ConsumersAdvocate.org
18 Customer Reviews - see all comments
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HomeAway, a subsidiary of Expedia offers travellers access to millions of vacation rentals across the globe. It currently maintains dozens of location-based websites each giving information on available vacation rental properties in the area.
Services and Features
HomeAway is an online search portal for travel accommodations and vacation rentals. It makes it easy for travellers to find a suitable vacation rental that matches their needs. HomeAway allows travellers to contact potential hosts, confirm travel dates, and book securely online. Instead of staying at a typical hotel room, HomeAway connects travellers with local homes for a more authentic travel experience. This also allows them to enjoy more room space for the same costs of a hotel room.
Payments are handled by HomeAway using a secure online payment system. It gives travellers access to multiple types of vacation rentals like exotic villas, apartments, and traditional homes.
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Accommodation |
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Single Family Style Home |
✔ |
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Condominium |
✔ |
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Town Home |
✔ |
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Cottage |
✔ |
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Villa |
✔ |
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Apartment |
✔ |
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Website Features |
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Instant Booking |
✔ |
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Loyalty Programs |
✗ |
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Social Media Integration |
✔ |
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Visual Calendar |
✔ |
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Currency Setting |
✔ |
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Language Setting |
✔ |
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Client Information Management |
✔ |
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Mobile App |
✔ |
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Search Filters |
✔ |
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Predictive Search |
✔ |
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Favourite List |
✔ |
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Property Galleries |
✔ |
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Google Map Integration |
✔ |
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Simple Checkout |
✔ |
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Website Fees |
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Guest Fees |
5-12% of the booking total |
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Host Fees |
Pay-per-booking subscriptions will pay a percentage starting from 8% on each reservation total (depending on listing plan) |
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Listing Fees |
Annual subscription starting at $399 for year-long rentals |
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Payment Options |
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Credit Card |
✔ |
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PayPal |
✔ |
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Mastercard |
✔ |
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Amex |
✔ |
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Visa |
✔ |
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In-Person |
✗ |
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Support |
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FAQs |
✔ |
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Community Forum |
✔ |
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Knowledge Center |
✔ |
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Customer Reviews |
✔ |
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Phone |
✔ |
Vacation Rentals at HomeAway
HomeAway offers travellers a wide variety of vacation rental properties that include villas, condos, farm houses and even castles to choose from. It makes does not only make it easy for travellers to find accommodation but also make bookings online. It offers travellers an alternative to hotel rooms, by letting them stay in homes and similar properties to enjoy a more local vacation experience.
- Enjoy more living space
- Pet friendly vacation rentals offered
- HomeAway Carefree Rental Guarantee
- HomeAway mobile app available
- Book with Confidence Guarantee
- Fast and secure online booking
Latest HomeAway Reviews
The Good: Neighborhood appeared safe with nice neighbors. The basic unit met our need for the 25 days for which we paid and the 23 days we occupied. Once we found the unit and actually moved in, the hosts were very accessible and responsive. For that feature I will give them a Plus. The Bad: No cable TV!! 3 TV's in the unit and all required us to learn streaming, enter credit and profile information and numerous unpleasant surprises to which I am still having to deal with Amazon Prime a month later. Floors were very dirty. I like to walk barefoot in the house. Every time I got into the shower my footprint was black. It was SOOO bad we bought a mop and triple mopped the floors. That... Read More
How can there be 5 Stars when the reviews are horrific! So glad I Investigation further, save me a lot of greif.
I am very disappointed in HomeAway. Their customer service is awful. I made a reservation in May, paid a service fee and trip cancellation fee. Received confirmation reservation was made. Attempted several attempts to contact the property owner, never received a response. When I went to the site the day before we were supposed to leave, I found out the I found a notation property not available. No one ever notified me and I had to make alternative last-minute arrangements. i contacted HomeAway by phone twice requesting that the service fee and cancellation fee be refunded. The first woman who I spoke to said she would contact Myrtle Beach Vacation Rentals Inc. the property... Read More
Tried to book a condo in Florida 5 times..received error message each time stating system could not process...thus the 5 times. Yet, they billed me 5 separate bills on American Express. Three different representatives said they would fix it. DId not happen. Asked to speak to a supervisor and was put on hold so long I became frustrated and hung up. You can't speak to anyone who speaks fluent, clear English.
Their reviews are horrible and I understand why. NO..Customer Service. Horrible and I will never ever book through them again.
I will never use home away again! I was charged 853.00 even though I cancelled the reservation 10 minutes after my husband called. My husband called to book a reservation for 2/14/2020 for Valentine's day back in January 2020. He is not very technology savvy and in error he booked 3/14, I called within 10 minutes and cancelled the 3/14 reservation and tried to book for 2/14 and the property was not available. So I cancelled it completely. I got a cancellation email stating I would receive a refund on my original form of payment, yet they charged my AMEX anyway. I disputed it on my AMEX and HomeAway stated they had a no refund policy. I called HomeAway/Expedia and was told they didn't... Read More
On March 6th, I spoke with an owner about a rental checking in on March 15th. I told Allison of Homeaway Property ID 957784 that I was concerned about the Coronavirus but thought we could drive the 6 hours from our home for a short spring break trip. Between the 6th and 15th, the President declared a National Emergency. Our city grocery stores were wiped clean, restaurants closed down and gas stations were out of gas. We could not get to the rental through no fault of our own. The owner refused to refund my money, said VRBO did not allow it, then VRBO/Homeaway would not let me leave a review to warn others "because we did not stay at the property" The owner ceased all communications with... Read More
I booked a vacation rental for Nov 2020 in January, 2020. I was immediately charged the entire rental fee, plus the entire damage deposit. Seriously! I requested a complete refund because there is no way that you should have taken the entire payment plus damage deposit and be able to hold onto it for 10 months.
The amount refunded was not the amount that I paid. I cannot believe that you processed the refund with the US exchange rate of that day. That is not what paid and when you say an 100% refund, that should be the EXACT amount that was paid.
HORRIBLE- Bait and Switch for rates on 2 separate reservations!!! DO NOT BOOK WITH HOMEAWAY. We booked two reservations within 4 days and both said they needed higher rates or they would cancel. HORRIBLE way to conduct business, especially being a Lifetime Titanium member with Marriott, I am used to book accommodations that are not just cancelled out from under you! BAD BUSINESS!!!!
Addresses are 1482 Empire Ave and 1415 Lowell Ave- both in Park City
I am an owner who rents my place out. They took back the $150 damage deposit on a rental, which they do on all rentals. However, for particular rental, they took out another $150 to make it to where my payout was very small. I never initiated an additional $150 "adjustment" to the customer/tenant. I got on customer service and they pretty much called me a liar and would not do a single thing about it. I never initiated another $150 refund. They were completely terrible to me.
The property itself was lovely, with a few minor issues. The smoke alarm kept beeping throughout the stay, and the door handle/lock to the balcony was broken--something that the property was aware of, as the host told me about it when I checked in. It was not only inconvenient but also left me feeling less secure as the door would frequently open either during the night or when I came home. But the biggest reason I cannot recommend this property is the rather less than smooth experience with the property management of HomeAway. I had requested to arrive at the property 1 hour before check-in, but apparently my request was never communicated to the person meeting me, which resulted in me... Read More
Horrible customer service! The website allowed me to select a condo that was not available. Website allowed me to add credit card but reservation was not confirmed . The next day I called to validate if the reservation was confirmed and double checked to make sure I would not be charged. It was validated that no reservation nor charge would occur. I booked another condo (and received a confirmation). Two days later, my bank account was debited for both condos. After 3 hours on the phone, homeaway can not refund the deposit on the unconfirmed condo because there is no confirmation number!!! And if they do refund the deposit for my ghost condo it will take 14 days!!!! They charged me... Read More
I paid a full month rent for a condo has been rented already because of the owner's and VRBO's mistake, couldn't stay in the property, ruined my vacation and still trying to get my money back!! Horrible company and call - customer service. DON't USE VRBO OR HOME AWAY!!!
I would leave zero stars is I could! 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.... Read More
I am an owner. HomeAway uses Yapstone for payments. Yapstone doesn't pay. First I was told my listing was deactivated (I pay HA $500 a year to keep it active so this smelled of fraud).then that "underwriters" were reviewing it (I would of thought my $500 got me past this step). In the end after numerous disagreeable calls and many minutes on hold the money came through--four weeks late. I thought what I would do if the same happened for the guests second, much larger, payment and cancelled the reservation. I told the guest why and have answered inquiries since with the same story.
I own 10+ vacation rentals within CA and manage a few more for friends and family. We built some software in house to automate the cleaning and check-in process. I initially started marketing my rentals on airbnb and have had a lot of success at 50+% occupancy. So having used VRBO/Homeaway as a user, I decided to see if we could also list on that website. Wow, if there is one thing for certain by going through the process, it's the demise/end of Homeaway and VRBO. It appears you have to use their payment provider (YapStone) but they require you to notarize a document before you can get each listing online. NOTARIZE! Even lawyers are moving away from that and you have a company who is... Read More
Left impossible company to work with. Non-aligned to owner interests at all. Corporate spin merchants
ave rented through HomeAway several times and not had any particular problems other than their increasing fees are not in line with the services they provide. Recently however I had a problem collecting my damage deposit back and Homeaway provided no help whatever in backing me up to get the deposit back. They basically told me it was my problem since I did not transfer the money through their system, the reason being this particular owner choses not to participate in that aspect of Homeaway and has his own contract. Unfortunately, Homeaway allows owners to use their own contracts and receive money independently. Renters who want to book those properties have no other option but to... Read More
The most useless, dishonest company operating in the travel industry. They ask you to pay for the holiday then they send what is called a prior authorisation to your bank to ask them to hold funds which can be the full amount of the holiday. To get funds released Homeaway need to send an authorisation to the bank. I could not get them to do this - totally incompetent. They sent the incorrect information, then didn't send anything at all. Two weeks later I am out of pocket for double the amount of the trip. DO NOT USE HOMEAWAY FOR ANY BOOKINGS.