HomeAway
reviews and complaints

NEVER AGAIN WILL I DO BUSINESS WITH HOMEAWAY. This is an arrogant nasty outfit which should be banned from doing business. Their website is setup in such a way that customers get angry and confused. Cancelling a deposit appears virtually impossible.
Customer service in France simply produces more anger.
Customer service in the USA is staffed by people who do not talk normal English. Anyway Americans do not speak English anyway.
I consider this company as very unsuitable.

Nous avons 2 annonces sur votre site pour des biens au même endroit 88430 LES ARRENTES DE CORCIEUX (1485049 et 1580369) Depuis le 01/01/19 vous collectez la taxe de séjour suivant la réglementation en cours pour les deux gîtes.
Aujourd'hui vous me dites que vous ne pouvez plus collecter la taxe de séjour pour 1485049, sans pouvoir m'expliquer pourquoi, en enlevant le message qui s'affichait dans TAXES (à savoir - En fonction de la localisation de votre propriété, Abritel® - HomeAway™ se doit de collecter et verser le montant correspondant à la taxe de séjour de votre location de vacances en votre nom. Le tableau ci-dessous indique le pourcentage de taxe qui sera collecté par Abritel® - HomeAway™ Abritel® - HomeAway™ versera la taxe aux organismes gouvernementaux compétents. Autorité fiscale ARRENTES DE CORCIEUX).
Le technicien (Ivo par chat - conversation sauvegardé) dit que HomeAway-Abritel ne peut pas remettre les paramètres dans l'état malgré que c'est votre site qui les a modifié!
L'abonnement pour 1580369 arrive à terme et nous réfléchissons sérieusement au sujet du renouvellement, que nous devons payer 249€, puisque c'est gratuit sur d'autres sites qui nous donnent autant de réservations et ne changent pas les paramètres aléatoirement.
[protected]@gmail.com

Hello,
Properties 1110952 and 14968. We have just noticed that our rental rates for all of 2020 and some of 2019 have been automatically setup incorrectly. In addition our Friday changeover day was not carried over. After an online chat session ( ref [protected]) it seems this happened when we were updated to the new reservation system. This has resulted in loss or income as holiday makers have booked at very reduced daily rates (£88/ night v rates of £114-£134/night). It seems a standard rate was used but we don't understand where this standard rate comes from as we have never provided one. We have also had to reject a Saturday booking, which were told might affect our rating. During the chat it was said that we, the owner, are responsible for the calendar but it seems that homeaway have meddled with our calendar with no communication to us re this has been done. As a result we have suffered a considerable loss of income. The chat log ( reference above) gives full details of the problem and what has been suggested as a solution. We feel the solution suggested is far from an adequate response. We have been with homeaway for many years and are extremely unhappy with what has happened this year. Some form of financial compensation is, we feel, required.

My email for a reply is [protected]@gmail.com

I have been with HomeAway for 10-years as a property owner. I've been accepting online payments through the "Book it" option of the Homeaway site. When my listing renewed in June, my option to accept online payments was taken away. When I called the end of July to find out why, I was told HomeAway was switching payment platforms and I would have to re-enroll. The HomeAway agent walked me through the process. Now instead of being an Advanced Pay owner, I'm a Pay on Check-in Owner. The majority of the money HomeAway is currently holding won't be paid out to me until after the guest has checked out. HomeAway has no right to hold onto property owner's money. This money should be dispersed upon payment. You're taking money from guests and letting it sit in your own bank account collecting interest & paying your bills, while property owners are stuck waiting with no money being paid out. You currently have approx. $5, 000 of my money. I will be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. You need to start respecting your property owners. With out us, you wouldn't have a business to begin with.

HOMEAWAY - BEWARE.
I have always used Airbnb who are brilliant so thought I would try Homeaway.co.uk as well. What a mistake. We had a client (6 people) who came to stay in our villa for 9 days in July. These guests had a lovely time, were very happy with everything and have paid Homeaway in full. They want to come back next year.
Homeaway have not paid us a penny. They say our bank would not accept payment. I find this difficult to believe. I had not had problems from other debtors. I have contacted Homeaway weekly since these clients left. I have spoken to numerous customer support people and get nowhere. They promise to phone back, respond by email and say the matter is being reviewed by their Technical Department. Of course, the Technical Department do not have a phone nor an email. It is impossible to contact anyone who can do anything apart from telling me to wait. I have another Homeaway client wanting confirmation about their stay in my house on 2nd September 2019 and 2 more families after that. Should I cancel their holidays? It is an awful thing to do but I cannot afford to house them for free.

For the last 5 to 7 years using home away, and always taking a positive attitude, and having great family travels, the short trip 1377410 I hope is an exception to what standards I've normally had with HomeAway. I must retract my first review and give a thorough review of our stay. Firstly the pictures of the property give an effect that it's bigger than it seems, therefore based on the pictures we could allow for small children. We usually alot for bigger homes - however with this being close to home and just a day visit it seemed okay to go with this rental. The home area is infested with red wasps, my husband got stung. They had a roaming horse that kicked one of our dogs. The internet was based out of the owners home so the connection was weak. The homeowners were over bearing and they knocked on the door at least 4 times - we were out of the rental at 10:30am as a late check out was not allowed. It was 100 degrees outside and unloading our vehicle with food supplies and luggage and 3 children the homeowners insisted we walk down a hill which one of the adults fell and twisted her ankle. There was a terrible smell septic gas. We pay a cleaning fee, and being that the space was 400 ft I was not going to make the bed or fold blankets that she insisted on giving us. Doe Branch was not what we expected. HomeAway has always been exceptional in taking care of our family travels. We just will go for the larger homes and not based on the pictures however a picture can tell a thousand words. This is regretful but necessary.

I am a property Owner and my property number is 1781354. Property is in Benalmadena Spain.

I am writing as I am really unhappy with a recent booking error with regard to rates.

I set all my rates for next year and a client called Mr Duffey has booked at a winter rate of £40 a night for a summer period in June and July.

This has caused a loss of £15 a night over a 2 week period.

The lady I just discussed it with called Imogen was very nice and said I could go back to the client and explain this but this is terrible customer service and would look bad on myself and Home Away.

She also said that if I Cancelled it would go on my records and I know this would mar my excellent rating that I have.

So my hands have been tied and I have had to honour the booking.

I would ask that at my renewal you will take this into consideration when I am due to pay.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sharna Nothman
[protected]

I booked a property in Belfast for 8 nights as I was going on holidays with my family. As the check in time was 16:00, two days before our flight day (which was in the morning), I decided to call the agency to ask them if they could change the check-in time. I was so surprise to learn from the landlord that the property I paid for was not available. Why did the landlord/agency did not inform me about the cancellation?
It was too late for us to book another house as I was told that I was going to wait for 5 to 7 days for my refund to get into my bank.
This is ridiculous!
Plz can someone get back to me?

I would like the service fee to be reimbursed, as the owner did not go with the reservation. Due to cicumstances I have booked the property last minute for 2 nights stay. I booked it on Saturday morning and the check in supposed to be at 3pm on Sunday. I could not get in touch with anyone from the agency StayMarquis despite they claim they have 24/7 email service. On Sunday morning we were informed that because we booked it last minute the property the owner did not want to approve our check in on Sunday and they canceled our reservation. I would advise the company to not allow people to advertise they properties if they cannot accommodate. Either the property is for rent or not and to my impression the homeaway page allowed to make reservation on the property and it was canceled by the StayMarquis last minute. If they manage the property they should have full approval of the owner for managing in full capacity instead they waited on Sunday morning for additional approval of the owner. In addition I also try to book another house in the same area for the same time period reservation HA -552MV7 the owner also wanted me to cancel the reservation as he said someonelse booked the property minutes before me. In my opinion it was not fair to me as on homeaway page I was allowed to book and property was available. It seems those types of properties homeaway needs to check and do their due deligence on the owers. I they do not want to rent the property they should not show it as available on the homeaway page. Best regards Aga

Georgios Psaromiligkos agreed to refund us 50% of a booking we made for his property #[protected] reservation id- HA-T406M8. he has done this, but Homeaway has not refunded us their 50% commission and fees for the above property. We therefore request a 50% refund on the fees we have already paid Homeaway. Homeaway's fees come to 388.56 euros.

kind regards, Jacqueline Livemore

Reservation ID: HA-72JVJS - Lisbon.
Dates: 20th July - 24th July 2019

We booked a place in Lisbon through Homeaway, which was on the second floor and had French balconies and a separate bathroom. But when we arrived we were put into a ground floor apartment with no French balconies and a shower IN our bedroom.

Our Homeaway reservation says we were booked into No. 35, which is the upstairs apartment with balconies as I had booked, but we were put into No.37 which was the ground floor apartment.

When I click on the link for my booking, it takes me straight to the description and photo of the second floor apartment with French balconies that I had booked.

We were very very disappointed, as I had spent months searching and searching for the right apartment, and specifically wanted one with some sort of balcony.

We had discussions with the owner, Maria, who was very helpful. But she said we were booked into No. 37 in her system. After discussing it with her, it appears to be a problem with Homeaway.

Both properties are owned by the same owner, so there must be a mix-up in the Homeaway booking links.

Firstly, I think it is very important for you to fix up your link errors for these apartments, because clearly there is an error. This would save other people having the same problem.

Secondly we would like compensation as we did not get the apartment we booked. We were given an inferior apartment.

This was so upsetting as we are on a long trip in Europe and I spend countless hours, days, months researching the correct apartments for our stay. I also kept meticulous records of what I booked. And in Lisbon we did not get the apartment that we booked through Homeaway.

I've attached screenshots, and am happy to forward you the email, where if you click onto it, it takes you straight to the second floor apartment.

I would appreciate your action on this asap.

Regards

Liane Pfister

Hello! I rented an apartment in Marbella, reservation ID HA-9V7BX0, property 8117364,
06 August until 20 August! The problems are that the gas cooker it doesn't work, the fridge it smells so horrible and in the shower smells the same, horrible! I contacted the manager, she doesn't answer anymore! What we do?
And the internet it doesn't work as well! And the manager who showed me the apartment she was not very polite with me and my husband! We were coming from the airport and when we arrived at the apartment the manager was very bored and speak with us in a not very nice way!

Customer services representatives do not know the proper refund policies. The customer services agents are very rude I asked to speak a with management and the agent hung up the phone in my face. When I called back for the complaint line number they asked what was my reason and would not provide the telephone number. I was also told that depending on the complaint I may not receive the number.

Booked a house in Orlando, 8 adults, 3 kids, on 3/8/2019 for 12/1-7/2019, pd dep. On 8/4/2019 got notice of cancelation from owner, Geoff Scambler, through HomeAway/VBRO, no reason given. Only mention of refund was $110 of $410 dep. Owner not responding to messages from us or phone calls from VBRO. VBRO said there is nothing they can do. They did say we can book another and start over, I DON'T THINK SO. House we reserved is available for the dates we reserved for $700 more for the week. HomeAway/VBRO should ban these people that cancel reservations and then has them available for those same dates. What happened to us sounds fraudulent.

A property that I booked was not advertising it correctly as it stated it had two bathrooms which I assumed contained a toilet but it only has one!
So I have cancelled a booking well within the time but I have only been given a partial refund when it states that a full 100% refund will be refunded if cancelled within the correct time why is this to me this I false advertising and theft!

Hi, i rent out my appartment and whenn i recieve bookings they give me a total i would recieve when accepting the booking
i live in spain and whe i get spanish custumors i do not expect to have to py ANY transfer costs on top of the other expensive costs
If there is a cost to be payed it shoud be on home Away, and every booking i earn less than you promise me to pay
I already made a complaint and do no get any answers
I refuse to call as this is monstruosly expensive
If I do no get a refund for the tranfer costs or a reply i will redraw my listing in september
kr
ANnick Eliaerts
inn the exp the payment fees are almost as high as the commision, , you dedeuct this with noooo warnig, this is plain steeling

I wil, i quote below " hopefully get an answer" ...serious?

Property Case 22172283: Fully paid HomeAway the rental amount of S$940 and deposit of S$300 mid-March. I corresponded with the Property Owner 3 days (7July) before my travel asking for my check-in arrangement but to my despair, the property is not available. I was frantically trying to get the refund of my payment from HomeAway and to book my holiday accommodation elsewhere (you can imagine the price I have to pay for short-notice booking!). Since then, I have been corresponding with the property owner through WhatsApp to process my refund because there is no WhatsApp facility with HomeAway. HomeAway chat facility is not reliable, as I was cut off/ disconnected most of the time and it is not easy to reconnect. On 16July, HomeAway sent me an email to advise me to contact their customer support team via phone in order to escalate the matter. I refused to call because I was already financially worse off, as my monies have not been refunded and was hoping for HomeAway to be able to help regardless of the communication methods, be it via emails. On 18July, the property owner was informed via email by HomeAway to refund my deposit only. To date (19July), the refund of the rental is still in vain. The property owner claimed that she never received the rental monies and HomeAway claimed that only the property owner could initiate the refund. Me (the poor traveler) is still waiting to get my money back. I am yet to receive a reply from HomeAway on the refund status of my payment. This is the worst experience I've ever had on any booking website!
On 19July, HomeAway chat agent, Nica stated that rental payment has been disbursed to property owner so owner can refund my money. Property owner confirmed on 23July, that there are no monies in her account "claimed to be disbursed by HomeAway". I don't seem to get much help from HomeAway here. HomeAway is still holding my rental monies and deposit on a property that was never available!

Dear Sir,
I'd like to raise complain about HomeAway . I booked my holiday in Sardinia . Wile Booking their website didn't work proper jumping from one month to another month. I needed 9-14 of August . It's booked me 9-14 of July. Wile Booking it was clearly written Free Cancelation . At the end after booking only they told me it's not free Cancelation and HimeAway reduces to refund me money. They recommend contact owner . I did contact owner he was extremely aggressive toward me ( I have prove of our correspondencevia WhatsApp) I'm glad we are not staying there he could be very dangerous. When I enquire about Free Cancelation they told me . Ah yes but Free Cancelation is until May but it's doesn't make any sense . Why to confuse clients putting Free Cancelation. It's should be written Read our Cancelation policy. I'm demanding full refund . And I'll never use HomeAway

I was at this property from 6/29-7/6. While the house was a pleasure to stay in, the owner, Sylvie, tried to accuse of things after we left and refuses to give me my refund. We did not use the washing machine and she is saying it was broken by us and that her staff used it the day of to prepare for us. We never even used it. Also, she complained that things weren't put back in its "original" place. We did not know that we had to roll a television back into the bedroom it was in. She complained about the garbage. Unfortunately, most of our entertaining was on the 4th of July, therefore we missed the first date (nothing to put in it anyways) and there was NO collection on the fourth! We had no choice but to leave it. She complained that the house was messy. We put dishes in the dishwasher to clean, and left the rest for the cleaning crew. We did leave dirty towels on the floor, as we would do for collection in a hotel. I believe a cleaning fee is included in the original amount. Why would we pay for a cleaning crew if I was going to clean the house spotless before I left? What kind of vacation would that be? She will provide you photos, that I believe were even doctored and exaggerated in order for not to give me my refund. I am extremely disappointed in this treatment and will never, ever use HOME AWAY again if this is not rectified and my refund is not given back. I am very weary now of how I will be treated after I leave a property. Also, I left her a nice review and she did not leave a nice review for me, which may affect my future abilities anyways. At best, I want my review removed immediately. I am so disappointed! Please respond.

Good morning,

I was at homeway site to buy a trip to Brazil and I decided to buy because it says 100% refundable. I know that for December the properties sell fast so I need to book, then I did, I booked a properly on June 11 for 4790 Brazilian reais and HOMEWAY discounted from my credit card 1, 686.70 Canadian dollars. Next day on June 12, I found a better property and cancelled that one, HOMEWAY gave me back just 1, 590.73 Canadian dollars for the same 4790 Brazilian reais, even though Canadian dollars did not change the rate at all, they took almost $100 from me. On June 12 I found another property for 4, 383 Brazilian Reais and HOMEAWAY charged me 1, 565.81 canadian dolars (wow put dollar low again). On June 24th I found an even better property the way I wanted and I canceled again the previous one that was supposed to be 100% refundable until December and for my surprise the same 4, 383 reais now was worth just 1, 466.89 Canadian dollars (what a joke), then the same day I booked the properly I wanted and they charged me 1, 856.77 Canadian dollars for 5, 227 reais, a totally different rate as the one they just gave me the money back at the same day! If they had used the same rate the 5, 227 brazilian reais would be just 1, 724.91 Canadian dollars! What a rip off ! What a scam and they do not even pay the property owner until December ! I contact customer service and they ignore me, I have all my credit card statements and this is not acceptable, this company still our money, rip us off and lie to us. I have photos if necessary.