HomeAwayReviews 1,751

Home away is now charging a service fee for absolutely no reason. VRBO originally started as vacation renters by owner and charged a subscription fee to the owner and no fee to the renter. Now after we paid our yearly subscription fee of 1299 and obey all of their ridiculous rules on top of it they are now charging our renters a service fee. And throwing it in sneakily as if we were charging the service fee to our renters. There justifications for charging this fee make absolutely no sense at all. A renter should be told exactly why they are paying this fee and what it is for. The way I understood the fee charge is everything that I can do for my renters and I have done for my renters the past seven years. I don't need Home away to do something that I have been doing for seven years for my renters. It's a crock of crap what they are saying the service fee is for. The owners do not need them nor do the renters. My renters and I have gotten by all these years without their help. We need a class action lawsuit against them!

An additional cost for travelers and a cost, both for the owners (we will have to reduce rates to put us on the same level as the other?!) Yet we paid our subscription (quite expensive, not to have it at pay).
I think terminate my subscription and change rental website, if it has not changed.

We do not increase the cost of rent, not to strangle travelers with too expensive costs, and the fact Homeway to enrich themselves even more, on our backs...

This SHOULD be an option for travelers, not an obligation!

If the service fee is justified as Home Away claims, one thing we all can agree on is that the fee percentage is excessive. I just ran the numbers for our 2015 rental proceeds and calculated what the service fee would have yielded, assuming a mid-range service fee of 5%. Basically, the calculations came to about three times the amount we pay HA/VRBO for the annual subscription.
HA/VRBO claims that they have done their research regarding the impact of these service fees. Im sure they have. And that research, which guided their decision, took into account the risks vs. benefits of these service fees. As a result, some prospective guests will be turned off because of the added expenses and some hosts will also make the decision to switch to alternative hosting sites such as Airbnb, TripAdvisor, etc. Even if they lost 10-20% of their hosting/guest base, HA/VRBO is still ahead because these additional service fees more than offset the losses. What they are attempting to do is work with only high quality guests and high quality hosts who are not cost sensitive. Meaning, if the added expense of the service fees makes a difference to you, then move on to alternative hosting sites because you dont fit our profit profile/strategy. Once again, HA/VRBO has already evaluated the acceptable risks in implementing this fee, and have moved forward with the plan as a result. Also, the message they give prospective guests is a different message then they provide to hosts regarding their justification for service fee. The one element they arent exposing is that the service fee is also a huge profit opportunity for HA/VRBO. Clearly that has to be the case because of the excessive percentage they are taking. The benefits to hosts and guests that they state is clearly a smoke screen to the underlying purpose/motivation for this fee. Also, dont you find it interesting (and insulting for prospective guests) when they read that from a hosting perspective, this fee covers enhanced efforts for marketing/advertising expenses. How many of us watching TV want to pay advertisers to show us more commercials on TV? That is what HA/VRBO is suggesting as a value add to our client base. Wrong message HA/VRBO.

I just saw that 2 quotes that went out today had a new "service fee" attached to the quote. I did the math and it was 9% of the rental amount. I check my settings and I do not have such "service fee" stet in my settings. Fearing that my site was somehow "hacked" I called HA. Afte 20 minutes on hold I spoke to an agent who informed that it was a new service fee that HA is charging and that it's no "big deal" because the renter is paying it not me (the home owner). I said it is a big deal because the client thinks I am charging unexplained 9% service fee i said that was not in my agreement when I signed up and paid in full for a year listing for them to make changes mid stream in the contract. I said that I have lost here rentals ( approximately $2000 in revenue and also the possibility of these clients returning for future rentals. The agent says that I was notified of the new charge. I said I never received anything. I reviewed all my emails going back 2 months. I do not see any correspondence regarding this SHAME ON YOU. HomeAway. 5 years of doing business with me and several more before this from my dad. You are double dipping. Hitting the homeowner for the listing and the tenant cause you feel you can. Plus you charge for the credit card processing. GREED GREED GREED. So if I do 50,000 a year in rentals you thing you are entitled to $4500. In commissions. You have done nothing for this self appointed commission. Shame on you

Now they are charging 10% service fee to customers - ridiculous! Not only do I feel undermined due to the fact that they never informed us, but the evil greed in their actions is just too much to accept. They charge an annual fee to list, plus 3% from the owners, plus a cc fee and now this 10% to the renters. What, are they insane? How can they just raise the rental fess 10% - if I could have done that in my market, I would have? We will lose customers in fact I can feel the decline in just the last week. I will not renew my subscriptions and I will watch this company and Expedia fall from grace.

We are property owners and as such pay a fee to HomeAway to cover the cost of advertising etc, we have recently found out that they are now charging a fee to our renters which according to HomeAway they have been ASKED for? Number one, who in their right mind will ask for an additional fee and WHAT is this additional fee actually for? I believe it is a scam and will be taking my business elsewhere. They are trying to dupe the public by just adding on an additional fee and seeing who will pay for this? What they don't realize is that for the owners to remain competitive we will have to adjust our rates accordingly which means our fees will increase by an additional 4 - 10% as our renters will certainly not be paying this additional fee. The following is the explanation of the so called service fee;

(The service fee helps cover the cost of running the HomeAway websites, including features such as 24/7 customer support and marketing efforts to ensure a quality experience on our sites for both travelers and owners.)

I would like to know what we the owners are paying for if not the cost of advertising, customer support and marketing etc.

This is a huge mistake on the part of HomeAway as I am many other owners will take our business to another company that does not try to dupe us into double fees!

In a nutshell this company is sub-par to Airbnb in every way. They deliver a product with no review system, they charge 3-4x more than Airbnb and their customer service is the worse. I am a super host on Airbnb and love it. Homeaway basically sent me an offesnive email accusing me of using their site to generate leads and book on another site. There only 'proof' was a low conversion rate. Which of course is due to them not providing any info on potential guests.
They threatened me with account closure if I didnt sign up for their annual subscription. Wonder how this sales tactic is working for them.
Why on earth would I want to rent to someone I know nothing about, and pay this company 10% when I can rent using Airbnb to vetted guests with reviews for 3%.

This company is a joke. Let's see if they are around in 5 years.
THEIR EMAIL:
Subject: WARNING: Your pay-per-booking listing is in danger of being removed

Your pay-per-booking listing is in jeopardy of being removed
Weve noticed that your conversion rate is unusually low. This means the number of bookings youve processed through HomeAway Payments is significantly lower than expected based on the number of inquiries and booking requests youve received. This puts your performance in the bottom ten percent of all customers.

While this could be due to a low-quality listing that doesn't offer travelers the information that they need, it can also indicate you arent processing all bookings through HomeAway Payments.

Collecting payments outside of HomeAway Payments is a violation of our pay-per-booking terms of service.
We will remove anyone who repeatedly violates these terms. Accounts that are removed from our sites may lose the ability to advertise on our sites through pay-per-booking or subscription methods.
What to do
To keep your listings on the site, please consider the following actions:

Raise your conversion rate

Improve your listing quality to get better qualified inquiries and confirm more bookings.

See how to convert better

Convert to an annual subscription

Subscription listings can process bookings using methods other than HomeAway Payments.

Purchase a subscription
Thanks for continuing to be a valued customer.

We considered raising our rental rates last month and decided against it. How is it possible that Homeaway can mandate a new fee be added to my rental business with no real disclosure? They are a subscription model business and have just manipulated their subscribers to triple dip profits. Property owners built their business and their past success is largely due to the value of renting directly from an owner. I already take 24/7 guest calls and have 5 star ratings. My guests don't need to pay a 3rd party to protect them against me!

I am a homeowner and Homeaway has created a new "service charge" to charge our tenants. Which is- I found out- a way to create revenue for additional advertisement for homeaway. Homeaway is charging its consumers, for more advertisements, so they can profit more money. And right after the merger with Expedia, who would have thought.

They claim to have sent e-mails regarding this notice and they did no such thing.

I even renewed my annual subscription just days after this new service fee was introduced and the customer service representative failed to inform me of the new change.

They claim that this isn't a homeowner inconvenience because it is charged to the tenants and not to the homeowner. However, as a business woman who is not in the business of charging our tenants excessive fees- our tenants already have to cover the outrageous 15% hotel tax created by the State of Texas and City of Austin that we are required to pay just to have people stay in our home less than 30 days.

When I called the customer service line, the man proceeded to tell me he's a navy vet and etc to attempt to deter me from speaking my mind regarding this unannounced substantial fee they are attempting to charge our tenants.

I will push for our tenants to not pay via the Homeaway website. That way the company loses the 2.9% credit card payment processing charge and the 9% " service fee " - which the customer service rep told me is actually to promote more advertising of homeaway on youtube and etc.

So, all in all, we are required to pay for our advertising, but homeaway has found a way to make the consumers pay for their advertising.

This is absurd and I am truly disappointed in this company and the way they have made changes that were not made public until it was already in place.

I'm a home owner with two properties listed and have been a Homeaway member for four years now. Up until today, I would have given Homeaway five stars. Their customer service has always been top-notch, and their dashboard is user-friendly.

Today, however, I just set up a booking and noticed a new line added to the payment list--a 9% "service fee" which my guest must pay. (Assuming he still wants to book after seeing it...)

This will severely damage our ability to attract guests and perhaps kill our rental business. The shame of it all is that there's absolutely no need for the fee beyond Expedia's desire to suck more cash into its corporate coffers. It's a short-sighted move and a classic case of killing the goose for the golden eggs.

A sad day for all travelers and owners connected to this otherwise great company.

Yes, the new Homeaway/VRBO/Vacationrental.com/Expedia "service fee" earns an F (for FLOP)... or perhaps a lower level G (for GREED). It appears it was not enough for me to pay the top PLATINUM level subscription level which costs roughly $1600 per year. Now, apparently my customers need to pay another 5-10% (closer to 10%) upcharge for essentially the same service. I think I will short AWAY stock as it is likely to take a deep dive. BEFORE the Service Fee I would have rated the site with FIVE stars. What a difference a FEE makes!

There will definitely be a class action lawsuit against Homeaway/VRBO -- it's very low-hanging fruit. All of us paid a rate for advertising our sites based on how high on the page the site would appear. I paid $900 last year for the "Silver" rank. Now, halfway through the contract, I'm told that sites with "Homeaway payments" will be displayed higher than the others. Interestingly, a month ago or so I suddenly began getting notices that this week or that week had been rented automatically -- even though I had never authorized automatic "Homeaway payments." It turns out that they changed me over without even notifying me! Same with everyone else. I quickly opted out, because I find a big benefit in having a personal phone conversation with everyone I rent to. Now -- about the service fee: Years ago I quit using Homeaway's credit card merchant in favor of an independent one that seems to charge a slightly lower rate. So long as you use a different CC merchant you avoid the Homeaway service fee. HOWEVER, the "instant quote" on the website INCLUDES the service charge, meaning my advertisement lists a higher rate than I actually charge. I have added mention of this in my ad, advising readers to ignore the service charge. Still, it's infuriating. When my contract ends in August I plan to drop down to the lowest level on VRBO and skip Homeaway completely (right now I'm paying for ads on both sites). I'll also explore AirBnB, as no doubt hundreds or thousands of others will be doing as well. Thanks for the chance to vent!

UPDATE 5/3/2016 -- I ended the above by stating that I planned to drop down to the lowest level and also discontinue paying for multiple sites (VRBO AND Homeaway). Now, a few days ago, we were all notified that in fact that's what Homeaway is doing for all of us when our contract expires. Everyone will be on ALL the Homeaway family sites (and in fact I believe they started doing this a long time ago, so the extra $300 I paid for multiple sites was a waste and a fraud. I could have saved $300 and still have been on all the sites.) But wait for it -- my plan to get the "classic" site at $349 has been foiled: because I have no intention of enrolling in "online booking," the classic price just went up to $499. And I'll still be at the bottom of the pile! The alternative is to enroll in online booking, save $150, and let Homeaway charge my guests a total of more than $2,000 in service fees during the year. If the vast majority of Homeaway advertisers would just say NO to online booking, Homeaway's goose would be cooked, because they are going to receive a lot less in advertising fees with their new plan. They think they will more than make up for it with the service charges, but they won't be getting a penny from my guests.

Homeaway has broken so many laws its amazing it is still running.
Its Huge charges to owners and then changing agreements mid-way and now literally robbing the travelers for NO REASON OR VALUE AT ALL clearly indicates this is an evil company who cares nothing about traveling families or owners who lovingly maintain their homes.
This horrible company has taken over the home rental industry and monopolized it making it difficult if not impossible for owners to operate way from them.
They continue to put the screws both to owners and travelers steadily extracting (extorting is more like it) form both owners and travelers at the same time in return for basically nothing but business oppression.
This company needs to be put out of business.
If you are an owner do all you can to leave them, if you are a traveler ABSOLUTELY AVOID THIS COMPANY YOU ARE PAYING AN EXTORTION FEE TO THIS COMPANY WHEN YOU USE THEM! Find the homeowners personal website and rent direct with them, you will save HUGE amounts of money.

I just lost a $5000 weekly rental because the customer received a quote prior to 2/15 with out service fee then went to book after 2/15 and there was a $286 service fee added on! Result is, they decided against renting it out of principal and now I am out $5000. BTW what service does one renter who pays $286 get over another renter who pays say $59? Correct no difference. Trip Advisor calls me once a month I will check them out!

Not only HA rolls out a non-trivial "service fee" IN THE MIDDLE of contracts that we owners paid for, and there was NO "service fee" under those contracts. T&C state that we the owners can reject any MATERIAL changes to the T&C, and the fee IS a material change - changing from LISTING service to commission based BOOKING service. Not only HA fails to answer what exact "services" it is providing for this now-MANDATORY service fee. Not only they constantly change the "rules of the game" on us. BUT NOW THE FEE IS NOT APPLIED EQUALLY AND UNIFORMLY TO ALL LISTINGS. WHICH MEANS SOME LISTINGS ARE HIT WITH THE FEE AND OTHERS DON'T THUS PUTTING FORMER IN COMPETITIVE DISADVANTAGE. If you ask me, this is DISCRIMINATION against some owners. HA should remove the fee all together AT LEAST until current subscriptions expire. After that, HA should see if it has any subscribers left.

You have chosen to damage thousands of business people. You could have charged your clients more and let them decide how to deal with it. Instead you decided to charge your clients customers. You are even charging the end user additional for cleaning fees.

When did you become an owner of my properties? Do you share my expenses? Charging my customers and the bad publicity you are now generating will hurt my bookings - are you responsible for the decreased rentals?

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.

Homeaway/VRBO/Expedia just started acting like Thomas Cook. They take the booking guests money and then if the owner of the property doesn't agree to use their new Payment Processing Company the keep your money. They held back about $10,000.00 of my guests money last month. It feels like Blackmail.
So I had to agree to use them vs Yapstone--who I trusted. Guess what?
The very next day they sent me a Notice that they were going to start withholding taxes from the payments, as well.
But I have already paid all my City and State permit fees and taxes for 2019. It's just another way to blackmail you. If they have your sales and occupancy taxes and you don't do as they say, they'll just keep the money. Guess who has to answer to the IRS--us owners.
WHAT Scammers.