HomeAwayReviews 1,751

So sorry to see another one go. Take a good idea, develop and grow it into a very profitable business with good customer service then greed slips in. Sell out to the big boys, loose site of customer service with the only goal to squeeze every penny out of your customers and end product doesn't resemble the original. Will be looking for a site not so greedy!

TO ALL OWNERS ON THIS SITE-- If you are BIN ENABLED OR HA PAYMENTS OR ANY WAY YOU QUALIFY FOR A FEE, GET OUT OF BOTH ASAP. THEN YOUR CUSTOMERS DONT GET STUCK WITH THIS FEE

ALSO DISABLE AUTORENEW AND TAKE YOUR FINANCIAL INFO OUT

This company for the last couple of years for owners who pay a listing subscription to sign up for direct bookings and payments through their website. This in my opinion has grown a wedge between renter and owner. These past weeks the company has had the audacity to introduce a renter fee to travelers of up to $500 with a % of 4-10%. This is for doing nothing.

For those that did not sign up for direct payments they have punished them by placing their listings below those of a similar subscription level BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, they have put verbiage on my booking page that warns that this owner does not accept direct payments and therefore we can't protect you.

If you were a prospective renter this would scare you away from booking suggesting this owner Iis disreputable.

Already renters are reacting to fees and those with no fees with all classes of owner being financially impacted by this

This has resulted from many owners with many less enquiries and bookings doing financial loss and harm to thousands of owners

Many are discontinuing their listing on this site(s) and listing elsewhere and even that has not stirred any response from this company

Homeaway/VRBO has started charging a 'book with confidence' service fee. The fee is is capped at $499.00 which HA/VRBO requires the traveler to pay on top of the cost of their vacation rental fees. Here is what they claim the 'book with confidence' fee covers

Comprehensive payment protection protects your full rental payment against listing fraud, phishing, property significantly misrepresented and more*.
Premium customer service is available 24/7 to help you with issues or questions regarding your stay
Emergency re-booking assistance helps you find another vacation rental should your booking be cancelled by an owner or manager at the last minute
Security deposit protection helps make sure you get your deposit back if it is wrongfully withheld
They are charging a fee to the traveler. But when you look more into their advertising they state that is is free to the traveler... as seen here in the chart toward the bottom in the section labeled COST https://www.vrbo.com/info/ha-guarantee/travel-with-confidence
So many things wrong with their new service fee... they are being very dishonest in the manner in which they are advertising to name just one.

I went to Home Away today to see about booking a summer rental and tried to delete all of my past emails from previous years in order to clean up my mailbox. I was unable to do so.

Then I went to the Contact screen to send an inquiry to HA and saw the information about the fee that I would be charged for future bookings.

So I called the company and asked to have my account deleted as I would not be using them anymore. I was informed that accounts can only be suspended, not deleted. My guess is that they can say they have XXX members based on accounts in the system and they do not want that number to go down.

Well guess what? The company can do whatever they want, so can I. And what I am doing is never booking through Home Away again.

We have all seen the pattern where as home owners we have lost more and more control over our properties. By year end they will force us all to do online reservations so they can charge our customers their new fees. I was also told that as a home owner that I was not a customer... really? They send out emails looking like they come from us and hide the new fees. We all need opt out of online booking. I will find a company that values my business. Without home owners they don't have a business. Looking for a new solution.

As with others who have posted here, I have listed 2 homes on VRBO/Homeaway for 4 years at a cost of $1500. 00/property, per year. Apparently that's not enough for VRBO/Expedia, as they are now getting greedy and wanting income from both homeowners AND guests. Even worse, if you elect not to use the booking system to avoid the service fee, they drop your listing position! That seems like extortion! Either use our system and gouge your guests, or turn off the booking option and lose your site ranking/position! Also, if you are consistently declining the bookings, or letting them expire, you will also be penalized by have your ranking/position negatively affected. They think they have us over a barrel, but I'm glad to read that plenty of other homeowners and guests are fed up and looking for alternatives!

I changed my listing description to explain how guests should not use the Book It function, and instead should use the "send email" button to avoid fees. That only works if a customer will pay with a check, which plenty of my guests are choosing to do. It's very unfortunate to see a site that was so useful and user friendly go completely sideways after being acquired by another company. Oh well, I'm off to look for other rental sites and alternatives.

I am very unhappy with HomeAway's(Expedias) decision to add service fees that are essentially adding profits to their bottom line exponentially. What is even more unfortunate is that they are adding service fee's to customers who have had quotes and reservations for over a year and that is illegal. Let alone the audacity and lack of integrity of their decision to steal money from our customers that have already been provided a quote and booked based on that quote, I would expect and hope they find themselves in a large class action lawsuit as a result of their greediness. Not only did they not provide notice to the Owners who advertise on HomeAway/VRBO & countless other sites, they have the audacity to charge customers who have had quotes and reservations for as much as a year.

I am also unhappy with their online booking as it removes control from the owners and now the owners are penalized for wishing to keep control of their own properties and those who they choose to allow to stay or not stay in their home by moving us down the priority list on available properties. We are not hotels and should not be treated as such!

As a customer of over 6 years, HomeAway has lost all of my respect for their website and will likely lose me and countless others as a result of their greediness. And they really think we believe their crap that it's all in the name of customer service - BULLS?#%T!

I was saddened to see Expedia buy HomeAway and now they are proving me and the thousands of homeowners correct in knowing that this site would go to hell in a hand basket. Their Corporate greed is showing it's true colors!

I was shocked to find a 9% service fee included in the rental amount charged to my
Repeat client. They asked to talk to me over the phone. I told them there has never been a service fee, that I pay an annual fee, and it is another glitch in homealways system. I guaranteed them they didn't have to pay. I called customer service and was told some off the wall C. P like I was some stupid no nothing about business and this fee was enacted 2 weeks ago. I was never informed of this fee in any way via email or dash board. I looked like a stupid sleaze bag scammer at first to my clients. Homeaway already makes money
On my annual subscription. They make money on the other service they push to clients, including their partnership with the damage insurance company who's fees come up as default in every rental agreement for every client who rents through homeaway. I keep my own records, make all my own hard copies and they charge me another 3-6% for credit card fees. It's very bitter that now this 9% service fee is now on my books in my sight and I have nothing to do with it except to insult my clients and lose them when now they can go to a luxury hotel provided by Expedia and get house keeping everyday for the same price.

Found out that HomeAway is now charging a fee to the renter (up to 9-10%) for using my place. How did I find out? By accident, when a renter sent in a request with an unknown fee from HomeAway attached! Looked up some info on the site - what I got:

"to invest more in both marketing efforts to drive increased visitors to our sites, and in features to help make travelers more likely to book"

Called and spoke with customer service who then advises me that the fee will attract more customers - BS - I say - It's a money grab by a publicly traded corp. I guess my $1900 + a year for platinum level advertising wasn't enough? They are now taking a % of the profits and charging the customer. This was a slick way of rolling out a new fee that HomeAway thinks will have less complaints due to the guest getting hit. In actuality, guests do not want to pay these fees which in the end, will likely make them look elsewhere.

The kicker - I ask customer service who pays the merchant transaction/paypal fees on the profits HomeAway is solely making when a renter uses a credit card? I AM! WHY IS THE HOMEOWNER PAYING CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION FEES ON A BILL THAT HOMEWAY IS NOW CHARGING THE CUSTOMER FOR PROFIT? THE OWNER SEES NONE OF THIS BUT PAYS THE CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION FEES?- Response from customer service - We will note your concerns... REALLY?

We were surprised and disguised by this new service fee. We are proud of our home and go to great lengths to ensure it iis kept in top shape and that it is impeccably clean. We offer a great rate for our customers as we do the advertising ourselves rather using a property management companies. We personally try to generate a great deal and a great experience to our guests. Homeaway has now inflated the quote a potential guest is given, and tries to explain away their reasoning. My guests don't need 24 hour customer service. I give it to them along with the property management company. How dare Homeaway take a cut of the rent. Our home generally is rented for a week or two at a time, and Homeaway is raising the rental base amount by 10% Rediculous! We are actively looking for another company to advertise our property... Elaine

I'm an owner with 3 properties, like everyone else, I was not warned of the new service fee. I had to find out about it from my customers. I have posted the following message in the description of all 3 of my listings:

I am no longer accepting on-line payments through the Homeaway/VRBO site. I will take payments via check or PayPal. As of March 1st Homeaway/VRBO is charging travelers a service fee of 9% for online bookings through their site on top of what they already charge owners. I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause; however, I cannot in good faith have my customers charged this fee.

So far my customers have been appreciative of my gesture. I have turned off the online bookings feature along with the auto renewal. Unfortunately, I'm stuck until September with one of the properties, but the other two expire in April.