HomeAwayReviews 1,751

As a traveler for years I would search vacation rental by owner site and find places to stay east, west, Tennessee mountains, South Florida. When I got the chance to manage and rent a property. I picked vacation rental by owner. All has gone well till 3 days ago when they started a new service fee. Without any notice and supposedly to help them market better. If you read the statement from the new CEO of homeaway, he basically says it's all about money. I think they have given a reason for travelers to look elsewhere instead of renting my property. I know as a traveler I would not want an extra 7% added for a service fee. This traveler fee is a mistake.

Homeaway/VRBO doesnt back the renter. House was fine but manager and Homeaway/VRBO stole my money. Don't buy their fraud insurance! They won't pay up. The manager stole $850 damage deposit, $45 damage insurance he wasn't supposed to charge and $200 fraud insurance stolen by Homeaway/VRBO for a total of $1095. After making you do almost the impossible to make a claim (I'll spare you the gruesome details) they deny you even though the manager never responded to them. They reject any negative review and allow owner/managers to erase all reviews and start over again. Never buy their insurance. I've read countless stories about them not paying up. You cant even rely on the BBB. They've been known to "resolve" disputes even when the complainant hasn't agreed to anything. Buyer beware!

Home Away/Vrbo has now started charging renters a 4 to 10 % "Service Fee" for using their website to book a vacation. This fee is listed along with the fees the owners charge - thus hiding so it doesn't show as a HomeAway add-on fee. Homeowners already pay HomeAway an annual fee, plus credit card fees to accept the funds. Now HomeAway is also charging the renters - a greedy grab to get money from both sides. Vrbo.com used to be a great vacation rental website. Too bad that HomeAway has ruined it and now is ruining this valuable search site for both homeowners and vacationers.

Add my name to the list of people jobbed by HomeAway. HomeAway charges your credit card and then says "too bad" if you have any issues with the owner. In our case we had to cancel and the owner kept our security deposit, cleaning fee, parking fee and beach access fee in addition to the rental fee! Basically the owner made well over twice as much from us cancelling than if we had used the place. AirBNB is miles ahead in everyway if you are a renter.

We recently booked a reservation through VRBO for a ski vacation in Snowshoe, WV the week between Christmas and New Year's (VRBO#*******). Due to the extremely mild weather, the resort was closed due to lack of snow. As in no skiing. At all. We contacted the owner to try to move our reservation to different dates (when there would hopefully be snow) or request a partial refund in consideration of the extenuating circumstances. The owner ignored our messages. We contacted VRBO for assistance. They encouraged us to file a complaint. All VRBO did was forward our complaint to the owner, who responded with basically "too bad". VRBO's response was "that's all we can do." We then attempted to post a review on the VRBO listing for the unit to warn future travelers of our bad experience with this unreasonable owner. We were told that VRBO's review requirements don't allow reviews on the booking experience, only on the property. So, if I had wasted even more money to drive 18 hours round trip to go on a ski vacation with no skiing, I could have posted a review that I thought the couch was ugly. But apparently if I lose my entire rental amount due to an unreasonable owner during a once in 10-15 years freak weather phenomenon, then I can't post a review. BTW – Snowshow Resort provided full refunds to all people that booked properties they manage. I will never use VRBO again.

I lost thousands of dollars from Home Away! Stay away! Awful customer service. I rented out my home to someone on Home Away and the person destroyed my home, broke every piece of furniture, and stole every valuable electronic. Then, the next day, I found out that Home Away failed to even take payment for the rental, failed to notify me that they didn't take payment, nor the required security depost. Also, they didn't save the credit card for the guy, they didn't have any information on how to trace him, and basically said, "Go to Hell" when I asked on what to approach. I'm taking them to small claims court and I filed a police report says they are aiding in grand larceny. Worst experience ever.

I am a holiday home owner. I see that most of you are having problems with the houses you rent. I am an honest property manager. My advice to you all is to give the homeowner a call before booking anything, ask him about anything that concerns you and you 'll get an idea it by the way he responses.
I won't bore you with much details. I wouldn't renew my subscription, they made me an amazing offer, I paid via bank transfer and then magically the first offer disappeared from their system and they send me another one. Although I forwarded the first offer to them, after begging them for two weeks they had me PAY AGAIN for something that I had already paid. NEVER AGAIN SNAKES WITH CRAPPY COSTUMER SERVISE TO SAY AT LEAST

Try picturing a lovely apartment above a delightful bakery/deli in downtown Kinsale, a quaint and pub friendly community that's safe, welcoming and loaded with charm. Now picture the apartment being close proximity to everything in the little city of Kinsale that you will like to walk to, including live entertainment, 7 nights a week. Homeaway afforded us this little gem of a fully equipped, lovely and yet cozy, three bedroom, 2 and half bathroom, hardwood floors and tastefully furnished homeaway getaway that we loved! Wonderful restaurants, bookstores and cafes, galore! Much to do and see! We spent a month there! If you want to become a visitor who feels like a welcome resident during your stay in Kinsale, find the apartment above THE PANTRY in downtown Kinsale, owned by a personable, helpful and delightful lady named Margie. I recommend it to all!

Had a bad experience with the condition of the house and the owners unjustifiably keeping our deposit. But, when I read the guidelines for writing a review at HomeAway, I became too scared of a law suit to post a review. The guidelines do not allow for an honest review and give the owners the last word.

We rented an apartment in Brooklyn, NY, which was shabby and poorly maintained, and did not match the description of "elegant with modern appliances." The most glaring problems were a space heater in the bathroom with a frayed electric cord, constant loud noise from the entranceway and apartments above usually until 2-3 am, and our door being broken into by bursting the locks off the wood, possibly due to the lease renters not locking the doors to the street. The owner did not take any responsibility and Homeaway said their policy is to let renters settle disputes with the owner as they are only responsible for "bringing owners and travelers together." The owner of property #******* is a former lawyer, with on-line information stating he was disbarred for embezzlement from clients. Beware of renting at 154 Washington Avenue!

This home, at 4270A Poha Road on the North Side of Kauai, was perfect for the 8 of us. It has 4 bedrooms and 4 baths and 2 loft areas with twin beds, sits about 50 yards from a beautiful beach and has a fabulous large deck facing the beach. It is off the beaten path and quite private. We had a wonderful time with the kids and grand kids. The kitchen was great with everything you need and 2 large kitchen tables provide plenty of eating area. The owners were very accommodating to a few special requests we had. While this is a little older property, it has been well maintained and cared for. We plan on going back in the future.

We booked a villa for Presidents' Day Weekend on HomeAway.com in June, 2015. Last week, we learned inadvertently -- through a random spotting of a refund to our credit card -- that our fully-paid reservation was canceled without any notice or explanation and without any wrongdoing on our part. When we contacted HomeAway.com about this occurrence, which left us with thousands of dollars in booked airfare without a vacation destination, the customer representative told us that they would not help us in any whatsoever, other than to make a token offering to search for another rental. The representative went on to say that HomeAway.com bears no responsibility at all for this exchange because they are not a direct party to the booking arrangement and do not take money directly from renters. Although this may be technically accurate, this attitude shows a complete lack of concern for the customers that fuel the business. Even though HomeAway.com did not personally cancel our reservation, it seems like very poor business savvy to essentially tell us that HomeAway.com is not willing to do a single thing to improve a bad situation, even if it means some financial loss on their end in the form of a credit toward a future rental. Moreover, HomeAway did not even follow through on the one token offering they did make, which was to remove the property management company that canceled our reservation from the site. HomeAway did not care about us as a patron and they do not care about the future patrons who may be hurt by the same renter. We are posting this comment so that, at a minimum, other readers will know that HomeAway does not stand behind the representations made on their site by the people renting properties. To choose a different company in order to ensure that they will receive at least decent customer service should anything go wrong with their reservations. It is clear that customers cannot and should not feel confident booking their vacations through this site.