HomeAwayReviews 1,748

I would never rent through VRBO/HomeAway again, especially through the property manager Julia, who manages high end L. A. properties. We paid $17k for a week and had to cancel due to the corona virus. We offered to take a 50% refund, and they refused, instead offering us the opportunity to rent at the same price before May 31. Of course, that won't work for us, because the corona virus is ongoing and our kids are in school. I felt a 50/50 split was fair, but they rejected it.
Before this happened, I also tried to cancel the reservation because they don't allow you to play music in the house. This was before the reservation was finalized and agreed to. The owner, Julia, said I had ten minutes to cancel. I tried to cancel, but couldn't figure out how to do it over the computer. She basically sent me an email saying it wasn't her fault that I didn't know how to navigate the site. This is just so everybody knows what type of people you are dealing with.

This is the third time we used HomeAway - previous experiences were great. Due to the current situation and the advice from the federal government to not do any not required travel, we have decided it would not be smart to travel to West Palm Beach FL. We contacted the rental agent of the property directly and were told "business is as usual in Palm Beach county so you will forfeit the entire rental cost" - which is in excess of $3k. Airbnb has made it clear on the news and online that they are working with travelers on refunds and credits. HomeAway - nothing except on their website a statement to cancel through the listing and a notice that call volume is high and response times are over one hour. This is ridiculous - this property manager/owner is keeping everything including cleaning fees, taxes, admin fee for a property they will never clean! No offer of a credit for future stay at the property. All he is saying is that if we cancel and he can rent it out he MIGHT give us back some of our money. Never use this agency and their property providers are thieves! We purchased travel insurance and it does not cover pandemics! Been on the phone with HomeAway on hold for over 30 minutes still and nothing. HomeAway - STAYAWAY!

I originally booked an Airbnb with Ileana Martinez (Danny De la Parte) in Miami, Florida for Rolling Loud festival. As many places have shut down and events being postponed due to the Coronavirus, I cancelled my room. I knew that I would be getting back only 50% because I cancelled after 60 days. I cancelled and got confirmation from HomeAway app that the owner refunded me $274.61. However, I only received two different pending charges: one was in the amount of $154.24 and the other $20.37. I let owner know that all of my refund had not been pended to my account as well as my damage deposit refund. The other part of my question she answered was that the owners don't hold the damage refund HomeAway does. Ok, understandable. (I later did see HomeAway did refund the full damage deposit) However, where is the rest of the refund the OWNER is suppose to give? I had been writing Ms. Martinez and her response time was very punctual (always heard from her within hours even though she was not very helpful at all her response to almost everything I asked was call customer service) but when I began to ask her about the rest of the owner refund she stopped responding! As you can see what she refunded me is not 50% of what I've paid. After no response from Ms. Martinez, I decided to try to reach out to HomeAway customer service. I called and waited 1 hour and 8 minutes before the call disconnected. I decided to call back and yet wait again. The same thing happened. Held for over an hour and call disconnected. Never got to speak with anyone. This was first time using HomeAway and I will never use it again. It looks like I am now going to have to dispute charges through my bank. If ever visit Miami area, DO NOT BOOK IlEANA MARTINEZ (DANNY DE LA PARTE) PROPERTY ID: *******vb

HomeAway Book with Confidence Guarantee from HomeAway® is nothing. The customer service representatives I have spoken to were useless. The property manager is nonresponsive and didn't see anything wrong with false advertising. HomeAway has been zero help. Seriously avoid dealing with Home Away. Their book with confidence guarantee does zero to the unscrupulous people who sling vacation rentals on their site. HomeAway gets their fees and the rental people get their money. The guests can be taken advantage of and no one takes responsibility. I had been a Home Away and VRBO customer for years. Never again. Florida Sunshine Vacation rentals and Casa Floridian are two companies that should be barred from advertising on your site if they can't provide what guests pay for. Owners should be REQUIRED to put their name as the owner of a property so all guests can research them. I didn't find out their names until I had paid my money. Florida Sunshine Vacation rentals has bad reviews when you research them. The best reviews they have are padded ones by employees and friends! Any by Quinones, Valle, and the rental company friends are aren't genuine customers. Home Away suggests a negative review after the stay is enough. It is not! The property owners will just make new ads of the same property. I called HomeAway to report Florida Sunshine Vacation Rentals ruined my Orlando vacation with their lies, and daily run around. HomeAway agent tells me to work out with the property manager. The Book with Confidence guarantee is bs. Don't book through Home Away.

HomeAway Payment Delays

I own a property on the West Coast of Barbados which I rent out privately and also via three online websites, namely Airbnb, TripAdvisor, and HomeAway. The first two of these always pay, without fail, 24 hours after the arrival of the guests, and I have never had any problems with, or complaints from, guests.

However, I recently hosted guests who booked through HomeAway, arriving for a 14 night stay on 13th February, who were delighted with their stay, but for whom HomeAway has so far seen fit to withhold payment without explanation. In accordance with their terms and conditions, the money should have been disbursed on 14th February, but the disbursement date was initially postponed to 22nd February, and subsequently - again without explanation or communication - postponed to 2nd March. Unlike Airbnb and TripAdvisor, HomeAway also manage to create a 5 - 7 day delay between disbursement and receipt of funds, which they falsely claim is caused by the recipient's own bank. Everyone, apart from HomeAway, succeeds in making their payments instantly.

There can only be three explanations for such payment delays:
1. Gross inefficiency
2. Deliberate withholding of money for their own use
3. Financial instability

The company has not responded to my email requesting an explanation, and since I phoned them 2 days ago, the projected disbursement date has been delayed by a further two days. I would be interested to hear whether other property owners have experienced similar problems with HomeAway, and also how their experiences of HomeAway compare with other online rental sites.

Absolutely shocking company to deal with Worst customer service ever.
8 months before our trip to America, we booked our villa For 20 people 6 weeks before departure. After full payment had been made, our villa was changed,(Without informing us) to a new villa that would not accommodate us all.
They left us in an awful situation of trying to find a new American villa for 20 people over the Easter period With 6 weeks to go.

Even though it was their error, we did not have a full refund and had to wait 10 days before getting most of the money back. I had to chase both companies, Home and away and Executive villas( who you can never get through to) for refunds which was not Fully returned to us, no matter how many times I contacted them. It was one excuse after the other.
Be aware they say they have no responsibility after booking and you have to deal with the owner. They just take a finders fee are are no help after booking

HORRIBLE- Bait and Switch for rates on 2 separate reservations! DO NOT BOOK WITH HOMEAWAY. We booked two reservations within 4 days and both said they needed higher rates or they would cancel. The one simply stated (after booked and confirmed through Expedia) "we can get a higher rate" and they cancelled our reservation. We had already booked $4200 in Delta flights and $2600 in ski and cat ski packages, so now we are screwed! HOMEAWAY says they will put a penalty message in under these property owners, but cannot do anything else! HORRIBLE way to conduct business, especially being a Lifetime Titanium member with Marriott, I am used to book accommodations that are not just cancelled out from under you! BAD BUSINESS!
Addresses are 1482 Empire Ave and 1415 Lowell Ave- both in Park City

As a vacation home owner I have seen my fees go up and reasons to use the group go down. Customer service is terrible. Representatives say "the app is not my favorite" because it is complicated and they didn't know how to use it either.
Customer service representative doesn't know product. I was complaining about losing my Premier Status even with all 5 star reviews ( this allowed me to communicate with potential vacationers which increased satisfaction and bookings, they representative said the company never allowed this service.
Change from one year ago when I received my money right after booking to now having to wait until after rental is completed unless I agree to a 3% surcharge.
Most important decrease in bookings because the fees are not only high for owners they are the highest among the vacation rental sites for renters as well
So it is no longer worth paying an annual fee to get a DEFECTIVE APP AND WEB SITE
POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
NO CONTROL OF WHO BOOKS YOUR PROPERTY
HIGH FEES FOR OWNERS AND RENTERS

There are other sites out there ie booking.com who have a better website, higher traffic volume, less cost to renters so owners will be able to get a higher rent to cover there fees and BETTER AND MORE KNOWLEDGE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

WE AS A GROUP NO LONGER HAVE TO AGREE TO PAY MORE AND HAVE THE REASONS WE PAID MORE TAKEN AWAY, WHICH HAS HAPPENED SINCE EXPEDIA PURCHASED HOME AWAY AND VRBO!

Received credit card bill end of October 2019. Had 13 identical charges on the same day. Called credit card company, have new card. Called Homeaway (VRBO on credit catd bill)
THREE MONTHS LATER, Homeaway is disputing the disputed charges. Called again today. They say they have No record of other calls. The charges are in my name, but since I can not give info. To access account (I do not have a Homeaway account) they will not give me much o formation except that all 13 identical charges are for reservation sometime in 2020 IN THE NETHERLANDS!
I have never been not do I have any plans to visit the Netherlands.
THUS IS FRAUD, THAT HOMEAWAY EITHER PERPETRATED OR IS ALLOWING TO HAPPEN DUE TO THEIR EXTREMELY POOR, INADEQUATE SECURITY MEASURES.
They refused to transfer me to a manager. They refused to transfer me to an USA rep.
I will never use them. BE AWARE!

If only I could give them ZERO STARS I WOULD! I have never booked an air bnb before and i was Leary of it from the beginning. But against my better judgement and feeling secure going thru a well known entity such as Orbitz I went ahead with it. I reserved a place on November 4th 2019 and prepaid in full for a Miami trip i had planned with my husband. Yesterday February 7th with just over a month before our well awaited trip, the property owner CANCELLED MY RESERVATION. WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. WITHOUT NOTIFICATION. JUST CANCELLED IT. When rates over this time period tend to go up and up the closer it gets, this man left us with no place to go and a budget that doesn't now extend to the prices I am finding for the area and the time frame. VERY DISAPPOINTING. LEFT ME WITH A VERY BAD TASTE IN MY MOUTH FOR ORBITZ AND HOMEAWAY.COM! NEVER EVER WILL I USE THEM AGAIN. THERE SHOULD BE SOME SECURITY AND COMPENSATION FOR A CUSTOMER WHEN THE PROPERTIES YOU ALLOW ON YOUR WEBSITE SCREW OVER YOUR ORBITZ REWARD MEMBERS! VERY DISAPPOINTING. NOW NEEDLESS TO SAY MY TRIP IS RUINED. Do not reserve this location. You can be cancelled last minute and left hanging. Home away offered to rebook me at 2-3 times the original price with no price adjustments or compensation. I'm sure this property owner wont receive any consequences either! I am disgusted and will never use you all again!

I thought we were paying more for this beautiful place in the Cardons Forrest here in La Ventana, Baja so that as my husband was doing his windsports I could relax and read books, watch the birds and the gorgeous view from the top of the house. I thought about it so much this last year and when we got here on Friday afternoon it seemed to be exactly how I imagined ( in fact we called and booked another 3 months next year). Until the construction noise started up Saturday morning at 8am. For a month now we have been listening to a table saw, along with some sort of chain saw and with hammers pounding by several people at a time many times all at once from 8 in the morning to sometimes 8 at night. On top of that several days a week the loud music blasted so all 15 or so workers could hear it was some sort of Mexican electronic music that shook the ground. We have tried to work with them on the music and they have been nice about but the noise from the construction has made it impossible for me to enjoy this beautiful place many hours during the day, 7 days a week. After a month here the owner got back to us and will only give us 30% back of what she got paid ( not all the agency fees) for the last month. That would not give us money to rent some place else. This construction has been going on for over 3 years and we heard that other renters also complained but it is funny that non of those reviews made it to the web site advertising this house Casa Susanne here in La Ventana, Baja. We feel not supported and cheated out of the vacation we looked forward to. I have been a big user of HomeAway/VRBO and will now book through other agencies.

If I could give Home Away ZERO stars, I would! I typically use air BNB to book my lodging however, I decided to try home away because I received an advertisement in my email. Biggest mistake I ever made! I made the reservation for a home in Palm Desert and pre paid for the rental, deposit, and cleaning and some other random deposit. When they finally charged my account for all of the expenses, a typical 2 bedroom house that would cost $250 a night was now almost $500 a night! I decided to proceed with the reservation and tried to contact the owner of the home to coordinate my arrival and discuss logistics. I text and called him over 40 times and received NO response! I contacted Home Away customer service and they were no help at all! I explained to them that I did not feel comfortable traveling for 3 hours to Palm Desert if I was unable to make contact with the owner beforehand to confirm my arrival. They advised me to move forward with the reservation and show up at the home and try to contact the owner upon my arrival. Well, I did as they instructed and the owner would not answer my calls or respond to my text messages! I tried to contact Home Away customer service because they stated that they would try to help me find other lodging in the event that the owner did not respond, and after being on hold for over 20 minutes, I finally gave up. This was, hands down, the worst experience I have ever had! WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER! Not only did the owner never respond to me, but I ended up having to pay for a reservation that I was not able to use! The owner never refunded me my money and when I contacted Home Away customer service to seek a refund, they told me it was between me and the home owner. Are you serious? The same home owner who did not respond to ANY of my numerous texts or phone calls? THIS IS A SCAM! I took this matter all the way to the CEO of Home Away and they refused to issue me a refund! This is the worst company ever! Do NOT use Home Away!