HomeAway

I was previously with STAYZ who have now been taken over by HomeAway. I cannot believe that HomeAway think a prospective guest would be willing to pay their outrageous "service fee". I would rather pay a higher commission fee as property owner than our guests be charged a service fee. What HomeAway dont understand is that guests will not be willing to pay the service fee (it is significant), they will look elsewhere and HomeAway and the property owners are the losers. HOmeAway also want to charge property owners commission on the cleaning fee which is ridiculous, this fee goes direct to the cleaner not the property owner.
Will be interesting to see how long HomeAway last... predicting not long, guests will look at other booking avenues as I am as a property owner.

I thought the screen said the rental was unavailable so I went on to the next one. I ended up with two places rented for the same week. I am begging her to delist the one property for next week. It is the keys and everything is full so chances are it would rent. She had slammed the phone down on me twice. I put her on speaker so my family could hear her she had mental issues. Keeps insisting I am wrong and I never intended to come. We are leaving Saturday for the keys. Please NEVER. Give credit card info to these people. The woman I am dealing with is a hateful crook. We are out 2500$. She screams at me when all I ask for was for her to relish the one property. BAD. PEOPLE. Stay away!

As an owner, I discourage all owners to stay away from Homeaway. This year, they have deceived us about the position we would have on four separate apartments in order to get us to go to a global platinum level, costing $1400 per apartment. Within a month after signing up, they moved us down from position 13 to position 364. When we complained we were told that they were sorry that we "feel that way" but were quick to point out that their terms and conditions stated that they could change the terms at any time. Essentially, they just scam recent advertisers by keeping on selling positions ahead of them until they are dropped to nowhereland and their inquiries go down to 10% of what they were immediately folllowing signup.

I was a bit nervous after reading all the dreadful reviews for Homeaway. I can say we had no issues with them at all. No complaints.The apartment - ground floor 59-596 A Kamehameha Highway Haleiwa - was roomy, clean, comfortable, well-appointed. The directions to find it and to get in were spot-on. It is actually located at Pupukea - a short walk across the road to the most beautiful beach, and walking distance along a shared bike path, to a Foodland and some great little eateries. This area looks very down at heel, and we were a bit alarmed at first. There is a house in front of this property, on the same block, with barking dogs and rubbish strewn everywhere. It is on a very busy road, and there are noisy neighbours. It was a relief when we got inside, but it is definitely only for inside living - no balcony or views. We discovered that the upstairs studio apartment had a balcony, so that might be a better choice if you want to enjoy the balmy evenings and the sunset.

Now VRBO / Homeaway is charging travellers 6% and getting nothing in return. They charge owners a large fee to advertise, but now going after the rest of us. We rented countless times with VRBO, but never again. Now owners will pull out since renters won't want to pay the ripoff fee. They do nothing at all for the 6%. Also, who wants to spend another $200 for booking a condo for a week. Looks like we will be using other sites fo rentals. Also, we could not undertand the rep and they couldnt understand us. It was not India, but some other part of Asia.

I have been a owner for the last 10 plus years and have always had summers booked by April. This year I still have summer weeks left! That is unheard of and now I get the notice they are going to block you from talking to guests tell they book. Are you kidding me I was told my guests could book through me well that's done and now there is 4000 properties in my area up from 700. Next they will allow hotels to adverstise. I hate to say it I am going to be forced to sell since there is no site for owners left and I can't compete with 4000 properties. It's for suppose to be vacational rental by owners not every frickin management company in the world! God let there be somebody who can stop these guys from screwing all owners and guests with extra fees. We need another option out here!

We were excited to see a listing for a remodeled home in Calimesa, Cali, which was listed at 3:00 am. We booked at. 6:00 am, after thoroughly reviewing the pictures and claimed amenities. The charge went through so the booking was confirmed. I made contact with the owners, the Schwartzes, and when they responded, they claimed that the property was already booked weeks ago, and they cancelled our reservation. Apparently, the Schwartzes had time to do their research and decided we were the wrong hue. We are not paranoid, but all indication points in that direction. Expedia offered us a $50.00 coupon for our trouble. Really? Shame on all of you.

We rented a 1 bedroom condo through HomeAway and the trip total was $583. At checkout our card was charged $830. Whe I called HomeAway they said they only "advertised" this property and the company that manages the property can charge what they want. I have a snapshot of the confitmation, with trip total outlining room rate, taxes and fees totaling the $583. After calling 2 times and being hung up in (and I was calm, no cursing) I am left with the choice to chargeback for fraud. I have always used Homeaway and never had issues. They are losing a loyal customer.

None of my passwords or usernames work anymore... I have Global Bundle packages and even though VRBO bought everyone else you cannot access or transfer your user names or accounts. You can no longer screen your renters... they book it for you. TERRIBLE!
I am now inundated with 2 day rental requests and it is not legal to rent for less than a week in our condo building. They also try to stick my renters with a service fee to book my condos. I don't want to charge my renters more money for VRBO!

I have been using Home Away/VRBO for years and never had a bad experience. This year I rented a home in Pigeon Forge for our family vacation. One of the children was hospitalized the day before we were to leave for the rental. I made the choice to cancel the rental and stay home to help with the other small child and the other family members. The home owners were kind and did everything to help us. CSA, Home Away Insurance denied the claim because the child had a problem that was not covered by the insurance. I paid for the rental and the insurance but the company refused payment because of a child. By all means rent from Home Away or VRBO but find another travel insurance.

I have been in so many issues with them almost for 9 weeks to get my refund! I used them to rent an apartment in FL. They put in in Sonder property! Very basic apartment has nothing of the basic options that anyone need. Second day they forced us to move to another apartment with a broken AC So I had to cancel the reservation. 9 weeks and I haven't received my refund and I stock between Homeaway and Sonder as no one want say we have your money a s we will refund you! So I had to dispute it and I will file a complain on the business bearu.
Don't use Home away or Sonder. They are scam!

Surprises like this kills our business, I have not had a rent increase in 4 years and need to have one in order to stay in business, now that home away is increasing fees in under "booking fees" of 5%, my rent increase can't be realized and I still have to pay yearly subscription plus 3% credit processing. Way to kill small business homeaway! Very dissapointed of the control and limits this has put on me and my customers. Flip key is looking better in my eyes. Booking fees, ok, but 5%? Excessive. I get that home away brings the customers who make it possible for me to stay in business, I get it, I appreciate it, I do. But this is WAY excessive to do to homeaways customers and mine. Shame on you homeaway!

Why do you sell travel insurance?
We did not travel to a vacation destination due to Governor of Alabama declaring a state of emergency in the area we where to stay. We talked to the property owner before we decided to not travel. Property owner suggested to put in claim with travel insurance and rebook trip the next month. Seemed like the right way to handle the situation.
Only to find out later. Governor declared state of emergency is not covered by policy.
Lost full payment. Lost vacation. Lost faith in homeaway.

I would never rent through VRBO/HomeAway again, especially through the property manager Julia, who manages high end L. A. properties. We paid $17k for a week and had to cancel due to the corona virus. We offered to take a 50% refund, and they refused, instead offering us the opportunity to rent at the same price before May 31. Of course, that won't work for us, because the corona virus is ongoing and our kids are in school. I felt a 50/50 split was fair, but they rejected it.
Before this happened, I also tried to cancel the reservation because they don't allow you to play music in the house. This was before the reservation was finalized and agreed to. The owner, Julia, said I had ten minutes to cancel. I tried to cancel, but couldn't figure out how to do it over the computer. She basically sent me an email saying it wasn't her fault that I didn't know how to navigate the site. This is just so everybody knows what type of people you are dealing with.

I spoke with a representative, who wouldnt give me her name, and him up on me, when I questioned, all the extra fees, I know the owner of the properties pays HomeAway to list, then they charge the traveler, so if you have a rental for a week, at say 10,000 it ends up costing you the renter 12,000 because of all the extra charges HomeAway has. This isnt fair in my opinion. I cant talk to the owner or property manager until I pay up front 1/2 the balance, there are some things that you need to speak to a real person and not an email. There are a lot of scams out there, and Im supposed to put 6000 dollars in an account to be able to just give or get a phone number or website to a property. Are they kidding me. This woman was so rude to me. Whoever is the CEO, of this company should vet their employees better. I dont know about you but dishing out my money whether it be 100 or 6000, is absurd. I dont know how they can get away with this.