanted to check availability on
My apartment for rent for 2 adults.
No dates were given.
A dubious looking UK telephone number was given... repeating the country code and using
3 double digits in the number. This proved false
No e mail was given as has been the case on a previous enquiry from the German site that is linked to this one by common ownership
I tried to respond by the customize reply drop-down box option but received an error message. Subsequent interrogation of this enquiry yielded the same results for the confirm
Availablility and reject availability options.
The message from the specimen enquiring was "Hope your(sic.) declaring this to the tax office".
The following night I then received the same message with the additional sentence of
"Your details will be passed for scrutiny"
All 4 enquiries came through in the late evening. You can draw your own conclusions.
Does any verification of enquiries and their source take place before transmission to property owners/managers with this site?
Me and my family loved the family house we stayed in during the Christmas period last year, it felt so comfortable and relaxing.
They cant give refunds. They advertise properties in wrong locations (deliberately) to protect property owner but renter is misled. Homeaway phones are manned by robots and cant resolve issues.
There is no security that is why scammers use this site BEWARE
I do wonder if customers realise how much money this company makes from both parties. It is now only possible to advertise with them as an owner, if they handle the customers money and charge a booking fee as well. They take all the profit for no outlay or risk hanging on to the money for months on end... I do wonder what would happen to it, if they went bust.
My advice to anyone looking at booking on homeaway is to google the property name or address. I have found a lot of the places have their own website or are listed elsewhere. They don't have the huge homeaway fees and you are able to contact the owners directly, much cheaper and faster confirmation. Talking to the owner directly is the best way of finding out what you need to know, plus usually they are willing to negotiate. Homeaway is a rip off.
Booked a rental through Homeaway which I then had to cancel. Despite their blurb about peace of mind and secure payments etc. I had a massive problem when I had to cancel the booking.
Yes, it does state that they are only agents, but the owner told me they wouldn't refund the deposit I paid through them until after the date the rental was booked for (in this case July 2017 - over a year away!). I had to refer the matter to my credit card company to retrieve the not inconsiderable amount of £1200.
Homeaway had the cheek to email the following:
Thank you for allowing our HomeAway.co.uk Customer Support team to assist you.
Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!
Being on the website for over 8 years but since they have changed the way they run the website, and the horrendous fee they charge my guest for booking Iv had to drop my fees and my bookings have fallen by half... I am having the same problem that others are voicing on all this.It is now just not viable to use them and when this season is over will be seeking a new website to advertise, such a shame when they had such a great product... now all gone.
Looks like it is all fake... I have been trying to book theee different times... in reality the good offers never comes back, I called the customer care... I don't understand, they should have agreements with the landlords but they simply don't answer your emails so you are just loosing your time and days to book somewhere else something good
This is a dishonest malicious company. They have clients that are destructive to property, do not respect rules of the property and then trash the property physically and then complain about the property. Owners beware - you don; t want HomeAway renters.
There was a time when dealing with this company was a pleasure. Not any more. The changes to their procedures, without any form of consultation or advice, have been appalling. Why should holiday makers have to pay anything up to 12% more than the advertised price? Why should I have payments into my account reduced by 3%? Why, in this time of virtually instant money transfers, should I have to wait up to a week to receive payments? Why is their customer support so excruciatingly poor? Why did I pay what I thought was a one off annual subscription of almost £300? Why won't I be paying it again?... Because this company is money grabbing, unethical, dishonest and exploitative.
I could go on... and on... and on...
If you book with this company you will pay charges due to them dealing in the euro. They can then cancel at any time and you will get charges on the refund (when you eventually get it!).
I booked and paid for a holiday, paid fees to book it and then the owner cancelled it. I got a refund after several emails but got charged to receive the refund too.
Homeaway said that they refunded me the full amount but after booking a holiday with them I am out of pocket. This may be due to bank charges but it is a risk that everyone makes when booking with this company.
I'm horrified that it can be the case where you are risking losing hundreds of pounds just by booking with this company!
Do not use them, you have no control of an owner cancelling your holiday and so you are gambling your money and it is a big risk!
Disgusted that this could happen!
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.
I booked a holiday with this company and the apartment that I had booked was not the one one that cane up on my booking.
I contacted them immediately and they said that I was within the 50% cancellation period and would have to contact owner.
I stated that it was their error and they should sort it but got no comeback.
I spoke to the owner who was very sympathetic and agreed to wave the booking as long as she was not blacklisted by Homeaway.
She has agreed to pay me back but Homeaway have kept their fee.
This is just a site that creates stress for its customers and wears you down when you
Try and get it back.It makes me sick to the stomach just thinking about it.
BE WARNED...
I reserved a flat in London through Owners Direct, HomeAway. U. K. Property E8437. The property manager was very accommodating when we made the reservation. Unfortunately, we were forced to cancel for reasons beyond our control. Our cancellation was outside the 60 day cancellation period. Full refund applied. The property manager said she would refund the deposit to our bank account. We have been waiting over 2 months for the refund. The property manager has never given me a bank transaction number. Thus, she hasn't sent the refund. I am now pleading to Citibank to help us as our deposit was made by our credit card.
I wouldn't wish this experience on anyone. It's been a 60+ day nightmare. Remember Homeaway.com UK Property E8437.
For the second year running I have massive problems with this site. They have expanded the business so quickly that they have lost control of home owner accounts, customer satisfaction and as usual it is almost impossible to communicate with them.
VERY expensive and to be avoided at ALL COSTS. A very unhappy customer that has spent thousands of dollars on this site.
RIP off booked a holiday took 1600 off my credit card then 3 hours later informed me it was double booked paid in English converted to dollar so not my fault but £20 worse off and no holiday
Worst company I have worked with. And the work renters. The renters did follow the rules, arrived too soon, left late trashed the property and HomeWay UK who was the agent - does nothing about it. Owners Beware!
Overview
HomeAway UK has a rating of 3.1 stars from 62 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. HomeAway UK ranks 155th among Vacation Rentals sites.
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- London, LONDON, United Kingdom
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- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members