paul f.

Homeaway complaint
Ibiza town, property number #******* contact: encar

1. Owner cancelled booking, doubled prices, then re advertised

We booked our family villa holiday Aug 2017 for June 2018 holiday.
We contacted owner December 2017 to confirm all ok prior to booking 8 return flights.
January 2018 we received emails from owner (whom we had spoken to and she confirmed all was ok, 4 weeks prior) stating she did not know how booking was made, it was not her, she was cancelling and refunding payment. However, if we would like to re book, our dates are available - albeit the price had been more than doubled!

We now had 8 return flights booked and no accommodation.

We contacted Homeaway, they were not interested and we were not even allowed to leave a review, as we had not stayed there.

They suggested we go through their on line complaints procedure, we did, we received 1 email acknowledging our complaint, advising they would investigate. Then nothing, except an email to rate them on their service on the matter!

2. Refunded payment £142 less than paid. Homeaway not interested

I paid original reservation deposit, about £1,400 and homeaway book with confidence insurance fee, about £350 through the homeaway web site using my barclaycard.
Upon receiving my refund, some weeks later, it was £142 less than originally paid.
This was due to international payment charges incurred on payments out and payment refunded and the fact that the euro exchange rate had weakened from original booking to refund.
I explained all this to homeaway and they werent interested. They said they were bank charges, nothing to do with them.
I reminded them that we had done nothing wrong. We had booked through Homeaway, paid through homeaway, it was cancelled through homeaway by their customer, and we were refunded through the homeaway process. Why should we not receive every penny we had been originally charged?
I then contacted Barclaycard directly and explained the situation. They were very professional and informed me that it is the merchants duty to refund original sum in full, including all charges etc. Barclaycard then said they would credit my account immediately and take the matter up with homeaway. Hooray for Barclaycard

Summary
Homeaway holiday bookings - BEWARE
You are NOT protected through homeaway
You will get NO help from homeaway
All homeaway are interested in is their fees and an automated booking process.
Anything that does not fit this formula, they will not rectify.