HomeAway

HomeAway charged $250 in fees on top of the advertised booking price of $520. I did not see the fees until after the booking was made. In communication from them, there were also discrepancies and confusion about which size property I booked. When I complained, the first complaint was ignored and the second blamed the problems on the owner (who was innocent, and received only slightly more money from HomeAway than the advertised cost). The owner commented that he's surprised they haven't been hit by a class action lawsuit yet.

I book this is san antonio tx and wen i get to it is nasty so i call the customer service and they told me that i have to wait like 4 or 5 hours till the home owner goes and clean the house after i had a long day travelling so i say no im not staying in that nasty house we we want or money back so i talk to a supervisor for nothing worse then the customer service so anyway i didn't stay in the house and they keep my money they are just stealing from people

Horrible experience by owner and HomeAway. Owner agreed to switch reservation date then suddenly switched back to original date with less than a week notice. He would not refund my money and I am out over $1200. Owner became volatile and angry. I spent hours on hold with customer service and filled out a detailed complaint with documentation. The company said I should try disputing charges with my credit card company and have not responded to my emails. Worst experience ever by both an unprofessional owner and a company that has zero customer service or support. I will never use their service again.

We booked a place for 3 weeks. Had to leave because of fleas after 2.
HomeAway censored my negative review of the property by saying it was a complaint not a review. I was asked to make a complaint. I did that and guess what- nothing happened.
The owners refunded some money but refused to give a breakdown of how it was calculated. HomeAway did... you guest it... nothing...
They add Zero value.
They block negative reviews so you are unlikely to get the full picture...
You are better off finding somewhere privately.

I booked a villa through HomeAway having found it on their website, I requested the dates as required and was told they were available, I was then sent the booking confirmation and payment details, I paid in full again as requested.
I emailed to ask when details would be given but got no reply, after a week I contacted the customer service number to be told this booking was not with then and their website must have been hacked.
They do not want to know and even put the phone down on me!

I have used Homeaway/VRBO many times without any problems. I really appreciated the service they offer. So back in November 2015, I booked a 4-bedroom home in downtown Rapid City for the end of July 2016. In plenty of time to get the house I wanted in the neighborhood I wanted. The owner of the house recently contacted me, 5 months later to tell me that she could no longer rent the house to me because an elderly person with Alzheimer's already lived there!?! What the heck? Unfortunately, the only other 4-bedroom house that I liked was already rented for my dates. So I ended up booking a 3-bedroom 15 miles West of downtown Rapid City through Flipkey whom I shall be using from now on. And it took a while for Homeaway to get back to me regarding my complaint, probably because they have so many others... I'll probably never use them again.

I have been with them for five years. Not only do they charge $500 to be on their site, they take 3% of all your revenue. If you don't reply to a booking request in 24 hours they hide your listing telling you that your stats are now bad but don't tell you they're doing it ( I lost two months of bookings as a result). Now their delaying payments to owners until 30 days later, while they still collect payments from renters when they book. This site unilaterally makes changes that harms the owner, and they get away with it because there is no alternative they control AirBNB and are supported by Expedia. There is no power in the hands of the property owners while HomeAway gets the foot and continues to make decisions that benefit them. I'd like to find an alternative but believe they control this market. If anyone knows of an alternative, please post it.

We use it but we all hate it. Seems unfair, but what recourse?

I confirm what I read on this site. HomeAway doesn't accept negative comment.
We rent an apartment in NY Astoria (Ultra Modern Apartment).
This apartment was for 2 people and not for 4 people.
The second bed was a totally uncomfortable inflatable bed.
The floor creaked, there were no curtains on the windows, we could hear all the noises from upstairs and Home Away refuses to publish this comment... even if certain points were positive.
Be very careful when your read comment on Home Away.

This company has been going down hill for more than 14 years since I started with them. First it was easy... You talk to the renter and you sell the rental. Now HA and VRBO (Expedia) wants $600 a year to advertise. Up to 10% of the rental fee, 3% of the transaction fee, another 3% if you want your money before check in ( like every other rental in the world) It adds up to 30% in the end as taxes and fees keep coming. On a rental of $1900 the fees were $975. I wish someone would come up with another solution!

The property owner of our stay was mean and asked you to do every cleaning before leaving. We ended up with hundreds of dollars of cleaning bill taken from our deposit. Plus the property utility was broken. We then called home away customer service 10+ times. They kept saying they will get back to us but never. Eventually we left an honest review on the site for the owner and then they removed the review.

Overall, this company takes care the interests of owners much than travelers. If you are unlucky and need to deal with unreasonable owners, then you will find it really hard to complain about it.

As both a traveler and vacation home owner who uses VRBO/Homeaway I am appalled with the introduction of the new service fees. This is a classic example of a company getting too greedy. Their revenue from my meager rental will increase six fold due to the new fees. Where is the six fold increase in value? I encourage travelers to continue to use the service for the sake of the home owners who have no control over the fees, but maybe ask if there is a way to avoid the fee (there is). Please make your displeasure known by calling Homeaway and complaining: *******657