HomeAway UK

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.

We rented an apartment from Etienne Feru in Annecy and was accused of having spilled oil on his floor. We clearly objected to this false accusation as the stain was present when we took over the apartment. We objected to any deductions being made from our deposit three times to Homeaway - we heard nothing and they paid the owner EUR 150 from our deposit! Ever since I have tried to reclaim my money w/o any luck. Yesterday I was informed the owner had provided 'sufficient evidence' of us having damaged his floor. I politely asked to see the socalled sufficient evidence as I was curious to see how the owner would prove an impossible thing. Guess what? Homeaway informed me I could not get access to this evidence!
I can only urge everybody to stay away from Homeaway and in particular to Mr. Etienne Feru from Annecy. What a fraudulent pack of cheats.

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 have been with this website for about 5 years and it seemed to work o. K. until I went to re-sign up and found that they took my money but the site did not go active, no help or sense from customer support so demanded money back which did happen, sadly my anger at them cost me dear as I lost a seasons earnings, so swallowed my pride and went back as they were the largest in the world. Soon realised I was not getting many enquiries but constantly bombarded with offers to get more exposure if I paid more money; why would I, having already paid £300 to the biggest company. When I started looking I realised the con was my money only paid for exposure on the u. K. site and netherlands not on homeaway.com which I had been led to believe. Why would anyone who wanted to rent a holiday home not want it to be on the w. W. w this was not the case when I first signed up and is obviously a new scam to maximise revenue sadly I have lost another seasons revenue before becoming aware. I am disgusted by this company and will never use them again.

Dont use this company. I hadnt checked the reviews, as we were more concerned with the reviews of the actual cottage, (which were glowing) HUGE mistake. They have effectively taken payment twice, (nearly £4000), so direct debits etc are now being refused and we are being charged for something which is not our error. Customer services were very hard to understand and get my point across to, which has made the process of resolution harder. Still trying to sort it out. PLEASE DO NOT BOOOK WITH THEM!

I have listed my vacation rentals for years on Homeaway, but they have totally changed since they were bought by Expedia. In addition to charging me for my listing, they started also charging guests to book through them. When I offered guests alternative booking options, they cancelled all of my listings without notice and left me without any way to communicate with guests. Unbelievably bad customer service as well. When I called to find out why my listing was cancelled, the rep told me to "read my emails", when I asked what could be done about this they said I could "send an email" but he advised they have no obligation to respond. When I asked about a refund for the $2000+ paid to list my properties, they said I wouldn't be getting one. When I asked who I could escalate the matter to - they gave me the EMAIL address for their legal department, but advised they would only respond if I hired an attorney.

My advice to guests looking to use their sites: Homeaway, VRBO among others is to find an alternative. Their rental guarantee is meaningless as is their trip/travel insurance. I have dealt with many guests who have been cheated on both fronts. The rental guarantee is simply a ploy so they can collect their "Service Fee".

Will never use again. Owner was slow to give refund and all they did was send him a couple of emails saying he had 48 hours to do the refund or his listing would be removed. He didn't and his listing was not removed. HomeAway then suggested I contact my credit card company and try to get a refund off them first, and then (if they wouldn't) come back to them with a letter from the bank saying why, along with copies of passport, credit card statements etc. Ridiculous customer service. 6 months later the owner finally resolved his problem with giving the refund and I got it sorted. Incidentally, the reason he couldn't give the refund was that the wrong amount was on the online form sent to him by HomeAway and it couldn't be amended. Despite numerous phone calls and emails to them, they didn't seem to grasp the problem until the very end. Not the owner's fault at all, in fact his patience was amazing.
There are a few booking companies to choose from, often for the same property, and I would definitely recommend using one of the others.

I own 3 flats which have been rented through holiday rentald and homelidays for years. Last year i renew the contract paying my annual fee to be visible on one appartment. I chose the pay per booking on the other two cause they worked less. 3 month later the company started applying a new 10 percent tax to the renter also of the one that was on a annual based fee. I protested cause it was a scam but they told me that it wasn t me but the guests paying... umbelievable. I decided to reniew this year on a pay per booking base but they refused. They want money from me and the guests too, since my booking have gone down 80 percent. I have 57 wonderful reviews, i am a good, loyal and safe client... it doesn t matter to them. They are just trying to rip off as much as possible

After booking a Cyprus Villa through HomeAway and getting all the details confirmed and travelled the Cyprus for our first ever family holiday. For some reason the owner of the property through his own mismanagement had double booked the accommodation and was only informed a day we were due at the Villa. The funds are payable to HomeAway and when you have checked in released to the property owner. The problem with the refunds id that they take 5-7 days according to HomeAway and in the meantime were had no place to stay during the peak summer Holidays. The staff at HomeAway spoke very poor english and one of them had the courage to ask me if I had problem with him, to which I explained my frustrations were with HomeAway as I didn't even know him. The customer care were all but unhelpful they promised to call me back time after time never did. After continuously going back and forwards I ask to speak to their manager and I was informed that the customer care weren't allowed to call managers forward when customers requested. All in all left stranded whilst waiting for my funds to clear and no accommodation for the family for 8 nights and for our very first ever holiday. Be warned please stay away unless you want to end up stranded!

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

I've been with Homeaway and previously holiday rentals for 10 years.
Last year when they changed their charging policy has been awful for me.
I refused online booking, because I was unhappy with the extra charges that my guests will be charged. The only option is to lower my prices, which have already been the same for 4 years, which I am not prepared to do.
So I refuse the online booking, and then found that I couldn't even update my calendar on the dashboard because it had an alert to remind me to take out the online booking.
I was warned that I may not get the same amount of enquiries. Well, it the end of June and I still have the whole of August available in 4 gites!
Before when I updated my calendar I went to the top of the listing, now when I update my calendar I go to the top of the listings which have not enabled online booking, so I'm quite often 2 pages down.
So, now I'm looking at empty gites in the summer for the first time in 10 years, because I am not a greedy owner and refuse to pass on extra charges to my guests.
I will definitely be looking at a different website for next year.

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!

How dare they, was so happy with homeaway, before exGreedia got involved.
This is a cyber website, it is bits on a server, it costs nothing once it is up and running, if they charged £3 a listing they would still make money

I was HAPPY to pay £300 plus a listing, but THIS NEW HOLIDAY MAKERS THEFT SERVCE CHARGE 6-8% for nothing,

HOW DARE VBRO
HOW DARE HOMEAWAY
HOW DARE HOLIDAY-RENTALS UK

Milk more money from our clients, smart clients will go else where to book, WTF

OUTRAGEOUS CORPORATE ARROGANCE AT ITS WORSE

I booked a property on ownersdirect last summer (2013), and the listing turned out to be fake. I paid a deposit of 1000 Euro ot a person that was not the owner of the property. After checking With customer service how i could Ensure that this person was the owner of the property in Spain, they just told me that they had no reason to beleive otherwise and that they did check every property that where listed. Also they told me about their Basic Garantee Program that that turned out to be Worth nothing, as they have just ignored my claim. THIS IS A WARNING TO ANYONE THAT ARE THINKING ABOUT RENTING A HOLIDAY HOME FROM OWNERS DIRECT. STAY AWAY!

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!

Disastrous Experience just like the other hundreds of good people who have made similar complaints with TrustPilot and/or Sitejabber.

I booked the apartment on Homeaway website. I was charged with the first payment. Subsequent to my booking I had to make a cancellation due to the original apartment booked not being available from the property owner. I eventually managed to obtain a partial refund from the property owner - without the processing and service fee charged by HomeAway. Homeaway told me that the owner had my money. The owner showed me a photo as a proof that they only got part of the payment.

I was subsequently forced by HomeAway to contact my bank to request they refund me the amount as a means of deferred responsibility. After a very lengthy process of my bank refusing to refund me the amount, I then submitted a refund request to HomeAway with my bank denial to reimburse letter. HomeAway then sent me service fee charge amount but not the processing fee amount. I'm still have to go through this extremely lengthy and painful back and forth correspondence to obtain a refund for an unauthorised payment made almost five months ago. HomeAway is simply the WORST GARBAGE SCUM OF THE EARTH COMPANY THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN! THEY ARE ABSOLUTE THIEVES! DO NOT BOOK with this scam company or else you will regret it! I regret not reading all the negative reviews from customers first before booking with this website.

Having been with Home away and its predecessor for nearly 10 years we had been unhappy at the changes made ( without consultation) to booking, pricing etc and had just sort of lumped it.
The straw that nearly broke the Camels back was last year when they announced the fees to be charged to customers.
Also last year when we should have been getting bookings for 2017 it seemed to be more and more difficult to find our property which is in the Northern Scottish Highlands and as a result we have only had 5 weeks booked this year!

The Northern Scottish Highlands now seem to have disappeared and we are lumped in with 100s of other properties. I queried this, as originally all the Counties in the Northern Scottish Highlands would come up as a sub menu and then, in another sub menu, villages and towns would appear.
You would think this was pretty logical but not according to Home Away, as we have now been mixed in with 100s of other properties, some of which are from other letting agencies?.

I have contacted Home Away so many times to get this and so many other queries (like looking for a 1 bedroomed cottage) resolved I have just about given up.

I had a final attempt today and await the usual Bull--it answer.

My next communication will be with the Scottish Parliament in both the Tourism and Business departments to bring this company to their attention, as I feel something needs to be done.
I will not be renewing my rip off fee this year and to be honest I would rather let my property sit empty than give these "Vultures" any more money.

I think as mentioned in earlier posts there is a time for a small personal based web site to provide details of property available, just like it was when the site had its beginnings.

Yours Truly
A.M.

As property advertisers with HomeAway.co.uk for 11 years, we are appalled at the way they have treated us over the return of a guest's deposit.
We have 'automatic refund' of guest deposits set up on our account - unless we ask HA not to process the refund, it will be sent automatically. Last year we were contacted by HA, asking us to refund a guest ourselves directly, as the guest had changed bank accounts, and the HA automatic system would not be able to process to a closed bank account. We did so and thought no more about it.
But, HA then automatically processed the refund anyway. The £300 refund was never received by the guest, is lost in the banking system, and HA say we must now repay them £300, as we 'activated' the automatic refund.
We did not activate a refund, we have in place, as I said, the HA automatic refund facility, and as HA had contacted us precisely because they could not use this system to issue this refund, we naturally assumed that they wouldn't. If we had been required to deactivate the automatic refund, the person dealing with this issue should have informed us.
Since then, we have had weeks of unpleasant and aggressive demands for us to repay HA the £300 that they are unable to find in the banking system, after they made the automated refund to a closed bank account. This has left us feeling very stressed and helpless. The financial ombudsman is unable to help as the company is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK.
HA reasons that as we did not deactivate the automatic refund, having agreed to their request to help them by refunding the guest directly, we are liable for the 'lost' £300.
After months of silence, we subsequently accepted an online booking, and yesterday HA emailed us to say that unless we pay the £300, they will take it from this booking.
We want prospective clients who may be considering advertising with Home Away.co.uk to hear about our experience. After 11 years as loyal customers, we had expected that the company would value our custom, see sense, and stop pestering us for a payment that we do not owe. Sadly this has not been the case, so we will not be renewing our subscription, a financial loss to HA of much more than £300, and strongly advise anyone looking for a company to advertise with, to look elsewhere.

PROPERTY REF - *******, SORRENTO MARINE THEMED APARTMENT
My husband is disabled (mobility difficulties). When we were looking to book this accommodation we chose it because it stated on the advert that it was wheelchair accessible and it was located at the beginning of a slope street, on checking the LOCATION satellite view map that was attached to the advert, the symbol A was showing as Via Fuorimura, which is one of the roads just off the main square Piazza Tasso. On email correspondence on 12/7/15 this road was mentioned again, but the full address wasnt given. The day before we flew to Naples I sent a further email again asking for the full address, it was at the point that the we were told it was VIA ATIGLIANA, Sorrento. We arrived in Sorrento on 31/7/15 and spent our first night at Hotel Del Corso, we picked this due to its central location and easy accessibility for my husband (flat). The children and I decided to take a walk and find the apartment for the following day. We walked along Via Fuorimura until it came to an end then had to ask in a shop. Via Atigliana, carries on from here and it is a steep winding road which is fractionally wide enough for two cars to pass, there was no footpath. The apartment is situated within a residential block and is in a poor state of disrepair, with rendering having fallen off in a large number of places. The view from the balcony is onto what appears to be abandoned wasteland. There are no photos on the property advert showing the outside of this building or views from the balcony and the distance to the centre is inaccurate. The location satellite map that is on the advert is also clearly misleading as it highlights an area on Via Fuorimura when in fact it should have the marker on Via Atigliana, which is significantly further away. If the owner had have been honest from the outset we would never have booked this apartment, we stayed there for one night and had to pay for alternative accommodation at Hotel del Corso for the remainder of our holiday. The only way my husband could get to and from the apartment to the centre was to use the local taxis, at a cost of 20 euros each time.