HomeAway
Reviews and Complaints

I received a message from a prospective guest yesterday about a sickness in their family which meant they couldn't keep their reservation. I replied with my condolences. Later on in the eve ing I received a refund request. I was trying to give a partial refund as per the rental agreement but I find you systems challenging and your website is difficult to navigate. I was being watched by my sons girlfriend as I was unsure what to do and she too thought I'd done it properly. I then received four emails from you stating that I'd refunded in total. I phoned your customer helpline twice. The first time I was told there was nothing they could do to help. I asked to speak to the manager. This request was refused. I phoned again and explained again what had happened and was told that I could not even submit a complaint over the phone and my only recourse was to message the guest myself. I did this but I'm not expecting any joy.My property number is 8155502. I am in the United Kingdom. I have been a good customer of yours for 2 years. Your fees are not cheap. I was expecting a better service from you. I am feeling very aggrieved.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Best wishes Virginia Sheldrake

We booked an 3 bed townhouse through you guys and on the website it said that it slept 5 persons. We booked it for 14 days starting last Sunday July 8th. We were just looking at the bill and we were charged $784 in additional guests fee. It's my wife and I as well as our 3 children. That is 5 and my 2year old twins sleep in the same bed. I would like to know why I was charged that amount and have it refunded. We've already been double booked here so now we have to find new accommodation and pay extra cleaning fees on top of the one's we paid here. HA6Y6TVX is on reservation number 4714238 is the property ID. I booked this place because it was close to the job I'm at for these two weeks and now its costing more then our budget originally was. Thanks

Owner: Maria Leonor Carneiro, Lisbon, Portugal

Good evening,

I rented my apartment in Lisbon yesterday and received a very umpkeasant complaint from the guests, saying that they have compkained about my apartment not being as advertised.

Their wifi isnt working. it happens that mine is working and so it is one of the guests. Thei say I havent specifications for outside europe. Ive had clients from the us who didnt complaint and contacted the operator, everything is working so it must be their specifications, otherwise one of their phones woldnt be working either.

They say one bed is too small. Both single beds are exactly the same size, wich is standard. You just have to oull the bed out.

Theysay it is too nousy. I must agree there is some noise from the neighbours upstairs, childrem, in the corridor, but the hose is an old historical building ashappensoften in europe.

They say there isnt enoufh space in the cupboards. I leave in the house and my clothes are there, but i made some space. For 5 nights, i made up half acupboard availabe in each room for hanging clothes. could come to the house and make more space available, if needed.

I am very upset, i am an honest person and being accused of not having wifi and a small bed. These 2 items are not true. Regarding the wifi you are welcome to contact the operator which is NOS, Give them my number and ask them to clarify it for you. Also, they have a recording of my call, yesterday.

Hope yoy willbe able to help

Best regards

Phone 09351 [protected]

I have advertised with Owners Direct for 12 years and then it was taken over by HomeAway, what was a brilliant company loved by owners and holidaymakers alike has been turned into a total disaster, potential holidaymakers won't book as they feel the service fee is unjustified or just hate the site as it is too complicated. I decided to remove completely two of my villas but wanted the other three to be made into separate advertisements to see if things improved - the customer service was negative and unhelpful, so much so that I have now removed all my advertising and will place it with another company - wise up HomeAway or are you just to large to care? Look at how Owners Direct operated and make some changes back to how the public want their site to operate - in Lanzarote owners and management teams have now set up their own website which is becoming more powerful every day and I am sure it is happening in other countries, perhaps when your profits start to slide you will give people what they actualy need rather than what you think they need

I am a first time user of Homeaway. I was quoted a price and paid in good faith but was charged a higher amount on my credit card. When you proceed to make payment the amount quoted is confirmed on the screen - so everything was in order.

I queried the higher fee amount with Homeaway. They said they had excluded part of their fee relating to taxes. I have sent 4 emails to which they have responded to 1. Homeaway needs to be clear on their fee which they are on-charging to the customers AND this must be disclosed as part of the quoted price!

Called to book a cabin for 2 nights was gave a quote of 219.00 well when I checked my bank account they had took 490.00 dollars out of my account. And can't you talk to someone who talks english? And if you do they have such a forigen accent you can't understand them and they act offended if you tell them you can't under stand them they just talk faster it is impossible to talk to someone that is not foreign. If this was the other way around it would be called descrimanating.

HA-GSBLT2
is the reservation number

Halya Kowalsky
6c Crescent Rd N8 8AT

the incident concerns the 19 June settlement to my account
I received £620.12 instead of the quoted £639.29 (and I assume paid for by the renter, should I ask him?). Why is there a discrepancy? Will this happen every time? I will keep an eye out to see whether this is regularly happening.

I object to the fact that i am paid after the renter has entered my property. Instead of before.

I also object to the service charge that they are forced to pay, for nothing! we already pay quite alot of money to place our ad, will that sum be reduced now?

Hello, I am the property owner, I opened this case last week because I found out that somebody is using my structure name and my pictures for a fake listing. They opened the case and then just disappered, they are not answering my emails and the fake property is still there, obviously damaging my business. Is it possible to have an update? Is this the way you treat your customers and manage possible frauds?
Beatrice Panichi

Below are the email details from me and the property owners.

June 11, 8:07am, they reached out to me asking if I had rented anything yet.

June 11, 4:21pm I responded with we have not, are you willing to come down on cost.

June 12, 7:08am they respond to cost of $1700.

June 12 7:19am, I ask if all fees and taxes are included in that cost

June 12, 7:35am they respond it will only be $1700.

June 12, 8:01am, I respond with we will stay from June 22 and check out on July 1, the cost being $1700, how do I sign up.

June 12, 8:08am they respond with make through Homeaway for the dates 6/22 - 7/01 and they would charge $1700.

June 12, 8:24 am I respond with I would do that.

June 12, 12:04 I respond with did you get it, I did it on my phone and wanted to make sure they received it.

June 12 12:09, they respond, not yet but it could take a few minutes.

June 12, 12:13pm they responded asking if I got a confirmation.

June 12, 4:06pm I responded I had not yet.

June 12, 4:09pm I ask if I should redo it.

June 12, 4:17pm they responded to redo the reservation

June 12 4:27pm, I respond saying this is not the correct dates.

June 12, 4:31 I respond with it will let me change the dates, but the cost is not correct.

June 12, 4:34pm, they respond and told me to change the dates to JUNE 22 to July 1

June 12, 4:42pm, they responded with Homeaway will have the wrong cost but they will change it to $1700.

June 12, 5:19 I respond, I am confused the other person just told me to wait (over the phone) I am getting worried.

June 12, 5:21pm, they respond with "accommodations available

From 6/22/18 to 7/1/18".

June 12 5:23pm I respond with "they will adjust once I register? This link does not reflex $1700."

June 12, 5:25pm, they respond with "accommodations available

From 6/22/18 to 7/1/18". And "total with taxes and fees, YOUR REDUCED PRICE $1700 a $ 1459.95 saving."

June 12, 5:27pm they respond check y email, it reflects the correct amount.

June 12, 5:27pm I respond the link is asking for 3000 and does not show 1700, can you please let me know what to do.

June 12, 5:30pm I respond this link shows cost 1978 how do I correct and pay.

June 12, 5:34pm they respond they see 1700 on there end.

June 12, 5:38 I send what I see on my end.

June 12, 6pm ish- THEN SHE CALLS ME, ask me to pay over the phone because HOMEAWAY is not working. I gave my credit card number over the phone.

June 12, 6:45 they send email confirming the dates and total! Charged to my credit card.

June 12, 6:46 I sent email confirming address.

June 12, 6:47 confirming address.

June 12, 4 other email about renting bikes, and what they have at the home for the beach.

June 12, 8:05pm they send email confirming my booking, telling me to fill out and sign the lease agreement.

June 12, 8:16 I respond will all guest name and ages, per there request and inform them they did not attach the lease agreement and to send to me.

June 13, 6:56am sent email for confirming my booking and wanting to sell me insurance.

June 13, 8:01 they send email I have not booked my rental.

June 13, 9:18am confirming my rental and wanting to sell me pool heater.

THEN 2 PHONE callS WITH THEM. One told me they could no longer rent to me, they have other renters. I asked to speak with manager he called informing me it was my fault, threaten to keep my money 2 times. He refused to accept responsibility at all.

June 13, 10:50am I sent the following " This is not on me and you know it. My email clearly stated and your email clearly stated June 22 to July 1 for $1700.
You are doing very bad business and lied you agreed to a price and now not honoring it because you got a renter to pay more.
You should be ashamed of yourself for blaming me. I will be sending your email and text on.
This is crazy..."

June 13 12:42pm I sent the following with attaches sent to I have attended several documents.
You owe me apology and a rental.
For What you have caused me this should be free of charge!
Any rebuttal company would honor there word and make up for wrong doings.
You have done me wrong and treated me badly.
You have caused me undue to stress and lied about me.
I have attached the proof of you agreed for and charged me for June 22 to July 1 for $1700.
I do expect for you to make this right.
Thank you

June 13, they respond with the following
Hi Cheryl,

As you can clearly see by your messages with our on call person after hours, there was a massive amount of confusion on both parts, as we explained to you your inquiry was only for 3 nights.

The person called our manager and our manager confirmed the price was for 3 nights. You are clearly not seeing the confusion. Nobody is blaming anyone, I am simply stating that it was confusion on both sides as your inquiry was for 3 nights. I am not going to fight with your or continue down this path. We did not have a signed agreement, and we refunded your money and cancelled this reservation.

We have given you our answer and were willing to work with you on the phone to try to come up with a fair price for the longer stay, but you were not willing to listen and were verbally abusive to our staff. Therefore, all communication is done on our part. Your money was refunded and should be returned in 3 to 5 business days. We do not wish to do business with you further. Take care.

The Team @
Naples Florida Vacation Homes, LLC
2805 Horseshoe Drive S, Unit #10
Naples, FL 34104
[protected]

Where do I even begin? My experience was so terrible that even though I liked this place better than one I found on Airbnb, we decided after this to book the Airbnb one because we did not trust VRBO.

1) For no reason I could figure out, the reservation wouldn't book (it kept saying that it didn't go through and to try again later in a few minutes) - I actually suspect this is a website logic problem as when I checked my email, saw that there was a request to confirm my email address (which makes no sense as in the mind of the user, I'm already registered using my FB account). And this could have even be more clearly messaged on the site.

2) I called VRBO booking to try to reserve that way (since our trip is only a couple weeks away and our previous plan to stay with family had fallen through due to a funeral), and was put on hold for 15 minutes, upon which it sent me back to the main menu to select again.

3) When I checked my credit card to see if it was an issue with my balance limit, I discovered that VRBO had charged my credit card 6 times for $117 each - totalling in over $700!

4) Now I called Customer Service. I was connected with someone sooner, but the service rep continually tried to convince me that the rental property manager would need 24 hours to confirm one of the 6 apparent reservations I had made (which was his explanation for the charges) and then the other charges would disappear. I told him repeatedly that this was an Instant Book rental and he kept repeating the above, even patronizingly suggesting that "the manager is probably sleeping" (it was late at night) and that was why the property wasn't confirmed.

5) Finally, he went back and checked and found that there was NO reservation, and that the charges "didn't exist" and wouldn't go through.

6) He said the money would be refunded within a few days (so if I had taken his original advice, the charges would have gone through!).

7) Then when I asked for the rental to be booked, he said he would transfer me to the Booking department. When I told him how it had dropped me before and that I wanted him to book it for me now, he said he couldn't because he had no authorization to do so.

8) I demanded to speak to a supervisor, which took a long time, and was in fact even ruder to me, and said some things under his breath before he realized better and swallowed his words.

I plan on contesting the charges with my credit card company and also contacting the host to let them know that if they move to Airbnb, I would switch to their property. We'll never use VRBO again.

Date: June 4, 2018
Client info: Silvio Spicacci Minervini. Cell 39.339.7922813. silviosholidayhomes.com
Desirable Resolution: Owner to return our refund for Rome, Italy booking. Owner changed the unit from a two bdrm/two bath/up to 7 guests to a one bdrm/2 guests.
History: In 2016 we booked a 1bdrm/2 people (359819). My husband developed a blood clot and was prevented from travelling so we had to cancel our booking. Silvio said he would hold our deposit if we were to visit Italy in the future.
1) Mar 31, 2017 - note sent to Silvio that we are returning and would like to book a unit Oct 15-22, 2018. Silvio informs us the 1bdrm is being sold; would we like a 2bdrm/2bath/up to 7 guests unit (362568). We ask for pricing.
2) Apr 17, 2017 - Silvio responds stating the total of 362568 is 1628 euro minus our deposit 487 euro. We accept the booking. (We have a soft copy of this but I cannot figure out how to attach it to this complaint. We also have a copy of the original unit description of 2bd/2bath/up to 7 guests.)
3) Apr 29, 2018 - a year later Silvio let us know the 1bdrm was not sold, did we want it. We declined, said we would keep the two bedroom unit. (The reason we wanted to keep the two bedroom is because my husband has relatives in Campobosso and we thought we would invite them to Rome to spend a night or two with us.)
4) May 31, 2018 - note sent to Silvio letting him know our son would come with us
5) June 4, 2018 - Silvio informs us there is a change in the tourist law and his two bedroom is now a one bedroom and only two can stay. I explained we were paying for a two bedroom and if he changed the agreement we wanted our deposit back. We would look for another two bedroom. Regardless whether our son came or not we had an agreement for a two bedroom unit.
6) June 4, 2018 - this was our last correspondence. Silvio will not return the deposit and says he will no longer correspond.

My husband and I live in a small town (Grimsby, Ontario) near Niagara Falls Canada.
Our email is [protected]@live.com

I made a reservation by phone because I couldn't submitted online. The home requested a full payment because it's for June 2018. I made it for my boss and another person, they are going to provide a workshop in Miami for 3 days. My dilemma is that I never received an email providing me with the home information, such as directions, dates, payments, etc...
I called Homeway 3 times and the 3 times they told me they were going to send it, they never did, the 3rd time I spoke to someone that assured me that the owner was the one to be sending me an email. This person gave me the phone number for the owner and they also didn't send me any email with the information. I received an email from the owner 2 days ago asking me if this was my email, I said yes - and never heard back. I'm very upset because I paid $623 and don't have any information about the rental. I already purchased flights for them, rented a car, and this is not my credit card, I'm responsible for providing my boss all the information she need, and yet, after payment, I still can't get no one to help. This is not professional at all. Reservation #HA-ZPHPLQ. Can someone help?

I filed a complaint never received any feedback for case ID [protected]. The property I rented was filthy and infested. I have followed up with trust and security no one has contacted me back. When at the vacation rental I asked for the owner to contact me and they never did. They will not refund me for inconvenience. The property was nothing like they had on the website

Please see Home and away case number [protected]

I am trying to pay my final balance. The balance given to me is for 5 nights not 3 nights.
I am not paying that and need it amending.
You can't amend it only the property owner can.
I have contacted you 3 times and this matter is still not resolved.
I fly out to Ibiza on 26/05/2018 with my family still not knowing if the property is going to be there as I have can not pay my final balance. The property owner suggested I pay the larger amount and he will refund me. I am not prepared to do that as that would be madness.
Your operator stated that this would be resolved in 24 hours i rang back and it is still not. She stated that the property owner has not replied. When will I know ?
What if he hasn't replied before my departure date I will have no where to stay.

If there is s problem I need to know now so that I can try and book some different accommodation.

Quite frankly I am appalled at the level of customer service and I will never book with Home and away again.

This is my holiday for my family that we should be looking forward to not having all of this uncertainty and not even knowing if our accommodation is there or not.

Please sort this out. !

I have been waiting for one month to receive funds totalling $7, 114.12
for the following 2 reservations:
HA #4654513 - ResID: HA-CLNV7D for Ray Pawlikowski April 14th-18th
HA #4792336 - ResID: HA-CFGG8C for Candice DeMaere April 13th-17th
Twice the money was sent by wire and was returned due to not following
the Belize wire instructions.
I am told that it is going to take another 6 weeks for the funds to arrive
in my account in Belize. I asked for the money be uploaded to my Payoneer
Card since this is how all my payments are made but I was told NO. I also
asked that the funds be sent to a Bank of America account to speed up the
process and I was told NO. I am being charged for late fee for April & May because
the money is delayed from Homeaway. I have been on the phone to Homeaway
and Payoneer for 2 wks trying to resolve this issue to no avail. Please advise how this can be resolved so I don't lose my business in Belize due to lack of payment.

I have my home listed with HomeAway (HA) and up until recently I have had a very positive experience. My HA listing is HA 4805273.

On Feb 13, 2018 a renter named Elie Hajali (HA-QDJ1HH) booked my home for 7 nights. They paid in full through the website at the time of the booking. The HA website shows that the payment would be disbursed to me on April 19, 2018 and that I should allow 5-7 days for the money to show up in my account.

I still haven't been paid!

I've called customer support several times that have gotten me no where. I get the feeling that customer support tells me what they need to so that I will hang up.

During the first customer service call I was told by the HA Payment team that they have no record of a refund for this reservation so I would need to call Yapstone because it is a payment related issue. I called Yapstone and they said that they received an electronic order from HomeAway on Feb 14th, 2018 instructing them to refund the full amount to the renter. They explained that when they received the electronic instructions that the refund is an electronic, not manual, event.

The renter did not cancel or request a refund. They showed up on April 18 and had a great stay for 7 nights. They wrote a 5 start review.

During one of the subsequent calls to HomeAway, customer support representative (Danny) told me that his HA records do not indicate that there was an order given for a refund. During this call Danny called Yapstone and we had a 3-way conversation. Yapstone told Danny and I the same thing they told me previously. They said they received an electronic communications from HA on Feb 14th instructing them to refund all of the renter's money. Danny said that HA had no record of the refund for this reservation. Yapstone recommended that Danny open a HA technical support case to investigate. Danny gave me a technical support case # [protected]. He said that the tech support team would contact me withing 24 hours.

I never received the call from HA Tech Support or anybody else.

After waiting the 24 hours I called HA Customer Support again and I reached a person named Louis. I explained everything and Louis confirmed everything. He saw that there is no refund on HA records for this reservation. Louis empathized with me and told me he would get to the bottom of it. He told me he was going to escalate this issue to the next higher level of support. He put me on hold for several minutes then he came back on the phone and told me that he had escalated to a higher level of support. I asked him explicitly when I would receive a call back. He said before close of business that day (May 1st) he would hear back from the escalation person then call me with the plan to remedy the situation.

I never received the call from Louis or anybody else.

Again, I feel like they say what they need to say to get me to hang up.

I contacted the renter and asked them if they received a refund. The man said he would check. Later he contacted me and said his records do not show a refund. I have no way to confirm or dispute this. I do see on the HA website that they have booked at properties at least 5 other times. There is nothing negative about them on the website.

At this point I didn't know what else to do other than register this complaint. I feel that I provided the home and the renter stayed. Every HA customer service person that I spoke with said that they have no record of a refund. Yapstone consistently says they issued a refund in response to an electronic order from HA. The renter says he didn't receive a refund.

At this point what am I supposed to do? HA won't look into this and resolve it and Yapstone says it's not their issue.

In my opinion, there is a problem between HA and Yapstone. Regardless of whether this was a human error or an electronic glitch. The right thing to do is to pay me and work this out among yourselves.

Please contact me with information about a genuine effort to resolve this. If this complaint does not result in my getting paid then the only other option I have is a lawyer. If it comes to that then the only person that will get paid is the lawyer.

Patrick White
[protected]@gmail.com
[protected]

This property listing is NOT a rental. It is within a private community, governed by covenants that do NOT permit renting. This party was denied a permit recently by the Rusk Co zoning board. It has been removed from VRBO... please remove it from your site. Legal action will be takwn against the owners if they rent without permission. Please help us keep our community as it is meant to be.

I canceled a reservation with hours of making it. Per the guarantee of Homeaway, I would get my $341 "service fee" refunded. On April 19, 2018 I was told by a representative to allow another 5-7 business days to for the credit. Never happened. Today, April 28th, 2018, I have not had a credit and was told it was never processed. Really? What a rip off and a waste of time. I am being charged interest with this charge on my card. I am so unhappy with Homeaway and I will never use them again. I write this as I am still on hold! No resolution and we conveniently got disconnected.

I have done business with HomeAway for several years now and have had an ok experience with their customer service but today I had the worst experience ever with customer service anywhere and I encourage any homeowner to beware when they sign up with HomeAway.
In short our condo was sold and the new owner opened his own HomeAway account but HomeAway just took money out of my account called a "Recapture Fee" . This is due to someone cancelling their reservation. Instead of taking the money out of the new owners account, they took it out of ours. I called and was told that my information for that listing was no longer valid. Well duh! The new owner has all of this information now. His email, his phone number and his secret word. I tried explaining my situation with the lady ( I am refraining from putting her name out here) since it didn't fall into their process driven service drill and she said she couldn't talk to me about it. I tried again very gently telling her that this situation was outside the box and I needed her to help by listening seeing what she could do to help me. She just kept repeating herself saying she couldn't help me and got really nasty with me. I mean really... if you can't handle it get someone who can. That is all customers want. Someone to think outside the box and help them resolve their issue. Well long story short I asked to speak to a manager and she would not let me saying she needed more information. I don't know what else I could have given her but then she got really nasty again. I asked again to speak to a manager and she would not give me that opportunity to speak with someone else to resolve my issue. I hung up and called back and talked to someone who said that managers don't work on weekends. Go figure. I asked that when the managers do come back to work could one of them call me. Believe me I will not be holding my breathe. Beware, HomeAway's customer service is horrible. Oh and I couldn't find any where on their website to email anyone about this. All they have is their canned questions that people can ask about.

Dear Sir, Madam

Subject: request a refund

I made a booking through Homeaway website for flat in Paris. Details as follows:
Property #1224952
Reservation ID HA-Y2M4YP
Dates May 23-
27, 2018, 4 nights
Guests 2 adults, 0 children
Owner name Tchertovskikh Alexandre

I asked the owner whether it is possible to cancel the booking and whether I will be fully refunded.

He just cancelled the booking and was partially refunded. I do not know why he did not inform me beforehand that I will be partially refunded and not fully refunded. That is, I was refunded around EUR60 less and I was not informed beforehand that I will not be fully refunded.

Can you assist please?

You may contact me on [protected]@go.net.mt

Thank you for your kind assistance.

Regards
Maria