HomeAway

If possible it is definitely best to contact home owner directly and also pay to his/her bank account.
Homeaway payment adds a huge fee on top of the rent, and holidaymaker cannot see it. You can get a lower price when renting directly from the home owner. This is the original meaning of whole thing.

If there is a refund situation, be aware that Homeaway refund may not work as you expected. The Homeaway payment system simply cannot be trusted.

HomeAway used to be a great service but then they bought up the competition and started screwing it to the users on both ends - owners and renters. Turned the "service" they offer into nothing but a money making proposition for HomeAway by charging outrageous fees, now to renters in addition to owners, and controlling listings more and more to force owners to pay more for aspects of the service that used to be included or considered unnecessary. This is why we have anti-monopoly laws in this country!

Greed in it's darkest form. Adding a service fee to my renters... for what? I'm already paying $400/year for their service. How is this legal? Homeaway will lose thousands of customers because of this.

I used this service years ago and it was great. Now? HORRIBLE! They use some payment provider from the Philippines and they control and dictate when and how monies are collected, disbursed, and if and when a client should receive back their deposit monies. It takes 3 months for a homeowner to see the money collected for a rental! I don't like the way it's set up now, way worse than even Paypal which I vowed never to used again for as long as I live. This business has been farmed out oversees and they could care less. No way I can operated a business like this. They have there teeth sunk way in to the control of the money and I can just see many people getting burned. Will be using a Realtor and paying more money!

I am disappointed with Homeaway because those places that they announce are only a hook. I tried to book them but they do not respect that price which is on their website. Their excuse is that those prices belong to the low season... why Homeaway asks them to update... Is it not what that website is for?... i have a nasty surprise about hidden fees and extra taxes and they also began asking for an insurance as much as 1500 or buy one... this place becomes insane.

I was fooled by the HomeAway site into thinking they were the realtor renting a vacation property in Naples. We ended up paying ridiculously high fees that went neither to the realtor or to the homeowner. Had we realized the shell game, we would have rented directly from the realtor and saved hundreds of dollars in fees. I do not understand why local Chambers or Better Business Bureaus or Attorneys General do not put a stop to this.

The CEO is telling us (property owners) the new fees are to benefit us while my bookings are down to nearly nothing. This guy needs to be fired. I am trying to get hold of CNBC (Jim Cramer) to let him know what this idiot has done to ruin this homeaway.com website. I am glad I don"t own stock(homeaway) and if any of you do I would get out before you lose your -ss.Homeescape.com is a free website and Vacationhomerentals.com let you list 2 months free(you can test them out) and both them do not charge fees to your guest.

I listed with HomeAway for 4 years and was happy with the service. I paid about $350 for my posting and from there all interactions with potential renters were up to me. HomeAway is now sending quotes to those who inquire and including a booking fee. If I opt not to do the booking/payment through HomeAway they will bury my ad and charge me double for the listing. I will be moving my listing to Weneedavacation.com or some other service. I'm very disappointed as previous to these changes I liked the HomeAway service.

I called to try to get clarification on a simple problem, which was that I'd put in a search location and be shown properties at a different location. So far, I've spoken to seven people -- one of whom promised me a phone call back that never came, another who hung up on me in mid-sentence, one who said the 888 number would connect me directly with the Austin office (it didn't), one who put me on hold for a half hour before I was disconnected, a supervisor who seemed allergic to apologizing and hung up on me when I asked for one, and then finally someone who seemed like a normal human being. I've spent a day and a half trying to get a simple problem resolved, and they're the worst.

You think you've booked somewhere then you haven't. You think you've adjusted your own rates, then it turns out someone at the company has made a mistake and so you haven't. There's something seriously wrong with this company: they have a lot of incompetent people and aspects to their system, such as their website and their way of booking. Or just changing the rate. Be very very wary. I'm now going to advertise elsewhere and when it comes to finding houses I avoid them entirely - they just waste too much time.

My parents rented a house via this website and while the property was only mildly insufficient the owner was a nightmare and tried to charge us for a bunch (thousands of dollars) of BS work she claimed needed to be done and some missing items. However, when we explained the law to her she backed off. When we tried to submit an honest review of the nightmare owner they would not allow it saying that "your review does not meet our guidelines". After submitting several iterations attempting to become compliant we realized that the only way it could be seen as "non-compliant" is that our review was not flattering of the listing/owner.
This is not the first time we have had issues with owners and false advertising on these sites and neither case did VRBO/Homeaway do ANYTHING to help us but rather did everything they could to protect the owners!
Caveat emptor (buyer be ware)... these websites are NOT on your side!

I am a very unhappy VRBO subscriber. Just got an inquiry from a German family with a 19% added (VAT) fee. Checked into things. I did recently add my PayPal direct payment to the Alternative Payment system. I've never done 'Book it now' or "Home away payments" apparently listing a payment method is now considered a payment system via Home Away. My renters are now charged a huge fee for simply booking the same way I have been booking for many years, through ME! Called and was told you cannot change or go back. Wrote down all my future guests info; just in case! Canceled my auto-renewal and will be switching to Air-bnb. Yes; fee to both but 3% each (pretty sure) comes out much better. Just the sneaky way they went about it 'Chaps my Hide!"

Hawaii Chic

I've had over 12 listings on Homeaway/vrbo for several years now, and as a property manager dedicated to vacation rentals, feel that I have a good amount of experience. Homeaway has the worst customer service of any travel site I've ever encountered. Furthermore, they gouge you for everything--from special offers, to the new renter fee they've included. Trip Advisor / Flipkey is much better, as are nearly every other vacation rental service out there!

Service fees to our Renters? After we pay you for advertising... which is a hefty fee that certainly covers the... what the hell does it actually cost you for us to book our Renters? Your description on 'Learn More About Service Fees'... total crap; "It enables us to invest more than ever before in marketing to bring you more travelers, as well as in our trust and security and mobile capabilities." Yea, not at all. I've lost two bookings because of your 'small fee'... which isn't small when certain nightly rates are large, especially with a 'luxury' listing that sleeps 20+. Never had problems earning the trust of the Renter... now, seems I do. Like a child I'm gonna say it... you know you're wrong. You are a bunch of crooks... been getting better at stealing from us over time. I'm done... moving my rental advertising somewhere else. Awful.