HomeAway Reviews

Had a pleasant stay in the Asheville area at a VRBO rental, my first experience.
Contract said the $300 damage deposit would be returned within 15 days if all okay.
Well, the property manager gave the okay for the refund the day we left, but it's 45 days later and no refund!!!
They said there was some glitch with returning it to our account and asked for bank accounts, routing numbers, yada yada. I told them I would be more comfortable with a check. So after a month they say they can send a check out in 6- 8 weeks!!!
So much for making things right. Are they holding customers' $ to make $ themselves?
I will never rent from VRBO or use Expedia reservations again. Pathetic!

Been doing business with VRBO for 12 years, started as good service, has turned to crap since the acquisition by Expedia. I am not going to renew my 2 listings as they have done everything in their power to take more money from the owners and renters. It's no longer a good deal... I hope all owners revolt and cancel their subscriptions. That's the only thing that is going to teach these thieves a lesson. By the time they cancel this stupid change on payments, many will be gone and set up through another advertising source.

This website lists scammers who list fraudulent homes. Homeaway will not help if you get scammed on their website. Stay away from them. They deserve zero star.

We rented a property in Woodstock, NH during the week of the 4th of July. The posting for the property stated that the property owners "do not live on site, but do visit on weekends and are usually available at check in and check out." We had the expectation of having the property to ourselves during the week.

The property did not provide the quiet, secluded family time we had been expecting. During our weeklong stay, we had only one day of peaceful family time (and unfortunately by then our daughter had thought it best to take our young grandchildren elsewhere, away from dogs and construction). We checked in on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday the caretaker was walking through the property (including a visit to our "private" deck). On Monday the property owner began construction serenading us with the sound of hammering and a saw set up outside below our deck. On Tuesday my husband complained to the property owner in person. The construction continued through Wednesday when an outside construction crew showed up. My husband shared emails with the property owners wife via the Homeaway message system when she followed up on our in person communication with her husband.
During these days we also had multiple visits from the property owners off-leash dog who was enjoying eating our grandchildren's food. Their son was unsupervised and allowed to sit and stare at us playing with our grandchildren, walk through our gatherings and even sprayed my husband with a squirt gun. According to a communication with his mother Laura, he claimed to have been squirting into the lake, however this took place away from the waterside. On Friday, after being promised by the property owner that there would be no more construction, my daughter was blessed at 8:30 by the sound of the caretaker digging outside her window. He was wheeling a wheelbarrow from the front of the house, past our vehicles to behind the driveway. Later in the day a dump truck arrived and dropped off what sounded like gravel. At this point we had no interest in verifying the content.

Obviously, this is not the experience we were expecting and to add injury to insult, the homeowner gave US a bad review out of spite because she knew we would give her an honest one. We were given 0 stars for cleanliness when we cleaned, swept, washed counters and sinks, made beds, cleaned the refrigerator and freezer, returned all outside chairs, boats, paddles, life preservers and toys to their appropriate location. I am not sure what more could have been done with the exception of remembering to push the start button on the dishwasher (we however were reimbursed our damage deposit even with the zero stars). They claim that we failed to follow house rules but did not give an explanation as to how and they claim we did not communicate with them. I can not prove that we followed house rules as that is akin to proving a negative. I do know that my son-in-law accidentally parked in what appeared to be a space off of the driveway and that we were told it was not and moved the vehicle. Additionally, we have the emails that clearly show there was communication regarding our dissatisfaction over their complete lack of respect for paying guests. We can also document the state of the house upon our departure as my we had come to the conclusion by our departure that we were not dealing with reputable property owners and felt it best to take pictures and videos. (Note: House rules state that renters should NOT strip the beds so they are only loosely made in order to insure they know which sheets were indeed used. The picture of the doorless closet is to document that we did indeed put fans away where they were found. Other items in closet are as we found them)

At what point your property owners held accountable for demonstrating common courtesy to their guests? Yes, we could have called HomeAway during our trip, but what would that really have accomplished? Yes, we considered leaving the property with our daughter and grandchildren but again, what would that have accomplished? We do not feel it should have been necessary to ask in advance if there would be any kind of work being done on the house or property during our vacation (it would seem to be a given that vacationers renting this type of property are looking and paying for a quiet, secluded time). Nor does it seem reasonable to ask if the property owner will have a dog off leash or an unsupervised child. Their posting states that the homeowners may be present on the weekend. That is very different that activity through the week.

In the end the property owner felt a promise of a reimbursement of $200 was sufficient (it is not), and yes this is total, not per day of construction. I would be surprised to see even that much but feel that we should be reimbursed a much larger amount as they failed to rent us the private property that was suggested in their posting. (Note: The owner has submitted a refund of $200 for the damage deposit but that is all.) We also believe that the negative review that they gave us should be amended as we followed house rules, left the property clean and clearly communicated with the owners.

We filed a claim with HomeAway and received no response. After a month, we inquired as to when we would here from them to be told that all they do is submit the case to the homeowner and expect the two parties involved to work it out.

Sunshine Hopkins home in Silver Sands Country Club off Portola in Palm Desert. Address of 40835 Sterling Drive / Palm Desert, CA 92260 and gate code 1999# is a scammer with loads of experience and knows what she is doing.

The property is listed as the entire home with a pool. Be aware...she props up a partition in the hallway and remains in the home while you are there, which is against Home Away/VRBO policy. The entire house has camera surveillance which is a little daunting. She indicated she was trying this process out but her bio clearly indicates she has experience doing this in foreign countries and Los Angeles. You will share the home with her and whomever else is behind the partition.

We told her we were not comfortable with the arrangement and that she specifically said in an email, which I still have, that this was not a shared house. She checked us in and then cancelled the reservation which then removed our opportunity to leave a scathing review on the Home Away/VRBO site. She kept the money and would not refund anything.

There is one review on her site and the person is a relative with the same last name.

Stay away from Sunshine Hopkins and this house.

Seeing so many one star reviews is giving me no consolation like I'm not the only one who got scammed via HomeAway. Luckily only for smaller sum but still. Not to mention identity theft possibilities...I must go to police now to report the scam, not for the money which is long gone by now, just to protect my good name as it will be probably used for the next scam.
This site isn't doing anything to protect the users and obviously don't take any responsibility either.
Just stay away from them. Run!!!!!

I asked to delete my account with all my personal information. After many verifications to prove that its mine account they wrote me that they can not delete it. Without any reason. Just "Thank you for contacting HomeAway Trust and Security. I appreciate you formally submitting a request for account deletion. However, I am currently unable to process your request at this time. Please try again within the next couple of months." According to GDPR laws this website has no right to refuse delete your account with all personal information there. Its against the law. THE WORST WEB EVER!!! STAY AWAY!!!

Since they took over the excellent Owners Direct they ruined an excellent company. I won't advertise with them again. Impersonal and shocking customer service.

HomeAway makes you believe you are booking with confidence, but really there is NO PROTECTION whatsoever. You have the option to buy an insurance plan, although who wants to pay a fortune to go a few states over to North Carolina!! (This isn't a trip to Spain).
Specifically, do not book any trips with property owners Becky and Tay Filer. They refused to refund my money for an upcoming trip to North Carolina with weather forecast of an impending Hurricane Dorian Category 4, a state of emergency issues, flights cancelled, and consideration over mandatory evacuations. It is unacceptable to loose $1500 for a five night vacation to North Carolina. These property owners at not trust worthy!

My family just returned from a trip to Cape Coral, Florida. We rented from Yvonne Wilenius who owns several properties in the area. They offered a boat rental that came with the house for an extra fee. The property manager Chris had a very thick accent that made it very hard to communicate but we understood that we had to put a 800 dollar deposit down in the event that anything would happen and to be extra save he sold us tow insurance. The boat was JUNK it was almost impossible to steer but we made the best of it. The second day we got the boat stuck in the sand so we called for a tow! He tells us there is nothing he can do for us and we had to get it unstuck ourselves. My boyfriend, our three kids, and myself tried to get it unstuck ourselves with no luck and after 3 hours he finally showed up and had it towed. When we left the boat the motor turned over and there was no damage to the boat. Later that night our credit card was charged 1000 dollars and when we called him he stated that he did us a favor and that if he had not helped us we would've been charged 4-6000 dollars in towing expenses!! We requested receipts and never received them and to top it off we they charged the credit card 2 more times once we left which we also didnt receive receipts! This trip was meant to be special for my father who is battling cancer but it was a nightmare!! Dont be their next victim!!

This site is a total rip off. there are several hidden charges beside home or hotel booking fees and tricky cancellation policy.
I will ever never book with homeaway.

Unfortunately 1 star is still too high for this company. I am a property owner and have suffered through having to work with them for almost 10 years now. The tools they provide to owners to set up their property listings are inflexible and extremely difficult to use. They are constantly increasing fees and providing less & less service. The latest insult came this week when they announced an immediate additional 3% fee (on top of the current 3% processing fee and annual subscription fee) to disburse payments to owners. Essentially, they are holding hostage the money paid by renters to owners unless the owners agrees to pay the additional new fee. Otherwise you wait until the renter checks in to get any money. That presents a HUGE cash flow problem to owners who have bills and mortgages to pay. This company is greedy beyond belief but what alternatives do we have???

You can see our video review here which we took here of the premises and the building work and the incessant noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myQMTD8p7CU

HomeAway are scammers, who deny any responsibility or liability for the properties on their website. Our holiday rental had 2 construction sites, one right next door and the other diagonally opposite. No warning about this. In addition, the church bells were immediately above us and chimed incessantly upon the hour every hour, day and night. No mention of the church bell either. No aircon, so it was either suffocate in the stifling heat or be kept awake by church bells all night. We booked for 10 nights but only stayed 3 due to lack of sleep. Homeaway deny any responsibility even though they take fees and commissions. They say the contract is between the property owner and the renter. So bottom line, anyone can put up a shack on their site, call it a vacation rental, and scam people out of money.

After the property owner took my deposit he immediately cancelled. I have still got to see my refund. Many, many phonecalls, emails, chats no refund returned. Dont trust them, dont book with them.

I've used VRBO for several years; this is my 1st with Homeaway. Just learned that it is now VRBO/HA, and very frustrating to use (to say the least, dependent on your problem with them). Can you imagine that this "new" firm can't employ minimally-competent software people to establish a working email service? I couldn't email the owner. This time, on the 2nd try with a service agent via phone, she had the brililant thought to call the owner(Italy), and we conversed in this way - yay! This was important as we had to confirm our 1st meeting. Sooo happy with the luck I had with THIS AGENT -Thank you, "Charlie"(young woman)! The 1st via chat was dumb as a rock, and when he asked "did you try to call the owner?", I knew I reached his gray-cell limit, and my end of my patience ("if I could call, would I be talking to you now? - duh). ---This is very discouraging; I wonder how I will arrange our housing on our next trip, since this firm is now a "zero"? :((

We were looking at what seemed like a nice property to rent. I had several questions and I asked the supposed owner if I could have a phone number to call them. He flat out refused and said I was phishing. Plus the way they try to get you to rent is by showing a price of 149 a night....and then no matter what time of year you click on the price is all the sudden 199 a night. The they have a "service fee" of 50 dollars and a "administrative fee" of another 35 and then a "lodging tax" of another 23 dollars. STAY AWAY.

I have used since 2004. Vrbo merged with homeaway a few years ago. Changed policy to eliminate personal contact with those that want to rent your home. They block phone numbers and emails, even upon request like I did for a longer term rental for the winter who had a pet. They want to take out fees for owner in addition to annual fee I pay of 500 then also take from the renter. If I discontinue I will likely have hard time renting because they are #1 on the search engine. It's a shame!

Do not list with them as they don't screen guests nor believe homeowners. I was threatened by guest..what did they do? Nothing..my furniture was broken..they want receipt for furniture..bought..not replaced...they want your money and then they'll close the door on you. I have notified my bank of fraud by homeaway..they want funds to be returned after this guy stayed in my house, threatened me, and we found furniture broken.

No real answers to questions and a different answer from rep to rep. You cannot be connected to the billing department, they don't accept phone calls. The whole thing seems to be a joke as the customer service reps seem trained to obfuscate.

I booked a condo in US for November 2019, VRBO and owner accepted my payment. when I call the owner for access to the property he told me that property has been rented till March!! My vacation has ruined because of VRBO and their property owner. VRBO has no control over property owners / managers. It has been 2 weeks now I am trying to get my money back but no real action has been taken. Very bad experience so far. Bad call center & customer service. Don't use VRBO or HOME AWAY!!!

I called to simply update information about my HomeAway account . I was told it is not possible and I have to create a new account and delete the old one .. huh !!!!
And yes active reservations I would have to contact the property owners each and have them updates details. And yes all my history would be lost .
What do we pay them for ? Use Expedia ..

I had a problem after a rental that the owner had decided to not return all of my deposit. Trying to contact HomeAway is a nightmare and only after using Chat and more than 10 messages, I was answered, but actually not even considered my explanations.
They hide behind their rules' at all costs to protect their homeowners and give renters no ability to claim or explain. Airbnb all the way from here on out. HomeAway disgusts me at this point. Totally biased to their homeowners. They do not care about your rental experience at all. They completely took the homeowner at her word. They had no interest in my side of the story at all.
Just to note I have been using HomeAway since 1998 (!) but no more

Booked a 4 bedroom villa in El Medano and I was sent an e-mail from homeaway advising me that the property had been taken off the website due to some kind of irregularities with ths property owner. They advised me that the booking was cancelled and told me to book somewhere else which I promptly did. They advised me that I would get a full refund of which I had already paid if i sent in the correct paperwork for the monies I had paid. However they only gave me back the fees that they charge and not the full deposit that I paid leaving me around £230 out of pocket. I think that its a disgrace that I have been left out of pocket through no fault of my own and now I dont know what or where to go from here. Any advice would be appreciated.

Up until a few years ago, HomeAway was great to work with. But then they started to force down your throat changes that put more money in their pocket when they didn't add anymore value to the process. They didn't give you a choice on accepting their additional fees. After building up a clientele over the years, it is tough to move away from HomeAway, and they know that. So they keep finding way to charge you more. My payments, from me or my guests, have increased (no exaggeration), 600%! Yet I do all the work and they only provide the website! I will leave HomeAway in 2020 and encourage everyone else to do so if you want to keep your hard earned money.

I also was not allowed to post my review of a less-than-idea rental. They hide behind their rules' at all costs to protect their homeowners and give renters no ability whatsoever to leave a bad review. I requested' (I literally used the word requesting') a refund of part of my rental cost from the owner because the AC was not working properly in the middle of the summer in New Orleans!! HomeAway removed my review saying I attempted to blackmail' the owner out of money. Are you kidding me?!?! Seriously, do NOT use HomeAway. I never will again. Airbnb all the way from here on out. HomeAway disgusts me at this point. Totally biased to their homeowners. They do not care about your rental experience at all. I had to have one of our kids sleep on the living room floor for the first two nights because the AC was not working. Do you think HomeAway wanted to hear about that?!?! Nope!!! They completely took the homeowner at her word. They had no interest in my side of the story at all.