HomeAwayReviews 1,748

I now call it Motel 8. These guys are a complete joke! We rented a house in Scottsdale AZ from this rental company that looked amazing online & it wasn't cheap! The second we arrived, we couldn't help but notice the MANY huge stains on the white carpet in every room. The guy that checked us in said they needed to be cleaned, but they couldn't find time to do it. What? From pictures missing on the walls, to totally outdated everything, this house was horrible. The pool was the only part that we could enjoy. From people showing up in the backyard, smoking & seeming to do some landscaping, to the stove blowing up & having the workers just show up at the door. 3 scorpions were found inside - alive. We ran out of most of the basics at this house, definitely wasn't stocked for our week stay! Broken garage door opener with clothes & broken toys thrown all over the garage.
The worst part, the guy that checked us in told us the propane to heat the pool would be around &100 a week. LIAR, they took out over $200 from our damage deposit & told us it was our fault. 8 people heard this guy tell us it would only be around $100. Called the owner of Latitude 8 & he was so rude & did nothing to help us out with this horrible experience! Do not use this company! They don't care about you once they have your money. Never again! Remember, they are only a Motel 8!

Why does Homeaway not have the owners back when a customer uses the credit card system? You are pushing the credit card system on everyone, so I used it for the first time, someone booked my place, stayed there for 10 days and come to find out it was a stolen credit card two months later or the person who used it claimed his credit card was stolen. So someway immediatley pulled all the money back out my bank account (two months later) when technically it wasn't available and even had the audacity to charge me a $29 fee. How can this happen. Owners need protection from either homeway or the credit card processing company you use (Yapstone) for credit card fraud.

HomeAway have introduced a charge on people renting property via their sites.

Their email informing me of this says quite clearly "The service fee is charged to travellers who book and pay through the HomeAway checkout. "

When I wrote to say the charge was scandalous, and while it will not affect me because I do not use their payment service, the reply I got is "The service fee will apply to all listings on our site, whether they accept HomeAway Payments or not. It will not apply to any travellers you have booked already."

The company deserves to fail. I advise everyone to avoid advertising with them or using them to book a holiday rental.

The property owner double booked my stay with another family. I called Ashley (a representative of homeaway) about being double booked to contact the property owner to get a refund of my $1200. The payment was taken out by homeaway company. She reports there is NOTHING she can do or willing to do to help me. She said the property owner would have to issue the refund (taken out of my account by homeaway). So unless he contacts homeaway I have no way to get my payment back (payment made through homeaway). When I requested to speak to supervisor she said there were no supervisors/managers to contact me back. This is the worst customer service to deal with. I am left with obtaining my own legal action despite HOMEAWAY being the company to take out my payment and contracting with this owner. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! They do not help the traveler!

I booked an apartment in Los Angeles for a family vacation in July, 2016. Four weeks after making the reservation and paying in full for it I received an e-mail from HomeAway that the ad I answered was a fake and that I should contact my credit card company as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, 4 weeks after receiving this e-mail my credit card company has told me for the third time that I must wait until after the last day of my reservation (July 30,2016) before they can begin the reimbursement process. My problem with HomeAway is that they've really given me NO help with the process. They've asked me for a photo ID, proof of payment to home owner and a letter from my bank denying reimbursement. All of this was provided to HomeAway 3 weeks ago. HomeAway simply kicks me back to the credit card company and tells me they must wait until they make their final determination. In no way have they proactively worked on my behalf in an effort to rectify this situation. Instead, I've gotten the run around from HomeAway and my credit card company while $1,505 goes down the drain.

HomeAway's Trust and Security department promised me today that they will review the I formation again and see what they can do. However, I'm not optimistic they will offer any substantial assistance. To begin with, I can't understand why HomeAway took 4 weeks to notify me of this fraud. Had they been quick about it I wouldn't be in this mess.

I've made a hotel reservation for those dates and that's where I'll stay. In fact, my wife has insisted I not work with HomeAway again and I have no intention of doing so. The fact that they keep kicking me back to the credit card company shows they are not willing to give their customers any substantial help if something like this arises. And, while I have used HomeAway successfully in the past it takes only one incident like this to tell me you are entirely on your own, I'm spite of assurances by HomeAway to the contrary, when problems arise. Not a good thing!

If I could give no stars, I would.

Stay away from this company - they will shamelessly rip you off if they can. They were instructed to take my listing down, but went merrily along charging my credit card nearly $1400/year. When I finally discovered it, they will only return the last charge (hoping, I'll believe it when I see it). No problem doing unauthorized charges.

Moreover, spent over 3 hours today, 90% on hold or listing to music to try to rectify this, and 5 out of 6 personnel couldn't even find the fact that they were illegally charging me. When I finally asked to speak to a supervisor, she had the incredible nerve to tell me she definitely saw my point that I shouldn't pay for services that were cancelled, but their 'policy' is they don't reimburse.

Bottom line, horrible service, maintain two sites (VRBO/Homeaway) to gauge you out of double the amount of payment, (though they own both web sites).

Fair warning about HomeAway. My partner and I were defrauded of $3000 trying to rent a vacation home through HomeAway. Now our multiple attempts, by phone and email, even to secure a form to request the amount they purport to guarantee have been ignored and defied. When you are defrauded through HomeAway, you may look forward to insult in addition to injury: transfer from office to office by phone, each office professing to be unable to help, email replies with the subject line "Oh shucks" and beginning "We are no longer monitoring this email address...". Rent through HomeAway at your own risk. Caveat emptor.

Bookings are way down - With these outrageous, unwarranted fees I now have serious problems booking my high season weeks. Will not renew my listing. These people just want to squeeze every last cent out of anybody who will pay. I will not be ripped off by this corporate scumbag, and I will not ask my good tenants to put up with this dishonest, greedy company! I will switch to weneedavacation.com. Used to list with them and switched to HomeAway because I was getting more traction (back then!). For Cape Cod, weneedavaction is an honest hard working company. They also do Florida. I will drop HomeAway and start with my old site. HomeAway is just too disgusting to be borne.

We had to process a reservation to get contact information for the owner of a rental cottage. We spoke to the owner the same day and were agreed that the cottage was not right for our needs. We cancelled the reservation and the owner rejected the reservation. Two days later Homeaway charged my CC for a US$53.69 admin fee. I caught the fee on the CC the following Saturday. Homeaway refused to reverse the charge right away telling me 1)they needed 10 business days to confirm cancellation and 2) I had to make a call to the billing team, (another call centre), where we were told that our issue can't be discussed until next working day. Very poor business practice to charge a renter a fee where there was no rental agreement or contract made. How can a business charge based on an unconfirmed reservation. I won't rent from a property that uses this service. I strongly recommend staying away. Hopefully the refund will be processed in less than 10 business days.

Follow-up - HomeAway did refund the admin charge as promised, within 10 days.

First and foremost, 4 bedrooms 2 with queen size, 2 with 3/4 beds (3/4 beds are 48" wide x 75" long). The pull out downstairs is a twin size from a love seat. I would say this home would sleep 7 at most, no way can it sleep 10.
The upstairs bathroom is very outdated and has rust on the shower head, I would not use it

Under couch cushions there was food crumbs and dirt. Surface looked ok, but it was not really clean at all.

Broken chair in the sun room with fire place, and love seat in the sun room was just tossed on fancy wooden blocks the couch fell off of one block and BOOM! Sideways couch that we had to pick up and reset on the fancy looking wood blocks.
Two different wooden chairs fell apart during the stay.

The fire pit is a large truck rim tossed in the middle of the tiny beach front. And I think the bugs enjoyed the water more then the guests.

Carpet up stairs is probably from the 1950's, ( I remember the same old carpeting getting ripped out of my grandparents old home about 30 years ago).

I spent 2 nights sleeping on the floor and I think a bug bit me on the butt.
The place has had some upgrades, downstairs kitchen and downstairs bathroom, but the rest of it is tolerable at best.

Booker Beware!

I 100% agree with all the homeowners complaining about Expedia/HomeawY charging OUR guests a service fee and pricing is out of the market. It's ridiculous! What's even more ridiculous, is never once over the past three years have any of the dramatic changes they've made been communicated directly to the homeowners. Only because I've done investigating to find out why I have half the number of page views and inquiries did I find out about the hidden service fee being passed on to my guests.AND it's not communicated as a website fee, it looks like a fee I am charging. It's killing my business. I started with VRBO since the beginning ten years ago and now I'm so frustrated with everything I just want to find an alternative. Forcing us to take credit cards, penalizing us by placing us low in search results, not allowing certain reviews on technicalities, it's all stacking up against the owner. You don't help me at all Homeaway. It's all about you and no one is protecting me. Do not advertise with the Homeaway family they don't care about you they only care about your money.