HomeAwayReviews 1,748

I have used Homeaway since 2005 and cyberrentals, which homeaway purchased in 2005, for the previous 20 years. Homeaway's exorbitant Service Fee effectively adds to the cost of my rental and discourages customers with limited budgets. Inquiries for my cottage rental have been reduced to zero for the past several months; I discovered that homeaway had blocked my rental site after I circumvented their Service Fee which was never a part of the original agreement anyway. Homeaway has stolen my list of nearly 700 customers by eliminating both the telephone numbers and the email addresses so I am unable to make contact with prospective renters. It is no longer possible to discuss the rental property with prospective renters who must pay in full up front. My understanding is that homeaway is losing thousands of customers because of their new policies, as well they should. There are better and more effective options becoming available for rentals of personal property, and I urge folks not to use the homeaway system.

We asked for their help because the apartment we rented out was full of mildew everywhere - the obtrusive smell and the living funghi on the walls all around the flat was evident. We have paid out the full amount in advance, and the owner refused to talk about it ("Das ist normal!"). We would have needed to move out immediately, e.g. because we had a 6-month-old just about to recover from obstructive bronchitis, and we couldn't sleep during the night because of the penetrant air.

When we contacted them, and asked for assistance in finding another flat and refund, they refused it, saying they have nothing to do with these kind of issues. Later on I found their terms and conditions, and it was clearly stated there that we would have been eligible for that - so demanded for recompensation again. They just kept on saying that mildew is a matter of cleanliness, and we shouldn't expect any kind of help or recompensation from them regarding this.

So if you think you pay the service fee for some kind of protection or service, be prepared that if you have any kind of issue, they just shake you off despite all the evidence!

Look at the photos: Do you think it's a matter of cleaning? Would you have your baby (who even has a respiratory disease) stay under these conditions? Would you let down a baby with a severe respiratory disease like this?

I got two fraudulent booking from home away... They collected the payment thru their site the guest was an identity thief Home away took the fraudulent payment thru the site process it as a payment. Someone called and told me that there was a fraudulent person in my home. Then the credit card company did a charge back... long story the criminal guest messed up my apartment and home away offered NO compensation although they have insurance I was out this was two guest back to back... take my advice use AIRBNB or make your own site... steer clear of anything to do with HOME AWAY!

I made an error in booking property #******* in Altadena, CA. I contacted the owner & Home-Away immediately within 12 hours. He also requested to my social security and banking info, which in all the years that I've been a member of VRBO, never been asked to produce. Glad I never sent it.

The owner Herbert Simmons ignored my calls by continuously sending me to a full voicemail box.

He then finally replies via email with a single line stating "my apologies we do not cancel reservations." Then I asked at least for my "Refundable" Damage deposit and he again writes back to say that refunds for that would come from VRBO.

Then I contacted VRBO customer service and filed a complaint, but they then claim that they can do nothing for me and it is up to the owner to refund any monies. So now both the owner and home-away are throwing their collective hands up and saying that I need to deal with the other.

VRBO should be a shamed for letting someone scam a customer and do so little to protect their clients.

Herbert Simmons the owner of this property is simply a crook!

BEWARE of both!

Paid for a vacation rental home ( *******) at Timberline ski resort in Davis, WV in December 2016 for 2/3/2017 check in. Received email confirmation of payment. After reaching out to home owner and Home Away several times with no response from Home Owner, she phoned at 7:45 pm on 2/2 to cancel our reservations due "to busted water pipes" that she "found out about couple of weeks ago!" When we apprised Home Away of the situation, they were of no help telling us that would do nothing until home owner initiated a refund or we could travel to Davis tomorrow and at check-in call them and claim "Stranded traveler status." Fortunately home owner did process a refund later that night and then Home Away offered to "help" by suggesting other properties that we could rent at several hundred dollars more a day! Found same properties that Home Away suggested from a local realtor for $90 less.
Guess I learned what Home Aways definition of Payment Protections Service is?

This is the trip that I will forever look back on as the one that taught me to invest in my vacation lodging. It wasn't clean. More precisely, it was filthy; the landlord and I could not get on the page about anything - whether th apt had been cleaned, meeting times, etc.; and Home Away customer service was a joke. I won't use them again either. When I called to complain about the state of the apartment (hairy tub, tried urine on the toilet, and stained sheets ;) they put me on hold for 30 minutes (twice,) told me to meet the landlord back at the apartment to discuss a resolution because they couldn't easily communicate with her over the phone (nevermind the fact that I was on vacation and had travel reservations,) and then continued to do absolutely nothing to make it right. I finally convinced the landlord to clean the bathroom... Even though she swears I received the professional cleaning service I paid for... This experience definitely tainted our long awaited vacation.

Stayed at a home 10/18-10/19/16. Property had many issues. Called Home Away 10/20/16 to report. They gave me a file number and said they would send a complaint form. The rep was appalled when I told her of some of this issues with the home (I explained I have videos & pics) said they would shut the property owner down as they don't allow issues such as we experienced. They NEVER sent the form. I was forced to dispute the charges with my credit card company. I am STILL as of today (on the phone with them right now 2/3/17) trying to get Home Away to credit the amount that the property owner authorized them to give back to me. It's ridiculous! AND the guy (Marcus) JUST hung up on me (and my credit card rep as we were all on a conference call) STAY AWAY from this HORRIBLE and INCOMPETENT company! Seems like the company policy is to be evasive because they are only after your $$ and don't care what kind of vacation experience you had.

I have listed my property in Indonesia. After about 4 months, got a response of one customer wanted to stay at my place. He came and stayed for 3 days and again made another booking to extend for 5 days. When my client stayed during his 4th days, I called customer service and asked why I have not received my payment. He answered just wait for tomorrow. I have waited until one day before my client checked out, still no payment.

Then, I got a letter from *******@homeaway.com that my property is fake. Homeaway blocked my account (cant login) with no explanation. I've called again and she told me to write an email to *******@homeaway.com. Until today no one reply, I still have not receive any payment of almost $800. My account is still blocked. I've talked to my client recently and he said that his credit card already charged by homeaway. 3 days after he cheked out, I received an email that I need to write a review and rate him as my customers. So, Homeaway's system approved that my listing is not a fake one. Because it admitted that I did have a guest in my property (No Fake). But refuse to give my payment.

So, there it is, the list of unsatisfied customers of Homeaway is longer by days. But as you can see in this forum, no one from Homeaway is trying to responds to any of this complaints defending their company.

We had an awful guest for 3 days:
-he was having parties, even if it's prohibited by our house rules
-he was smoking marihuanna - also against rules
-walking in durty shoes on my expensive rags, white floor and Egypt-bedsheets
-broke the door and a door frame
-left the whole apt in awful condition
Then he left - he called Amex and said he never stayed in our apt and HomeAway returned him money

HomeAway did Nothing to protect us - the Owners,
The Insurance we paid every year - Doesn't help At all - we just wasted our money on them.
That group of Animals destroyed our apt, and left us with Zero $!

All photos, screen-shots from messaging history did not help - HomeAway advised us to use lawers and get our money back by ourselves

WE also found out that this website NEVER checks their guests! No back ground history or whatsoever.

For the owners - we had to provide them Lots of documents to prove, that we are not a scam.
For guests - they don't even check their ID!

Me and my friends tried to book 2 condo on South Padre island. We call them and made the reservation. They told us they were going to charge us $123 for the fees. They ended up charging us $4500 on my card. This is absolutely not acceptable. I will never ever book something through them again, it's a shame! They aren't competent and make huge mistakes. They were supposed to refun the money in 24h. Not true. They refund me 4 days later. I had to live for 4 days with absolutely no money on my card. Please do not book anything through them. Beware!

HomeAway deserves a minus 10! For the last year they have done everything in their power to put me out of business. I have done everything they asked and they, without notice, still turn off my listing. They have done this so many times I've lost count. I have 100 homes in my market with many many 5 star reviews. My ratings even on HomeAway, Trip Advisor and AirBNB are fantastic. If I could never use HomeAway I wouldn't! The customer service is the worst and they just don't care. Please someone turn off HomeAway. Go away Home Away.

I went through the processing of booking a listing, put in my credit card info for the initial homeaway fee but never received a confirming email. I called the manager number listed, and they said they dont post on Homeaway and that was a fraudulent listing. However, I pulled up my statement and Homeaway had already charged their fee to me. I called Homeaway 3 times to report the fraudulent listing
And they would get the initial info and the listing number and then hangup on me. Then I got emails asking me to review my experience? Something is really wrong there. I have rented thru VRBO for years, at least 20 properties but I am not going to deal with them again. Cheap lesson learned. I did have to cancel my credit card since I had submitted that and I did not know who else obtained it.

I booked a condo for hawaii on January 25,2017 and there were a list of all fees for the booking. I entered my credit card info, and submitted the booking. I was told everything is all set. Then I received an additional agreement from the owner and they said if I wanted to pay by credit card there would be additional fees. WTH?!?!?! Nowhere does it say that on the listing, or on any details until AFTER the fact. I called HomeAway, and they basically said "Too bad, you'll have to work that at with the owner, they just advertise with us. Good luck." That is crazy that they did that.

I would definitely NOT recommend HomeAway. They are no help, and don't hold their listings to any accountability. I will probably have to take the to court to get my fees back. I can't believe it.

Our group had been planning our trip for months and we had finally found what we thought was a great place at a great price. We contacted the owner and paid for our week in full ($865.19) and the deposit in full ($250.00). We booked in November for our trip in March and were extremely excited about the trip. We then received this email in January from the owner:

"Sorry for the confusion on this reservation. The 2017 rates had not been updated at the time it was accepted. During Spring Break the rate is $2500 with a $500 security deposit."

So then lost our booking and also the price that we were told it would be. We were so upset and when we call Homeaway to see what could be done we were told there was nothing that could be done. So now we are stuck scrambling on where we are to stay and we have less than two months to figure it out. So if you are planing a trip with this owner be very careful because it may not be the price you agreed upon and make sure to have a back up plan just in case he changes his mind on the price. I would also recommend using another travel site that will do something for you other than just offering to send you a link to more properties.

Very unsatisfied.

If I can give it a zero rating, I would. I have listed my home for 3 years through Homeaway. During the first 2, prior to Homeaway being acquired from Expedia, I received numerous inquiries especially for the winter months. If you were to search for our listing then, you would have come across it after maybe the 6th page. Now that Expedia has taken over, our inquiries are nonexistent. When we try now to do a search to see where our listing comes up, it is commingled with properties in surrounding areas that our listing comes up after the 60th page. I know that if I were searching, I wouldn't be spending my time scrolling through 60 pages to find a suitable rental. It makes sense now why we don't get any inquiries. On top of that, they now charge this "service fee" to our renters which was not part of it previously. Therefore, in order for your listing to be appealing, you have to reduce your rental charge to account for the service fee that Homeaway is now benefiting from. What was once a user friendly software for your average home owner and a great place for renters to use, has turned into a commercialized site benefitting Expedia. Unfortunately, I don't find the competitors like Airbnb any better. I hope that someone will develop a better model for owners/renters.

Airbnb will withold payments even though your guests have paid they refuse to pass it on and make up all sorts of excuses and you never get your money and your guest pays them and they reap the rewards of you giving up your property to short stay guest