HomeAwayReviews 1,748

I have 2 complaints on the property I wanted to stay at on my vacation. The place stunk and we left complaint # ******* and ******* with homeaway. From reading these reviews, I guess I can count on not getting my money back. What a way to do business.
The property was #******* on 2600 paula drive, Dunedin florida. Dead bugs, broken cabinet, stinky, no tv, filthy placemats on the table. No reply from phone messages, texts and emails from the owner Diana Pergamo. RIPOFF

I see many reviews here blaming Homeaway for a bad experience. Vacation renters, please know that Homeaway/VRBO do not own any of the properties you see on their site. They are merely the marketers for property owners that pay to advertise on their site.

Homeaway/VRBO do not inspect properties, make sure the homeowners are competent or anything of that nature. They simply bill the property owners to place their properties for rent on their site.

We have just returned from a beautiful vacation in France. We had rented two large farmhouses at the Bed and Breakfast facility "Le Four a Sel" in the village of Aubas, just a few kilometers from Montignac. The houses were clean and well set up... swimming pool was well-kept... the owners of Le Four a Sel live on site and were helpful in suggesting local points of interest and restaurants. All in all- a very positive experience!

I booked a property in NY with Homeaway and made a full payment to Homeaway 2 months before I was due to move into the property. Having arrived in NY from London I was then not able to make contact with the property owner and did not move into the property but had to find alternative accommodation at short notice with airbnb.

I contacted Homeaway trust and security department ASAP to advise that I could not get a hold of the property owner, they also attempted to contact the host and was also unsuccessful. I was told that my payment had not been made to the host but was being held with Homeaway's sister company VRP (vacation rental property) however I still could not get a refund as Homeaway do not give refunds. 3 days later although I had not moved into the property and Homeaway were well aware that I had not moved in (they advised me to go to the police station and report my issue as a crime) they processed the payment and paid the property owner. Luckily for me 2-3 weeks later; after returning back home to London, after numerous calls and emails to Homeaway, after carrying out my own detective work, after finding the host on social media, after finding out where he worked and emailing his CEO (as he had ignored emails, voice messages etc) I finally had a response from the owner, who has given a hell of a story regarding why he didn't respond to calls or emails.

A month after returning home I am now still fighting to get a refund, Homeaway have done nothing to help, they did nothing to try and stop the payment being processed in the first place and any responses from them has now been that the contract was between myself and the property owner, they are only an advertising platform. Avoid booking rental properties with Homeaway, they do not carry out proper checks, had this been a fraudster Homeaway would have processed a payment to them.

AVOID, QUESTIONABLE BUSINESS ETHICS, BREEDING GROUND FOR FRAUDSTERS

My girlfriend and I stayed for 4 fantastic weeks here in Marin County. We were very fortunate to rent our little secret hideaway in San Rafael. The apartment is cozy and has all the creature comforts of home. The best part is the Hot Tub and Sauna in a private area just outside the apartment. There is also a nice Bar-B-Que in the shaded area where the hot tub and sauna is. The landlord was quite helpful with whatever we needed and he has much local knowledge for spots to visit and hike to. We hope to return again next year.

DO NOT use this company for your reservation needs! They offer NO security to your reservation. You make the reservation with them, but it must be "accepted or declined" by the property owner. The property owner has 24 hours to respond either way. If you travel to the area with expectations of your reservation, you might be disappointed to find that it's been declined, (as is with ours) EVEN AFTER YOUR MONEY IS PENDING PAYMENT!
BUYER BEWARE! SCAM COMPANY!

We have used vrbo.com for years, to rent vacation properties and never had a problem. They are now related to Homeaway.com. This year we booked a property through the VRBO website 6 months in advance. To do this, you must pay the entire amount for the rental upon booking, with a credit card. My credit card statement cites payment to "Homeaway". (This property's page promised complete refund if cancelled within 30 days of check-in.)

2 months later, noticed the website description was changed. A review had disappeared. When I pursued details, I was told the apartment I rented was on another floor; no reply to my request for them to specify which window(s) had the promised ocean view. (First description said "full ocean view" but changed.) When I told them if I did not get the information I was seeking I wanted to cancel, they sent me an email that the rental was cancelled. This was June 5. Still waiting for the refund. The management first told me that Homeaway would do the refund. Homeaway told me the management must do the refund. Homeaway followed up on my request to their 'help' site to ask me for the manager's address and phone number! They said they would forward my complaint to the manager and 'put a note in the file'.

This manager is still advertising on vrbo. (Although they show no bookings.)

Has Homeaway become a web site address for scammers to bilk customers?

Stayed in condo J102 from 06/19/15 to 06/25/15 with family of three adults, two teenagers and 14 month old baby. Good size condo with large main bedroom having it's own ensuite bathroom and bath and a walk in wardrobe. Downside - unfortunately there are 5 air conditioning compressors directly outside this room which come on and off all at different times throughout the night making it impossible to have a good night's sleep. Second bedroom has two single beds with another bathroom with a shower/toilet. Downside - the mattresses on the beds were thin and uncomfortable. Good size lounge and well equipped kitchen. Crockery and pans limited with many plates showing chips and wear. Be prepared to buy all products as there was only some dish washing liquid and one roll of kitchen paper and some alfoil. The lounge has direct access to a very small pool and two small spas. There is a cover over verandah with tables and chairs where you look onto the pool. There is an old sofa loung suite which opens to make a bed. This was neither comfortable to sit on and certainly not adequate for one adult to sleep on! Very poor Management communication and their customer service was nil. I say this as one evening we experienced lots of adults consuming alcohol (Beer) whilst sitting in the pool. The children didn't want to go in the pool as the noise was increasing as the night went on. Even at 11:30pm children were slashing and screaming in the pool. When I sent a polite message to Management of this unit I was told that it is permitted for people to drink beer and be in the pool until midnight. What they failed to check were two signs stating the pool closed at 10pm and security would enforce this rule. I never saw a security person the whole 6 days we stayed. We were told to wear resort wrist bands and yet we were the only guests wearing them. The good point is the condo is walking distance to The Schlitlerbahn water slide. Okay for a family holiday but not in anyway luxurious for the amount of money we paid.

We booked an apartment on 2205 3rd Ave in New York, NY for a one week stay. Pictures were beautiful and the owners description was great. We arrived to a sleeping doorman (24 hr. Avail) and cockroaches on the floor and on the see-through curtains. Bedsheets were dirty and so was the bathroom, cockroaches in the toaster, and the shower curtain moldy. We emailed the owner, Maaya, who assured us she would come and see herself and offered to have it cleaned. She never showed up. Due to a variety of circumstances, we had no choice but to stay. We surface cleaned (no cooking) our best and try not to stay in, but to sleep. It's been 3 days and no word from the owner, who supposedly lives in New York. The worst vacation experience EVER!

My experience with homeaway.com was terrible. I gave it 1 star because theres no option for 0. I was looking to rent a beach home in the Jersey shore for the weekend. They asked for credit card information and that a payment would not go through until the property owner confirmed that the property was available.
The next day I received an email from the property owner that the property was not available. I didnt think anything of it and continued my search. When I found another property and went to pay, my card was declined. When I checked online, homeaway made 3 charges totaling a little over $1000. When I called homeaway and asked why did they charge me if the property was not available, they said that its their policy to place a hold and then release it if the property is unavailable. This is not what the website says. The representives also gave me the run around, telling me they could give me authorization codes to lift the hold. This was only after the third phone call. Why didnt they tell me that from the beginning?!
Needless to say, this was a huge inconvenience.
I will never use homeaway.com ever again.

My parents rented a house via this website and while the property was only mildly insufficient the owner was a nightmare and tried to charge us for a bunch (thousands of dollars) of BS work she claimed needed to be done and some missing items. However, when we explained the law to her she backed off. When we tried to submit an honest review of the nightmare owner they would not allow it saying that "your review does not meet our guidelines". After submitting several iterations attempting to become compliant we realized that the only way it could be seen as "non-compliant" is that our review was not flattering of the listing/owner.
This is not the first time we have had issues with owners and false advertising on these sites and neither case did VRBO/Homeaway do ANYTHING to help us but rather did everything they could to protect the owners!
Caveat emptor (buyer be ware)... these websites are NOT on your side!

My son and his friends lost their money and ruined their senior week plans because of fraud on HomeAway site. After dealing with HomeAway, I feel that it is not safe renting properties advertised on this site. HomeAway does not do enough to combat scammers, and does not stand behind its protection guarantee. To read more details, please refer to my blog on this subject: http://simonraban.blogspot.com/2015/06/warning-fraud-on-homeaway-site.html

Think the reviews you're reading are from paying guests? Well you could be very wrong. Homeaway has no policy against friends and family members writing reviews. So all those laudatory reviews you read may very well be written by the owners best fiend or a cousin. So beware. Stayed at one of the properties advertised through Homeaway in Beaufort, SC. It was listed as beachfront, yet was located at in a suburban community a good distance from the water, certainly no views. What was advertised as a "cozy cottage" was actually a converted car port. The floors were sinking into the ground with resulting sand coming in all around the edge. The open concept kitchen living room was a small room with kitchen and a loveseat stuck in on one wall. Chicken clucking in the owners backyard, we're not my idea of a beachy vacation. We had to leave early and made an agreement with the owner and Homeaway that we would be forwarded any monies from rentals that the owner collected during the time that we paid, yet we're not able to stay. The owner did not comply! She rented the property, and yet refused to pay us as promised. She threatened us and out and out lied and called us nasty names after we sent in a less than good review. It took three tries and two weeks of negotiations with Homeaway to get a negative review posted. We were limited to speaking only about the property and not about the ethics of the owner, but the owners response is not similarly restricted. So when you read a review, be careful it could have been written by a close friend whose only interest is promoting the property and not an honest review by a paying guest.

We rented a house in I'lsle Sur La Sorgue through a Kim Fry. The property was good although the towels are a little past their prime... we expected better quality for the rental price. The real problem is chasing up the bond refund. We were a little tired of all the excuses & put-offs but were refunded eventually... don't get angry get serious! Not good enough Kim.