HomeAwayReviews 1,748

I planned on getting this one beach house #*******. After receiving the contractable agreement he requested that I send him money via western union. I told him that I was not comfortable sending it that way and asked to do it through the home away website and asked for the directions to do so. He basically called me stupid and told me to re-read the directions that he recently sent (which he did not) and again said about wiring him money. After a couple of hours trying to figure it out I was unable to do I politely emailed him saying that I was sorry but I could not figure it out and we will not be able to rent it. He then wrote be back saying that I needed to go back to school and be re-educated and ended it with callin me a $#*!ing $#*!. Not the best customer service you would expect from someone who deals with people with renting out a vacation home. After talking with others I found out some where scammed thru this site and lost a lot of money. Beware and don't rent on these types of sites. Never wire any money ever.

My experience with booking my vacation rental through this site was effortless as far as contacting the owners, booking and making payments.

HomeAway has a vast variety of properties to choose from as well as prices. You have the choice of going with a luxury villa, cabin in the woods, high-rise condo or a bungalow on the beach. There really are some beautiful properties made available through this site.

Our house was exactly as pictured the only problem I had was the bed in the master bedroom, my god the beauty of that bed and room did not match the ten days of hell I endured sleeping on that bed of perpetual torture, but I can't be blame HomeAway for that.

All in all my experience with HomeAway was good and I fully plan on using their site again in the future if I'm not up for a hotel.

I booked a country house last summer that supposedly slept 8, but only 6 were inside the building: one double bed was in a tool shack, separate from the building. None of us slept there, the owner did not return our deposit, and instead fraudulently edited the property's description after my complaints to add "semi-detached".

After submitting full (and notarized) documentation to HomeAway:
1) They saw "semi-detached" as an accurate description, even though I had provided pictures showing the tool shack 10ft away from the building, without shared walls.
2) They admitted that they could not verify whether or not the owner had edited the listing, because of "limited storage capacity", and did not consider my printed version of the webpage.
3) They canceled the insurance, refunding the subscription fee, with a letter saying that the policy "never was in effect".

Number *******.
My husband and I decided to get away for a month. After staying at this beautiful townhome in Melbourne beach, we wished we had booked for two months. It was perfect. The beach was literally out the back sliding glass door.
Exceptionally clean. The kitchen was well stocked with dishes, glasses etc. New granite counter tops. Beautiful ceramic floor down stairs with wall to wall brand new carpet up strairs. The bedrooms (3 of them) were elegantly furnished. Newly renovated bathrooms. The Master bedroom was right out of some dream vacation magazine. On the second floor with a balcony over looking the ocean. Listening to the waves every night.
The place was away from traffic, which we really loved, but also in walking or bike riding distance to great places to eat. It was just a great vacation place.

I learned that HomeAway bought VRBO. Unfortunately I rented from VRBO prior to reading the overwhelming negative reviews posted for them and for HomeAway. Here is a review of my rental experience which I posted on a site for VRBO.
"I had a terrible experience with my recent VRBO rental. A heating pipe right next to the bed banged and clanked throughout the day and night making sleep difficult if not impossible. The noise seemed to come from a loose heating fan hitting some metal. This certainly seemed like relevant information for a review of this rental especially since repeated complaints did not fix the problem. VRBO rejected two negative reviews as not meeting their guidelines. In the future I will not be using VRBO or any affiliate as I cannot trust their reviews."
You can trust this review of a company which I feel has extremely poor customer support.

I recently stayed in a property advertised by, "VRBO, Homeaway". It was a nightmare. The property was at 4005 Windjammer Ln, St. Augustine, Fl. I had to waist 3 days of my vacation because the washer dryer broke down twice and the manager wanted to show the property that is apparently up for sale. After the 2nd breakdown of the washer dryer I was pissed and let the manager know. After that the manager texted me 19 times called me 3 and when I turned off my phone. Then she called my brother who lives in St. Augustine. How she got his number I have no idea. When I put the poor review on VRBO and Homaway the refused to post it because, "It did not meet their requirements". I see the only reviews they post are positive so just beware. My vacation was the vacation from hell.

Very very careful here. Most property owners use this for a landing site- you "book it now", they take your money- but no properties are ever available and certainly not at the "book it now" price. The property owner declined my reservation, but my payment is still pending - 10 days later. Tracked down the company that actually takes the payments www.rentpayment.com and got "release codes"- called my bank and these do not apply, need a fax number and they will send paperwork. Based on my service so far I doubt anyone will respond. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME HERE.

I used vacationrentals.com for years with good success, UNTIL they joined the 'Home Away Family'. More like the home away horrors. Loads of one line questions that were easily answered reading the ad and requests for times the site clearly showed it taken. AND the only way to communicate with people is through the site, which reloads pictures and graphics with every exchange - making it hard with a slow connection and impossible on a phone.

I turned it off and asked for my money back and they refused. All good owners will leave this outfit. See ya on TripAdvisor and AirB&B.

This site is horrible. I tried booking a place and after charging me 300 dollars the homeowner called us and was very nice. He told us he has cancer and someone was leasing it on the day we needed it and apologized. Fine cool, I understand. I book another place 2 days later and was charged 400 dollars, but the owner didn't approve it in time and it didn't go through. Oh but the 400 dollars went through. A week later neither have been refunded. I talked to some foreign lady that's telling me I have to call my bank to be refunded the money. It's 2015 and it takes over a week to refund money? Jesus, I mean it only took them 10 seconds to charge me the 700 dollars. Their terrible, you'd be better off pitching a tent wherever you want to go on vacation.

We rented a listed property over the holidays (12-23-14) for 4 nights. Paid extra for the "Carefree" insurance which is advertised as "Carefree Rental Guarantee (Provided by HomeAway) - Guarantees your payment if the vacation rental is not as advertised..." We had numerous issues with the property (see list below). Complained to the property agent, and to Homeaway. They do not cover "temporary defects" of which non of our issues qualify?!?

My advice is stay away from these guys and definitely do your homework before renting (from the website that begins with V?)and especially paying for insurance that does not cover the real issues.

Issues: In the listing elevator (owner advised us not to use it.
In the listing - 4 TV's ( only 1 worked)
In the listing - outdoor grille ( rusted + corroded = no food cooked here!)
In the owner's email "everything is in great working condition:
What we found:
Horrible pet odor, hair, dog poop on upper deck (they advertised no pets allowed...?
Window in shower jammed open.
Numerous slats missing from vertical blinds in master bedroom (privacy issue)
Screen door jammed and torn screen
Smoke detector unit removed from base in master bedroom
Linens - pillows, comfortor = horrible stink
Utensils dirty - not a big deal in itself, but when you pay a $200 cleaning fee, what you get should be clean...
We have not yet posted feedback on the property website... stay tuned

HomeAway.com, VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com have completely changed their websites to be combined into one collective pool and they are trying to control how travelers and property owners communicate with each other. It's horrible for travelers and property owners.

They are also desperately trying to convince travelers to use their online booking payment system and telling property owners that 85% of people want to book using their online payment system. The real reason is they will charge the traveler and property owner a fee to book that way.

This new format also makes it harder for travelers and property owners to communicate in a personal way leaving unsatisfied travelers and property owners. I paid my yearly fee and within 1 month and with no notification they changed their site and basically ruined my short term rental business that I've spent 4 years building up with 5 star ratings. When I asked for a refund they refused, which confirmed to me that they are acting unscrupulously.

I tryed contacting the Better Business Bureau and none of the 3 sites can be found. If I was a traveler this would make me question their business practices.

This review is not ment as a rant since I have booked a multiple yearly lease which profits about the same for me. I do feel an obligation to warn travelers and property owners of their business practices as I own another successful company which can be easily found on the Better Business Bureau site and we have an A+ rating after being in business for over 10 years.

My advise if you use them for booking is to bypass the automated system and fees, and contact the property owners directly, or find other sites to book from that are more reputable. Thanks and good luck. -Jim

Don't waste your money with homeaway. As a property owner, i made the mistake of listing with them. They have absolutely no customer service. Trust me, your issues do not matter to them. The website is broken, and there is nothing you as a owner can do about it. VRBO was amazing until homeaway bought them out, now, its garbage. I am getting 10 times the bookings from other, cheaper websites that aren't owned by homeaway, and its simply because my properties are easier to find.

I went on homeaway.com checking out rentals for our upcoming trip to Las Vegas. I checked out several places that said that the dates we wanted were available. I sent emails to book 4 places, getting replies from each saying they were not available. What a waste of my time waiting for a reply before trying to book another place! I won't use this site ever again.

Homeaway is awful to their owners. They always side with the renter and do not protect their owners from ridiculous reviews. They will not refund your money if you want to stop listing. They are playing a stupid game to rate the owner. How about just listing the property and taking your big fee to do so? We are not kindergartners that need to be graded!

On February 7,2014, a group of 7 friends secured rental property #******* on www.vacationrentals.com (part of the HomeAway family) for December 3-December 7,2014 (4 nights). On December 1,2014 at 6:42AM, the booking agent, Dave Banner, informed our group that the property owner received a cease and desist letter form the city and could not rent the property to us. He offered us other options in Ft. Lauderdale (not Miami). After selecting another rental, Dave informed us that the replacement property we selected was also "unavailable." Since our group of 7 women were traveling to Miami from California and Arizona the next day, we had limited options and ended up renting a hotel room. After returning home, I went to the website to write a negative review. I noted that the property is still available on the VacationRentals.com website at a rate of $699/night vs. the rate of #361/night that our group secured in February. I can only assume that Dave canceled our rental in order to rent the home at a much higher rate to another renter. In fact, the owner has yet to fully refund our security deposit. I tried to post a negative review on the HomeAway website, but it was blocked because I did not stay at the property. HELLO?!? I couldn't stay at the property because the owner canceled the reservation two days before I was due to arrive! This is a very dishonest business practice and I do not recommend that anyone conduct business with VacationRentals.com or HomeAway!

Horrible company to deal with... They will not allow reviews that don't meet their standards. We were DOUBLE BOOKED and Home Away would not allow us to leave a review cause we did not actually stay at the property... Of course we didn't... It was DOUBLE BOOKED... How can we leave a review on a property when weren't allowed to get in it... HomeAway did absolutely nothing other than to tell us it was their policy not to allow those type reviews. I feel sorry for future rentors who are in our situation. Basically property owners are allowed to double book their properties with absolutely no consequence for their actions... They have a complaint process but no viewer if the website will ever get to see the complaints that are filed... They are purely in it for the money and not the protection of the rentors...

HomeAway bought the Australian site where I advertise my vacation rental, but didn't bother to tell me the listing conditions have changed. Now they've launched another Australian vacation rental site in competition! And want me to sign up for that too.
They're customer support is a joke - just an excuse for harvesting customer records, and unless you purchase extras your listing goes to the bottom of the pile.
Anyone using their site enters into an unlawful, unfair customer contract with them that's totally stacked in their favour.
Posts in their customer forum are highly critical but they don't care about providing a service, only leeching as much money from us as they can.
They shouldn't be allowed to stay in business.

There are no words to describe how evil this company is. I'm a homeowner, and I had my home on VRBO with great success... until Brian Sharples and HomeAway got their paws on it. I get NO inquiries, no bookings, very few views, etc., now. The reason is because I refused to obey (or as they refer to it, "submit to" - I'm not kidding) HomeAway and give it control of MY business. HomeAway (Also VRBO, btw) buries listings which do not submit to their arm twisting to get us to hand administrative control of our properties over to them. Basically, we owners now are there to do the cleaning and pay the property taxes for HomeAway. HomeAway has done nothing more than perpetrate a huge land grab from private homeowners, and if you don't submit to them, they bury your listing, which is why I get almost no business from what was once a great Web site which brought a lot of traffic. Did I mention that, for the pleasure of giving HomeAway control of MY business, it costs me and the traveler MORE?

Put this company and AirBnb out of business. They have destroyed the private home vacation rental industry. My subscription is up tomorrow; I am not renewing. You can't imagine how awful it is working with this company. It is dictatorial, authoritative, Fascist, and cruel.

As an owner, I discourage all owners to stay away from Homeaway. This year, they have deceived us about the position we would have on four separate apartments in order to get us to go to a global platinum level, costing $1400 per apartment. Within a month after signing up, they moved us down from position 13 to position 364. When we complained we were told that they were sorry that we "feel that way" but were quick to point out that their terms and conditions stated that they could change the terms at any time. Essentially, they just scam recent advertisers by keeping on selling positions ahead of them until they are dropped to nowhereland and their inquiries go down to 10% of what they were immediately folllowing signup.