HomeAwayReviews 1,748

This site is really messed up for several reasons and there is no customer service - just people that will help you do simple things on the sites pages - but nobody to really help with anything off the beaten path. If you need anything that is not the usual booking, payment and review - then forget it youre screwed and youre on your own.

My first guest booked two reservations and I did not know it. I accepted the booking and thought all was well but then got charged for a decline for the other reservation she made even though it was a duplicate that was for the same person for the same time period. It's ridiculous because they canceled the second reservation but I got dinged for a "decline" to the second reservation that they charged me for so I had one accept and one decline when I didnt know that there was 2 reservations for the same guest and same time.

Then this same visitor turned out to be horrible.

I have had only two guests from HomeAway - one was great and one was horrible.

There are many other problems too many to mention right now. It boils down to this:

If you have anything at all out of the perfect booking like a hotel forget it but unlike a hotel can not cancel easily.

If you are a visitor and get a host from hell youre screwed!

If you are an owner and get a guest from hell youre screwed!

Airbnb is better.

I was scammed today on a "Malibu Dream Villa" on VRBO/Home Away https://www.vrbo.com/*******. The scammers had a fake site (with fake reviews) and asked me to wire transfer money to a Yakeenia Williams. Google her. There's only one. I didn't do it and I reported it to Home Away. They didn't seem to care that much.

We booked an apartment in Amsterdam and paid through Homeaway.com. We stayed there between 27-31 March 2017. The problem we have experienced is the non repayment of our 250 euro damage deposit which the landlord has agreed to refund to us. We have written and telephoned Homeaway several times and their customer support is awful. You'll get through to a call centre either in India or the Philippines and although calling over 10 times and receiving an email confirming that the delay in receiving the refund is due to a problem with their website, we don't have any faith now that the refund will be provided to us. We will never book an apartment through this company again.

I booked a reservation for Myrtle Beach in February, sent them $700 deposit and the reservation was for the last week of June. Yesterday, I found out my 87 year old Mom would have to go into a nursing home and we would have to move her during June. Giving them almost 2 months notice, I asked if I could apply my $700 deposit to the same place but the last week of September. They said NO, rules state you if you cancel you cannot apply your deposit to any other reservations with them. Very sad and Angry!

I have 2 email address'es, and I was having technical problems booking so I called.
She processed the rent, but then, I had no connection to the "owners". I could not go back and forth through my email, everything was auto-generated. The two phone number for the owners, did not work. One was out of order and the other said, "you cannot call this number from your location, good bye." What is that? So, I paid over 2 grand, and my dates are blocked out, but do not know the condo #, or how to get in. When you are on the phone with customer service, they are not giving you their full attention. People are giggling and fooling around, and this is a bunch of money for me. I expect decent service, and this place (also connected to vrbo) does NOT have it. Thinking back, every single vacation rental website, has burned me or made it super stressful to book. Who ties the shoes for some of these reps?

I rarely leave reviews for companies, however, customer support for this company is shocking. To cut a long story short, I was unable to book a holiday at all, due to continual processing errors with their website/app. Following numerous and lengthy conversations with customer support, no solution was found. No apology or explanation was given. If I could award 0 stars I would. If a company is so shocking when you are actually trying to give them money, I dread to think what they must be like when you require a refund. Terrible.

I have had a property listed on Homeaway. A guest booked my apartment, stayed in my apartment, smoked in my apartment -- contrary to very clear prohibition. When guest was charged a smallish fee for cleaning the smoke smell out of the apartment, guest denied ever staying there. Claimed credit card fraud.
Homeaway drained my bank account sending it into overdraft, in the amount of $1,141.00 as a "chargeback" to said guest who had paid a total of $327.01. It took me almost 3 months and literally days (total) of my time to call, argue with, be treated dismissively and rudely, to finally get $814.00 of the money, essentially stolen from my account, returned. THEY AND THEIR DISGRACEFUL FINANCING BRANCH, YAPSTONE, ARE BEYOND DESCRIPTION TERRIBLE! Avoid at all costs, as a guest, and certainly as a host.

They charged my card a service fee and property damage for a reservation I did not ever get to use. I had to call a week later to talk to someone who I could not understand on the phone and they just kept repeating themselves. They use a different company for each service they provide so I had to call 3 different numbers to get the 2 charges removed. The app you download on your phone barely loads and is a complete waste of phone space. Do not use this website or app!

Booked a place through HomeAway and owner confirmed booking and funds debited from account.

Two days before checkin the owner emails saying booking cancelled and gave no reason why only saying will refund money.

Now bearing in mind it busy holiday period and we have a large group (8 people) not many places available who can accommodate and well over budget.

Homeaway then find me alternative properties well over budget then tell me they cant do nothing further as refund already been done (wont hit for another 5-7 days). And that they wont cover difference in cost?

We dont have a place to stay as refund not hit my account and wont till after easter.

Im supposed to check in tomorrow but have no where to go and no funds to book elsewhere so they left me stranded.

I have transportation booked and people flying and travelling in but we dont have nowhere to go.

Their customer advisor said guarantee only covers if refund not done (all card companies offer this basic protection as standard) she said it wont cover anything else as refund done which is ridiculous as owner who cancelled gave no reason for cancellation just clicked one button and cancelled booking and sent refund. Now with this little time and busy period we have no alternative options left.

Team members been offering me properties costing £1350 a night or many miles away! Then having the cheek to tell me to pay for it all and you won't cover difference! - Then when I explained the situation of funds being stuck they advised me saying borrow money from a friend, but how can I place further trust incase this new booking will also get cancelled again at 11th hour and wait another week for refund! - They advisors had no response)

Do not use this site to book short term rentals! Their 90 day strict cancelation policy is code for screw you. My wife and I were on our way to Arizona when we suffered a car problem that prompted us to turn back. Despite booking the rental ONE DAY prior, their strict cancelation policy was cited when saying they would not refund me a dime, not even for cleaning fees when we were clearly not going to use the property. The 90 day strict cancelation policy is not that evident when booking a property and trying to find the customer service phone number for HomeAway is nearly impossible. Stay away, these guys are crooks!

I booked a home with HomeAway because we were getting married in Pebble Beach. We told the owner of the house in the beginning that we would have people helping us get ready before the wedding such as makeup artist, hairstylist, photographer and so on. She agreed to this in the beginning and the week before the wedding she said it wouldn't work so i asked her to refund us so we could find something that better sutied our needs and then she procrastinated to get us a refund she actually wasn't going to refund us at all so I had to make two complaints and threaten a lawyer to get her to give me back my money and she didn't give it all back it took 7 days to give it back. So the friday before our wedding we had to use our honeymoon money to book our hotel which was very expensive and 30mins away from the beach which cost more in gas. Our wedding was ruined we saved for so long to have this prefect wedding. She didn't care. You only get married once and she did everything in her power to ruin ours. Please don't book with them. It isn't worth the stress..

Should be no stars! Long story short we rented a home and my 21 month old son got sick one night on the master bedroom comforter (I'm talking maybe $50 cheap scratchy Quality Inn print type comforter) and It was all clear liquid. It would not fit in washing machine so I cleaned area and left in wash room with a note for the maids. The home was large and great views, but a lot of clutter left behind from other renters, carpets were stained and dust everywhere. We own rental properties so we often overlook small things because sometimes you just don't have a good cleaning crew. However, the wifi was out for 4 days, master tub handles fell off and had to use pliers, rotten food left in fridge and fireplace didn't work. Now we called the homeowner and he was very rude to my husband. After trying to get my husband to fix his router that he couldn't even tell my husband where it was at he finally sent out repairman. We should have made more of an issue of the problems because after we got home I got nasty note from the homeowner calling me a nasty pig and saying he had to have his entire house of carpet steam cleaned. He kept our $1000 deposit. HomeAway did nothing to reprimand him for his disgusting remarks he made to me and they didn't ask him for any proof of damage or cleaning costs. They aided him in stealing our money. They just told me I should have purchased their damage coverage! DO NOT USE HOMEAWAY!

As we could not safely arrive for our stay at this property and there was inadequate warning of adverse conditions VRBO/HOMEAWAY allows no review of property since we did not actually stay there. They have very neatly protected themselves and left the Traveler no recourse should there be an issue with the Owner OR Property. This property has only 4 and 5 star reviews so it seems that the Owner may be allowed to manipulate the site in his favor as some of my messages to him were deleted/hidden from the Inbox. Transparency and trust of the site and its reviews are now a question. Maybe the Owners and the fees generated are valued by VRBO above the Traveler's needs? I have contacted VRBO but have had no response to their unsolicited e-mails to review my trip. Booking.com and Flipkey.com here I come.