HomeAway
Questions & Answers

I ended up finding the local tourism website and using their listings instead. This proved to be much less of a hassle, they have better cancellation policies, and you don't pay up front so scams are not an issue.

Most vacation rentals have to pay taxes as such, and you have a license. In Florida vacation rentals are licensed through the Division of Hotels and Restaurants. You can look this license up. On my listing, I post my license.
Speak to the owner by telephone.
Ask who manages their rental.

You can't. And don't expect any help from the agency. They don't care.

Ask them for more pictures. Ask questions. Ring them up. The 'dirty villa' in the above response has nothing to do with Homeaway - Homeaway don't vet the properties, they just give them space on their website. There are a lot of poor reviews on this site but when you consider MILLIONS of people use their site either to advertise or book a holiday, then it puts it in perspective.

You can't. I won't use this company again. When it was vrbo.com it was good but since they got with home away, lots of complaints. I lost 800.00 on a dirty villa in Dunedin Florida. Beware.