HomeAwayReviews 1,748

I have rented through HomeAway and VRBO many times but I will never use them again. I had to pay a $1500 security deposit which is extreme. However, the fact that they took this $1500 out of my account at the time of booking (4 months prior to arrival), is robbery. Not only are they collecting interest on my $1500, but I am out this money in my account until refunded. A security deposit should be held and only used if there is damage! People listing their property with HomeAway and VRBO should pick a more reputable business to rent your property with!

Agree with the people on this site. I have had a couple great experiences, but all it takes is one bad experience to realize that they don't stand behind you or have any real guarantees that you can use. They won't allow you to talk via phone with certain departments. If you arrive at a house that isn't clean and full of bugs, you have to work with your credit card company to attempt to get the guarantee to try and get your money back or stay there in something that you are completely uncomfortable with. It's too risky for me - had a terrible situation happen in St. Pete where I had family come to town and the house had roaches and was under construction - took months to get my money back for the unused nights that I paid for through Visa.

Better to book directly with the owner, and or property website otherwise Homeaway will charge you a "service fee" like 60 plus dollars that don't provide any service and will just direct you to the owner anyway for all your questions
Their guarantees don't mean anything
Watch out for properties that are considered external bookings, which by the way you will never know till your hooked and booked that have extra contracts to sign and make sure you read and understand every term in there. Homeaway will never help you and basically their customer service is useless.
Be careful,

We're the ones who are making the big bucks for these guys and they are pretty much hanging us out to dry as if they didn't need us yes i agree i hope that compare another competitor moves in soon i'm afraid i can't recommend home away as they allow the guest to publish all kinds unfair and unkind reviews and they have a tendency to have that kind of guests who give unfair reviews much more than airbnb. This is the second time i've had indian guests from india snack guests in that weren't invited and paid for not paid for and they retaliated when i said something about it by giving me a bad review and homeaway did absolutely nothing about it their suggestion was that i call the police and have them thrown out i didn't have the heart to do that to destroy these peoples vacation although that would have been maybe what i should have done. Hopefully these guys are get their act together because really i'm stuck between a rock and a hard place here

I have been listing my property on Homeaway since 2009 and been through all the ups and downs of their system and business model changes. Right now customer service is the worst I've experienced. They can't explain to me their ranking metrics or what they are doing and they have control of everything. Unbelievably frustrating. Unfortunately they have so much market share that owners are stuck with them. There is a huge opportunity for a competitor to overtake them - I certainly hope a company steps up.

We booked a condo in the Cayman islands for Christmas week. We just received a cancellation notice from the owner. Evidently the owner was in the process of selling her condo and the new owner does not want to honor the booking. Home Away claims no responsibility and has not offered to help find another location. We are in the process of trying to talk with an executive of Home Away. We have purchased airfare which will not be reimbursed and at this late date there are no options for us in the Cayman Islands. I do not recommend this organization.

I was charge a whopping $500 for a $1500 a month rental. Also, my host was charged an equally outrageous amount.
The really awful part is that they will not disclose the % that they charge the guest. The use an "algorithm" and only charge it just before you finalize. At that point, you have checked the place have a comfort level with it, have gone to a lot of trouble and then are placed in the awkward position of having to start your search over again. So of course most people pay it, out of having no choice. Its very underhanded and unethical of this company to do this. Also, on a long term rental, they insist on charging it all up front rather than monthly. Also very unethical.

As a property owner of and owner of a company that manages other properties at the beach, HomeAway/VRBO has declined in quality of service and site functionality from mediocre to horrific. They are absolutely the worst third-party listing service at this point and that bar was very, very low. Their greedy policies and unwillingness or inability to address any issues is mind-boggling, while we spent months jumping through hoops to get our properties listed (recreated because they couldn't move them to their new forced pay per booking system). They won't respond to emails because, and I quote, "we stopped taking email support questions because we have too many to respond to". Our story is long, but reading some of the other reviews, I guess I don't have to go into detail. Home owners and guests -- just stay away from HomeAway/VRBO. They are truly the worst.

We booked a beach house on Randolf ave in Cape Carles VA via Homeaway from an owner, Catherine Knottingham. She had no red-flag type reviews, in fact not many reviews at all. We arrived having traveled through 4 states, to find she had double-booked the rental. She listed it on AirBNB as well - for a higher rate - than we had booked (since we booked months earlier). She knew knew the property was double-booked but said nothing. Only days before, indicating via email the key would be in the mailbox & she'd let us know when the maid was finished. When we arrived, and called her, she pretended to be surprised but then launched into a profanity laid rant. She returned the deposit I placed on the property that day, otherwise I would have called the police. Homeaway customer service seemed very receptive & sympathetic to this situation, assuring us they have a "100% traveler guarantee" but at the end of the day, they just gave us the run-around. Fill out online 'claim', provide hotel receipts, but provide ZERO compensation.

I used them to rent my studio. The renters declared afterwards that it had been fraud, that they had never wanted to rent my apt and that they shouldn't have been charged. What? I made up their names and credit cards? The banks, with HomeAway agreement, debited my bank account for what I initially had been credited due to the renting of my studio.
They were Russian, and yes, they made up false names and HomeAway, even tho I proved to them that they stayed at the studio (and ruined it, broke a chair, etc), their judgement is that the cardholder was in the right. There is no - none - justification for this. NONE. HomeAway is a scam, impossible to speak to and connect with. A total scam.

I reserved a townhouse in the Florida Keys just before hurricane Irma was forecast to hit the keys. Big mistake! The HomeAway policy offers a full refund if you cancel with 60 days notice and a 50% refund if canceled with 30 days notice. I gave a 51 day notice due to the approaching hurricane. HomeAway notified the owner to respond to the request in 24 hours and after 3 weeks there was no response. A call to HomeAway did force the owner to call me and verbally agree to return the full deposit. However yesterday (9/26) I was notified the return would be $150 (40%) of the $367 deposit.

Hardest company to deal with! I reserved a cabin and within an hour had to cancel due to my travel companion being in a car accident. Tried to call several times, only got voicemail and never got a return call. Through email I was told that all of my money would be returned except $40. Even when I forwarded that email to them, they claimed the employee that said that was wrong and I would only be receiving half of my money. No compassion!