HomeAwayReviews 1,748

VRBO used to be one of my favorite means for finding and booking fun vacation homes. I really enjoyed the personal connection with home owners. I recently booked through the site and was charged the mandatory "Service" Fee. I put service in quotes because I didn't feel that I received any special service in return. I assumed incorrectly that it was an option selected by the rental owner. Research has revealed that it's another big business ripoff fee. I will miss using this site.

I am a property owner on VRBO & Homeaway. Started w/ VRBO 5 years ago, great company. THEN HomeAway took over. Whoever is in charge now has NO KNOWLEDGE of what they are doing. They've made all these changes ripping off the owners AND the travelers the fees NEVER stop. My reason for filing this complaint is Homeaway has posted my personal info. I have been trying for 3 days to get a response from customers service... CRICKETS! And they want to take more control of OUR property. These people need to know we are renting OUR homes we aren't hotels. When my subscription expires I will start using AirBnB.

They have completely changed all that was great, all in the name of greediness. If you don't sign up with Homeaway payments (which is awful for an owner) they drop you to the bottom of listings shown. We have been with them from the start, from over a decade ago and they could care less. Our home was steadily booked only a year ago and this year, we aren't even getting requests. We went from hundreds of requests to nothing for months. They want to make MEGA money by charging the tenants additional fees through their payment program, they weren't satisfied with the fees they were already charging the owners to list. Everything is so complicated now and this really is a shame. Beware!

I recently booked a trip through Home Away to Barcelona and Seville Spain. Home Away is in excellent site to get ideas about what is available and about cost. I would strongly discourage anyone from booking with Home Away. All fees are due well in advance. You will get daily emails about your trip and other services they can provide, such as, transports, dinner reservations, private chefs, and other activities. Unfortunately, Home Away is not a travel agency but nothing more than a booking portal that adds fees to your trip. The extra services that they are soliciting are not necessarily offered by the local onsite booking company. This led to major miscommunication and confusion for our vacation plans. I could never tell if I was communicating with Home Away or the local booking company. It is very difficult to speak to a live person with Home Away. In conclusion, "Look but don't book"! Stay away from Home Away and just google the property you are interested then deal with them directly.

Do not try to deal with this people, after we agreed on a price, the owners wanted to raise the price for our kids, a total of $140 extra, even after the website quoted me for them already. I could tell as soon as I spoke with a Spanish accent, they didn't want anything to do with me. I came from a Puertorican decent, born here in NY city, served in the United States Army and gladly risked my life in Iraq to defend our country and our way of life, then you have people like this idiots that think that they have earned and deserve their way of life just because they are of a certain skin color, It is disgusting that there is still people like this in this age, where U.S. A is composed by multiple races, that makes America the place that it is now.

My husband and I along with our 3 year old son rented a beach house in Lavalette NJ for one week. The owner tried to cancel our reservation the night before our arrival stating he was "double booked" even though we made our reservation 6 months earlier and he had already cashed our check. He eventually told us he worked everything out and we made the 3 hour trip with our son. The home owner and Homeaway are both a scam! When we arrived, we found the bathroom gutted. The homeowner graciously put a toilet on the floor on plywood and instructed us to use an outdoor public shower on the beach. The house advertised TV and WiFi. We had a TV but no services. I called Verizon and was told the home owner hadn't paid the bill. We hooked up our personal DVD player. There was a small electrical fire and shorted our DVD player out. 2 days into our stay... NJ Natural Gas came to shut off services for non payment. Then my 3 year old son found a "roach" aka: marijuana in a coffee table decoration. After the "roach" incident - I called Homeaway looking for assistance. We were worried about the return of our security deposit. I explained with we had no TV, WiFi, bathroom and gas turned off... they said there was nothing they can do to help us. I told them about the "roach" - they told me to call the local Police Department. Absolute nightmare they allow home owners to misrepresent their property and offer no assistance if there is a problem. Will not use their services EVER AGAIN!

I wished I had read about Homeaway sooner. Today I receive my fist payout, one month after the guest check out. I had my listing at $90 per night plus $120 cleaning fee. I receive $142. So I rented my place at Encantada resort that I usually rent for $130 a night for $11 a night (it was a 2 night stay) In adition to what everyone else had said they also charge you credit card fees if your guests use credit cards. I am sorry for all the guest that I had to cancel on as is not fair to them. However I am not renting to loose money. Use Airbnb and call it a day!

They allow their listing owners to claim ceiling fans as AC, do not respond to complaints, and do not display all reviews for the properties. I submitted a less than positive review for a property that I stayed at and stayed within all of the appropriate guidelines for reviews. I even tried to be as fair as possible by adding both the positives as well as the negatives of the property. My reviw never got posted, the property only has 5 star reviews posted and is claiming that the ceiling fans are acceptable to declare as AC. HomeAway has told the property owner that that is OK. Renters can not trust a company that does not display ALL reviews!

Homeaway Strong Arm Tactics forces owners and Guests to use Book It Now being is wrong. If owners don't use it, they get put at the bottom of the list. Guests have no choice. And if owners use CSA property damage insurance in order to put a claim into CSA for guest damage, they need to provide the signed written contract from the guest? With Book it Now, we don't get a signed contract!
Make sure you send the guest a rental agreement and have them sign it and return it to you.

I am with the other reviewers I to was very happy with VRBO/Homeaway so I renewed 5 of my properties at the platinum and gold level to get the feature to find out that no longer comes with the subscription. Very unahappy about the service fee as well if more money is made in my property, I fell I should be the one getting the extra money. Then I looked up one of my properties as a guest would and saw a billboard advertising other properties who have paid Vrbo not me to advertise on my webpage that I paid $1295 for. Very unethical and yes I have noticed that inquiries have gone down. I listed mine on Airbnb and I gets as many inquiries on that site that is a pay per booking price. Very disappointed in VRBO/ Homeaway

I listed with HomeAway for 4 years and was happy with the service. I paid about $350 for my posting and from there all interactions with potential renters were up to me. HomeAway is now sending quotes to those who inquire and including a booking fee. If I opt not to do the booking/payment through HomeAway they will bury my ad and charge me double for the listing. I will be moving my listing to Weneedavacation.com or some other service. I'm very disappointed as previous to these changes I liked the HomeAway service.

Homeaway/VRBO is all about increasing their revenue and controlling how owners are managing their properties. They are charging fees to renters as well as fees to owners. I will not be renewing my subscription as there are other services out there that do not try to control owners and charge ridiculous fees. Wish I could give it a zero star, but minimum is 1 star