HomeAwayReviews 1,748

I'm using it - I'd rather not but the alternatives aren't any better.
I've used other similar sites - like others, there are some hidden charges - which are revealed only after the booking and payment is completed (I'm an owner). They try to hide behind the small print but after complaining I managed to get my money back - they are still playing these tricks (what's the excuse?).
My general view is that websites like these should be controlled and tested more closely by a specialized watchdog.

I booked a HomeAway months in advance. About 10 day prior to arrival the owner went silent. Stopped responding, never provide any information or details on how to access the rental. I contact HomeAway customer support and they attempted to contact the owner numerous time prior to my arrival and nothing. I was told they would not issue a refund because the deadline for refunds passed. They told me they could not assist any further until I arrived a the check-in time on the listing. If I arrived and could not access the property, they would assist. Well I arrived and there was no property. A week later,
HomeAway informed me I need to contact the owner for a refund. They only facilitate the transaction and at not responsible will not provide a refund despite their guarantee. The owner has disappeared! Will never use HomeAway again.

HomeAway uses a payment processor called Yapstone. Although payments are supposed to take 5-7 days, it took me a month to get the guest's initial deposit out of Yapstone. First I was told my account was deactivated (I pay HA $500 a year to keep it active so this smelled of fraud) then that "underwriters" were reviewing my payment. Needless to say I became disagreeable, but after three weeks of relentless nagging and extended holds, the money came through. Then I thought, "what will I do if this happens to the guest's next payment of $8000?" I cancelled the reservation. I am glad to be out of it!

I strongly advice against using this website to rent out your property. I am a property manager and have 10 houses on this website and they just keep changing the rules about when and where your house is situated. If you don´t rent out 3 times or don´t have any reviews in the last year your house simple doesn´t appear when you search for it. And if you call to complain they just keep repeating you have to accpet more bookings or ask for more reviews. But if the house doesn´t appear you can´t get any bookings or reviews. Meanwhile I pay 300 per house only not to have it appear. Complete rip off. Oh and if you want to cancel your subsription you wont get any money back.

I highly recommend you DON'T use VRBO / HomeAway. The company is run by India and they simply put you on hold and hang up on you! Any money in dispute with HomeAway will be lost! Don't wast your time asking for their assistance. Just file a claim with your credit card company. The company withholds the truth. They do NOT want the Homeowner to issue the full refund so they can keep the administrative fee. Homeowner and I realized this when we began working together and found Homeaway created the issue INTENTIONALLY!

I listed my short 10 wk summer seasonal condos last year as a pay as you book listing. Now this year they want 499.00 per listing! They won't allow me the pay as you book because I did not reply (thought it was auto reply) to 3 inquiries looking for 70 - 90 nite stays last year, I only rent by the week! Now they will only "let me" list with them if I send them 998.00 for 2 listings for 10 weeks each. I was on the phone today with them for over an hour, These people don't care and this is a horrible horrible company, STAY AWAY FROM HOME AWAY!

It is one week before leaving for vacation and I get an email from HomeAway that the property owner cancelled my reservation. I was advised that due to Hurricane Florence (which happened 7 months ago) the property was not deemed fit to rent. HomeAway was of no help to me finding another property. I was told by their customer service dept that they would help with rebooking and financial assistance as property rates are now higher then when I made my reservation 6 months ago. After a HomeAway manger looked at my case, I was advised that they could not help with rebooking or financial assistance. So it's one week out of taking my vacation and I have to find a last minute place to stay and pay a substantially higher rate. I will never use HomeAway again and do not recommend using them.

I have homes on both HomeAway and Airbnb. Nearly 90% of the inquiries that I've received from HomeAway/VBRO seem to be scams. They placed a scammer into one of my homes on a last-minute reservation who used someone else's credit card. It took me 4 days to get them out, they did thousands of dollars in damage and were running an illegal operation in my home. The police are still looking for them. HomeAway/VBRO and their insurance company, CSA, took no responsibility. Airbnb has much better screening for potential guests. If you're a homeowner who values your property, stay away from HomeAway/VBRO!

A villa owner kept our security deposit ($400) for a supposed split seat (which we didn't use), all the while complaining about the $3000 he paid for a new pool heater. HomeAway claimed they investigated (a likely story, where does their commission come from? Oh the owner!) and found in the owners favour. So paid $400 for a chair they can buy for $80 in Walmart. Refused to share any evidence or reports of findings and took the best part of 2 months to response to correspondence. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME

My husband, disabled son and I had high expectations when we reserved and paid via Paypal for a one bedroom suite in the Tresor tower through Homeaway/VRBO. Our host, Meir Cooper, received the money in full before we arrived and spoke of the many amenities the Fountainebleu offered. Upon arrival, we found our room was not reserved by Meir Cooper, and we were forced to pay the hotel directly for another room. We have contacted Homeway/VRBO who does not work for the vacationer but for the owner. They wouldn't even publish a negative rating! The Fountainebleu has failed by not fully disclosing the owner's reputations in the Tresor tower. Google Meir Cooper and you will see what type of owner he is and what the Fountainebleu lets represent them.

After submitting a reservation and payment (owner was given my phone number and began calling me threatening that if I didn't pay more on side they would cancel. I opened a trust and security case and told them I had been threatened and felt unsafe staying there. I was told to try and work it out and that they couldn't cancel on my behalf or I wouldn't get my money back. I called back each time the owner would call. My money was held, and the owner did cancel. However there is no trust security support on the weekends and while I did finally get my money back. I was not allowed to leave a review and there was no support given me upon cancellation two days prior to travel. Please don't take chances the owners know what they can get away with. HA is not staffed to call back or support. See in one of my emails, they call me by the owners name.

This property is owned by Heather Booth, a realtor for https://www.corabettthomas.com. There have been a number of recent complaints concerning the property that Is Booth is renting out on VRBO.com. The property is misrepresented on all sites. It is not fresh and crisp. The furniture is den and dining furniture is very old with dirty upholstery. You should not go 14 years without updates in a vacation rental. This reality, https://www.corabettthomas.com, should care more about it's reputation.

I booked and paid for my accommodation on Homeaway site and after a few hours they cancelled my booking without any reason except a general statement that the booking has been cancelled because my credit card could not be authenticated, which was completely BS because they had already charged my card and after so many attempts to contact they said that they could not do anything about it and the refund will come through within 10-15 days. Their service and attitude is so pathetic that I will never be using them. The property owner, Luara Parkin was in it as well, I suspect that after we confirmed and paid someone came along for a longer term booking so they cancelled my booking

I own 10+ vacation rentals within CA and manage a few more for friends and family. We built some software in house to automate the cleaning and check-in process. I initially started marketing my rentals on airbnb and have had a lot of success at 50+% occupancy. So having used VRBO/Homeaway as a user, I decided to see if we could also list on that website.
Wow, if there is one thing for certain by going through the process, it's the demise/end of Homeaway and VRBO. It appears you have to use their payment provider (YapStone) but they require you to notarize a document before you can get each listing online. NOTARIZE! Even lawyers are moving away from that and you have a company who is trying to compete with Airbnb, ditch their monthly pricing and make it almost impossible for anyone to use their platform by asking for notarizations.

Good luck Homeaway/VRBO. But you won't find me as a patron on the visitor side or the owner side. And I'm sure that will be the case for many.