I have used Homeaway twice and both times it was a disaster with the properties being grossly misrepresented. When I used them recently we could only stay in the apartment for one night before having to move to a hotel. We did negotiate a refund with the owner but Homeaway did nothing to help and charged the full service fee which is based on the price for the whole 5 days. They have refused to refund any part of the fee even though I feel they did not deliver any service.
Confirmed, took payment, then cancelled.
Booked a holiday cottage through HomeAway. It was confirmed by both this site and the owner. They then cancelled me and were unable to source a replacement. To add insult to injury are now dragging their heels refunding my money. No help, no apologies. Just terrible.
After several years of advertising our property's with homeaway they started in February 2016 charging my renters a fee of between 4 and 9 percent but won't tell us how much the charge will be 4 or 9 or some where in between. Plus we pay in the $500.00 range for a basic site
Just a terrible company to deal with. They say they give 100% refunds when they absolutely do not. In fact my refund was short 150 US and their reason was the exchange rate changed when both the payment and refund were issued on the same day. Do tell how that's possible. Pieces of garbage
A terrible and really uninsured site with no responsibility for what they advertise.
We were robbed by an agent of the site for 2610 euros - we have an approved reservation of an apartment that does not exist at all. Now I see so many complaints - wonder why the site doesn't appeal to the police
For fourteen years I advertised on VRBO... I was very happy and my home in Hilton Head SC was always full... always rented... starting about 4 years ago when Homeaway and then Expedia took over things started to go down... bad enough they started to raise the rates... up, up,, up. But what put the cherry on the cake was the "added fee" charged to the guests for using there site... are you kidding me... get away from these money grubbing --do nothing-- people... think about it... all they do is hitch there wagon to your horse WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT and then have the nerve to charge the person who wants to rent the horse a fee for doing so... I know longer do business with them... quality has gone DOWN>>>DOWN>>>DOWN spend the money on a web designer... at least you get to keep every dime YOU bring in... This company is the pits for sure... also they MONITOR your personal email with your guests... beware...
We booked a family vacation in a unit that cost $492 per night. For this, we had no hot water, no blankets, bugs (one even traveled back in our luggage!), no wifi... the list goes on. When I filed a complaint, the company escalated it to the property owner, but Homeaway.com team told me there was nothing they could do on their end because it was an issue between the property owner and me, even though we booked it through homeaway.com -- essentially relinquishing all responsibility for their company and not creating any motivation for the property owner to make things right with us.
I will never use this site again to book travel -- it's back to hotels or Airbnb for us.
Horrible host experience, left negative feedback and the host lied terribly, said completely false things about me. Unbelievable! I communicated this to HomeAway - they said the response 'met their guidelines' so did nothing at all! Terrible management communication and no customer service at all.
What a nightmare service. I did a search with the Pets Allowed filter on only to be allowed to book a property which I later found out did NOT accept dogs. I had to cancel the reservation, within a half hour of reserving it but I was charged for 24 hours still. Then the property owner said we could bring our dogs, so we reinstated the reservation. I thought everything was fine until I discovered I was charged twice for this property! I've now been on hold for over a half hour dealing with trying to get my money back. They've given me a case number. Like I have a case? This is 100% their error! Booking vacation should not be this hard. This company needs to go out of business or learn from Airbnb fast.
Do not list with them as they don't screen guests nor believe homeowners. I was threatened by guest. What did they do? Nothing. My furniture was broken. They want receipt for furniture. Bought. Not replaced... they want your money and then they'll close the door on you. I have notified my bank of fraud by homeaway. They want funds to be returned after this guy stayed in my house, threatened me, and we found furniture broken.
HomeAway have introduced a charge on people renting property via their sites.
Their email informing me of this says quite clearly "The service fee is charged to travellers who book and pay through the HomeAway checkout. "
When I wrote to say the charge was scandalous, and while it will not affect me because I do not use their payment service, the reply I got is "The service fee will apply to all listings on our site, whether they accept HomeAway Payments or not. It will not apply to any travellers you have booked already."
The company deserves to fail. I advise everyone to avoid advertising with them or using them to book a holiday rental.
Powerless to support customers with complaints about Property Owners borderline fraudulent, insecure and unprofessional practises. We cancelled our booking and took the 50% hit rather than continue to use the service.
I have used Homeaway Vacation Home Rentals to book my vacation rental. HomeAway offers the best selection of properties around the world. The website is very user friendly and connects clients to homeowners or property managers instantly.
Additionally you do not have to worry about paying as they offer a variety of very trusted options to secure your money.
Although they also own VRBO.com, I personally like the layout of Homeaway.com as I find the layout and navigation are more user friendly.
I cannot begin to explain how displeased and infuriated my experience with this website has left me. I was charged twice for accommodation meaning my credit card was charged $6000 instead of $3000. As a student, I do not have this money and now have $0 thanks to this expensive mistake from HomeAway. The customer service in dealing with the matter have been slow, rude, useless and overall completely pathetic. I cannot explain how painstakingly terrible this entire process has been for me and will be sure to insist to everyone I know that they should never book accommodation through this site. You have my absolute guarantee that I will never use this site again.
I have 2 properties on HomeAway and have barely been booking for the summer season!
Because of their greed, renters are turned off, and I as an owner will definitely NOT sign on
With them again! First it was taking the damage protection out of my hands ( I am the owner after all) and now imposing a ridiculous fee on our renters! I am looking for alternative sites or maybe one of us can be creative, begin a new and more honest
Business!
I just wanted to point out that Linda D. Who asks the first question and is obviously working for HomeAway.com by authoring and then answering the question has the exact same identification photo posted as Tina S. Who asks a similar but differently worded question below directly addressing fees. As Linda D. She has never rented a home online and as Tina S. She is surprise and disappointed by news fees when booking her 2016 rental. In both cases, the responder obviously HomeAway.com has upbeat answers to both questions. This is ridiculous and so obvious to anyone familiar with this business.
I would not recommend any to use HomeAway. They mislead us in renting an apartment, by announcing a wrong address. When we complained to HomeAway - they were completely ignorant in finding any solution. And don't expect them to reply quickly. Their policy aim is to answer within 24 hours - not gonna happen. I got a reply after 16 days!
If I could give them a zero, I would. I really wish I would have seen this site and read these reviews before renting a homeaway.com property. We had a great experience until it came time for the property owner to return our security deposit. At that point she started talking about "extra cleaning" that was needed and "damages". We did not damage the property and even vacuumed before our departure! After getting no where with her, I filed a complaint with homeaway and they basically told me I am on my own. Don't use this site!
This is a scam! We tried to get a rental nin Mexico. They took the credit card and started putting apron fees without any confirmation that we paid. What a huge scam, beware of this. I wish I'd have seen all these reviews before we did this.
We booked an apartment in Amsterdam and paid through Homeaway.com. We stayed there between 27-31 March 2017. The problem we have experienced is the non repayment of our 250 euro damage deposit which the landlord has agreed to refund to us. We have written and telephoned Homeaway several times and their customer support is awful. You'll get through to a call centre either in India or the Philippines and although calling over 10 times and receiving an email confirming that the delay in receiving the refund is due to a problem with their website, we don't have any faith now that the refund will be provided to us. We will never book an apartment through this company again.
Overview
HomeAway has a rating of 1.1 stars from 1,751 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with HomeAway most frequently mention customer service, credit card and property owner. HomeAway ranks 152nd among Vacation Rentals sites.
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- Sitejabber’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
- Sitejabber has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members