HomeAwayReviews 1,748

What a rip off! We rent our property through many platforms and this is BY FARE THE WORST of them all. The guests pay more commission than on any other similar platform. The company is constantly adding new fees and they never notify them on the bills. We are quitting hosting for HomeAway and VRBO and switching all to Airbnb where our guests are appreciated and we, hosts, much better and treated with the respect, for a change from HomeAway and equally lousy VRBO.

No good at all. 1. Could not put our Motor Cycles in the garage because the owner lied and said it was rented out to someone and it was her car. We rented the house because it had a yard and garage. 2. The owner made it plain the her DOGS were going to use the yard for their business when each needed. Poop was left in the yard. 3. The cleaning staff was in and out of the garage getting cleaning supplies. 3. Back steps to porch rotten. No lawn furniture. 4. House needed to be dusted. 5. White Carpet needed cleaning. 6. Dirty front door glass. 7. Kitchen stove needs updating. When traveling I rent to live as well as we do when home. No CABLE TV, she wants you to watch DVD. Jet tub dirty. Cameras from office are turned towards house. Desk in office is set with window open to watch renters front and back. Will never use HOMEAWAY AGAIN.

This i the worst company I have ever dealt with. You guys really do not know what you are doing. Here is a review posted by a person we have had no dealing with or had reservation with and they are able to post a review because your front line idiots say that since it was posted from a travelers account there was nothing we can do. So what I am understanding now is that anyone that we had no dealing with can post a review. This is a bunch off crap and it is very clear that Homeaway does not know how to operate a business. First you make it mandatory for owners posting on your website to use your payment system and when crooks use your site to make reservations, stay at the property and then dispute the charge that Homeaway processed Homeaway wimps out and throws the owner under the bus. Your business model is totally fake and only designed for Homeaway to make money so it basically is a tool for crooks to use because it is now very well known with all the charge backs that I see owners complaining about and Homeaway not changing its policy and protecting the home owners from these losses I will not be surprised when Homeaway's business starts to decline and it will eventually go out of business. Unless you change your policies and start guaranteeing payments to owners why should anyone trust Homeaway and the reservations they provide. It is nothing but a hassle. So good luck with your business. We will not be using your services anymore and enjoy the negative publicity.

Found a Kelowna "highend" home thru HomeAway didn't pay thru HomeAway but met and paid the owner direct. 1100 Westpoint Drive was a nightmare! They control the Pool, AC remotely the house was 27 degrees. The house was filthy with dirty linens, dead bugs everywhere. After staying for a month and bringing up the issues they started watching us on there cameras and had people take pictures of us and our kids. We paid huge cash and they were around the property watching us daily.
I contacted HomeAway multiple times and got a generic email.
I should have know with only 1 review. We left 2 weeks early after we were harassed and watched and bombed with texts. This was a long term rental gone bad.
Be careful if renting this home.
They built this home themselves with many issues they hide well.

I am a very unhappy VRBO subscriber. Just got an inquiry from a German family with a 19% added (VAT) fee. Checked into things. I did recently add my PayPal direct payment to the Alternative Payment system. I've never done 'Book it now' or "Home away payments" apparently listing a payment method is now considered a payment system via Home Away. My renters are now charged a huge fee for simply booking the same way I have been booking for many years, through ME! Called and was told you cannot change or go back. Wrote down all my future guests info; just in case! Canceled my auto-renewal and will be switching to Air-bnb. Yes; fee to both but 3% each (pretty sure) comes out much better. Just the sneaky way they went about it 'Chaps my Hide!"

Hawaii Chic

They collect sensitive personal information including credit card details, and then send an email that the paid reservation was not confirmed. No reason, no explanation and automatically generated by the system. Customers Service in Manila and no responsible people is ever available. After telling that my reservation was not confirmed, the price of that particular booking went up 150%. Not recommended. I gave them 1 of 5 because I had no option to give zero or numbers with minus. A band of scammers and crooks!

I have several units that I rent out and have done very well with Air BnB but wanted to expand my listings so tried HomeAway. I can tell you the site is very hard to use as a host, customer service is nowhere to be found, got the same standard email reply four times for a problem. As a host I do not want to take bookings from them, and the only thing I can lose is some money. Why would any guest risk your vacation or business trip with this worthless company.

They do not vet or check the background of travelers at all. There are no financial consequences for bad renters. We accepted a traveler that had been 'verified' -means nothing at all. He had a party with over 200 people, trashed our property, police were involved and Home Away did nothing. They will not even ban the traveler from victimizing others. They offered us no support and were even reluctant to withholding the travelers damage deposit. We will NEVER list with this site again. The agent even told me 'we are just a website, what do you expect us to do?'

After returning from grocery shopping we were welcomed by a gang of roaches in the kitchen. Small to large critters that didn't even bother to scurry after the light was turned on. We contacted the emergency number to which we were told to call during business hours (what's the point of an emergency line?) The person who answered the phone was short and very rude. There were noticeable holes in the plaster, mold in the batrooms, hair/dirt on the sheets. I wish I could attach pictures

For fourteen years I advertised on VRBO... I was very happy and my home in Hilton Head SC was always full... always rented... starting about 4 years ago when Homeaway and then Expedia took over things started to go down... bad enough they started to raise the rates... up, up,, up. But what put the cherry on the cake was the "added fee" charged to the guests for using there site... are you kidding me... get away from these money grubbing --do nothing-- people... think about it... all they do is hitch there wagon to your horse WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT and then have the nerve to charge the person who wants to rent the horse a fee for doing so... I know longer do business with them... quality has gone DOWN>>>DOWN>>>DOWN spend the money on a web designer... at least you get to keep every dime YOU bring in... This company is the pits for sure... also they MONITOR your personal email with your guests... beware...

If there could be a negative star that is what I'd give. Booked a reservation on 7/5/17 and total price given online and in CONFIRMATION email was $649.56. I went online almost three weeks later to pay on the credit card I used to book and found a "service charge" of $66.00 from Home Away as a separate line item. I was sure this was just a mix up so I contacted them and despite me providing them my confirmation email with breakdown which DOES NOT show this fee they maintain it was displayed at check out. This is not the first time I've booked with them and I know very well how to make sure I know what I'm being charged for and this "service charge" was not given to me at checkout. I have filed a BBB complaint as these charges also showed up two days later than my booking charges, so this clearly was not displayed when I booked. I smell a class action law suit in the works myself...

Rented a great place in Ocean City, NJ. Best vacation in years, but my feelings of contentment and relaxation quickly evaporated when it came time for my security deposit to be given back to me. The lease stated the money would be returned 14 days after our vacation ended. Waited patiently but on the 19th day decided to call HomeAway. Customer Service at HomeAway must be outsourced overseas because everyone I spoke with had a thick accent and it was evident that English was a their second language. Nothing wrong with that as long as the reps are efficient and good problem solvers (like Amazon!). Unfortunately, that was NOT my experience. Not only did I have to "dumb" down the reason for my call multiple times, but I ultimately discovered that every rep I spoke with was operating with different timelines for security deposit returns. The first rep, MJ, said my money would be returned in 7 to 10 business days because of an "owner" error. An email from the owner indicated that he was not at fault so I decided to call HA a second time to see if they could speed up the refund since the error was theirs. The second rep I spoke with, Nico, never returned to the phone with an answer, which then resulted in my third call to HA. Cherry explained that my money had just gone out to my bank and that it would be deposited at the close of business. When the money didn't show up, I called for a fourth time and asked for a supervisor. Mr. "Lou K" told me that ALL of the info I'd be given previously was incorrect and he'd have to look into my particular situation. Just received a message from Mr. Lou and apparently, I "might" get my money on Monday or Tuesday of next week. Thank goodness it's only $200! What a disorganized place HA appears to be! No one seems to have been trained adequately and no one can resolve my issue. For this I paid $156 administrative fee? Lesson learned, from here on out I won't be paying for things like this with anything other than American Express! At lease AE will credit your fees until the problem is resolved... and oh, yeah, never again booking a vacation rental through HA... because they truly don't know what they're doing!