Stayz Reviews 

I wouldn't even Rate 1 star.
Booked accommodation, they took deposit, only to be told that its already booked.
Booked second lot of accommodation a day later, they once again took deposit, only to be told 2 days later, the owners are occupying that home on our dates.
Absolutely fk useless!! If its already booked, why let us book it, AND takey bloody money!!!

They take your money then state there's a double booking say they will refund and take fees.

They never have any intention of booking people on the phone are really rude and make it really difficult to speak with anyone.

Still no refund ive lost alot of Money

Tried to do the right thing and booked in Qld. Sadly had to cancel 3 days after paying. Got email to say 3-4 weeks for refund processing. Bunkum! They take instantly and refund at their leisure. This is not a Covid situation - it is unwarranted RUBBISH CUST SERVICE. Will never use them again. AND THERE IS NO ONE TO TELEPHONE - Stayz is a Faceless Business of Faceless Robbing People. Avoid at all cost. Shame I didnt see the other reviews first.

Waiting on my refundable deposit of $500 (for a property of $290/n) with no one to contact. There is no number you can call and there is no way you can do anything else than waiting on their mercy. Contacted the property manager who confirmed that the property was left in an perfect condition which was conveyed to Homeaway the same day. At this terrible time when we all are feeling the financial pressures, there are illegally keeping our money. Will never book with them again.

Booked QLD property for upcoming school holidays. As QLD borders are still closed, we can not travel to QLD. Coastal Holiday Rental have refused to provide a refund, partial refund or credit. The booking was only cancelled due to Covid19 travel restrictions. The Stayz website has a Covid19 policy published that "encourages" the property owners to refund or credit during Covid19. The Coastal Holiday Rental people were rude. No money has been refunded and Stayz have become silent. This whole company is a scam. I encourage all victims to follow up with the small claims tribunals and ACCC.

I have not had my deposit refunded. Stayz mention delay in refunding due to Covid19, but how can a booking made after covid travel restrictions be affected. Very poor. Appears we'll return to overseas travel if this is the way Australian tourism operates. I'm very disappointed.

I booked an advertised property to stay at in 3 weeks time, payment is removed from my bank account and I am then informed some 3 hrs later by the owner that the property is not available and should not have been advertised on Stayz. I contacted Stayz/Homeaway by phone the following morning, requested a refund and was told I needed to cancel the booking and a refund would be processed. I did this, received an email stating a refund has been processed yet the funds have not been released to my bank account. I contacted Stayz/Homeaway number again and spoke to a rep called Iya, explained everything again and requested the Transaction Authorization number for the refund and reason why refund was made so that I can provide this information to my bank to expedite the refund. She said she cannot provide that and that the refund was going to take 4-6 weeks due to Covid???? I asked to speak to a superior and was told none were available and someone would call me back tomorrow! She got narky with me, understandably because her negativity and unwillingness to help had me worked up. Stayz failed to provide a product or service yet still was able to remove funds from my bank account? This is tantamount to a fraudulent transaction . People be aware before booking, through no fault of your own you can make a booking with Stayz in good faith, have funds removed from your bank account and not only not receive what you paid for but have your money withheld for up to 2 months? I need to find another property within 3 weeks and no longer have the funds to do so! Thanks Stayz! Thanks for nothing!

DO NOT use this service. They are awful and do not abide by their own terms of service.

I booked a property located at 939 Cimarron Drive, Penn Hills PA (property #1914235vb owner name Olena Shalimova) to stay from May 30th to June 15th. The property had several issues which Stayz did nothing about when contacted. Below were some of the issues.

1. They have camera’s at this property. When asked if they did before I arrived they said no. They lied. They have camera’s in all the bedrooms, the dining area and kitchen. When I contacted Stayz about this they did nothing.

2. They enter the garage at whim. You have no way to lock the door leading from the garage to the basement. I ended my stay earlier because of this. I am sure they entered the living area when we were not there. I set a trap by the door leading from the basement and they triggered it.

Even though the garage was listed as not for use that did not mean, in my eyes, that they could enter it at their whim. They do not inform you that they will be using it. When I contacted Stayz about it they said only the first level was rented to us so they could enter the basement area. This was not true since we had full access to the basement (the washer/dryer is in the basement) during our stay.

3. The washing machine only worked if you put no more than 4 pieces in it at a time. If you put more, it would flood. Stayz was made aware of this (I felt it was false advertising) and did nothing.

4. The living room furniture consisted of a two seater old, smelly couch and a tv on the wall. No table, no chairs. Because of how bad the couch stunk we did not sit on it so in essence had no functional living area. Stayz did nothing when informed (again I felt this was false advertising).

5. The bathroom tub was filthy when we arrived. There was hair and mould all in the tub which we had to clean. The bathtub had a clog in it so water pooled as you showered (you had to stand in dirty water while showering). We ended up having to take showers at a relative’s houses. Even though Stayz was informed of this while we were there they waited until we had been gone for several days to ask for pictures. They were informed that I had written conversations with the owner regarding this but did not want those as proof.

6. The toilet clogged constantly. The plunger is there for a reason.

7. Bedroom furniture consisted of just a bed in 2 of the bedrooms and a desk in the third with the bunk beds. You had no dressers to put clothes so had to put them on the floor in the closet.

8. The biggest issue in my mind was we were the victims of verbal racist attacks by the owners. Because of my last name I believe they assumed I was white. When they realised we were black they made statements such as “they felt we would damage their property since we were black” and “we had to have been smoking weed in the house because that is what black people do.” Stayz was informed that we were having these racial comments said to us and did nothing.

9. The owner is Russian and have very poor verbal and written English so communication is hard.

Stayz has it set up that if a reservation is canceled you cannot leave feedback on the property. So there is no way to warn potential renters of these issues. Stayz also do not follow their own policy. They protect the Owners not the tenants.

My recommendation is to NOT book a rental through them. I generally use Trip Advisor and have booked with Corporate Accomodations and never had a problem in the 10 years I used them both. This was my first and only time using Stayz. They deserve the one star rating they have. They are obviously hard up for rentals because even when it comes to huge things like camera’s in the dwelling they will NOT go after the Owners.

Do NOT rent 939 Cimarron Drive, Penn Hills. Remember they have camera’s in the bedrooms.

Just reading a few of the reviews and I have had the same experience, paid $4000 for three nights in Byron Bay for April 16th and was unable to go, no refund no credit and they are still holding $2000 security bond. I did contact the department of fair trading in QLD where I live and although they were nice they basically said I was out of the 60 day cancellation period so basically hard luck. Undeterred I contacted the ACCC who have suggested I take the property manager to the small claims tribunal which I am in the process of doing, hope this helps anyone. The worst part is the property manager TOTALLY ignored any phone calls and messages I have sent which is quite disgusting really shouldn’t be in hospitality in my opinion.

DO NOT USES THESE F@CKWITS

This organisation is unresponsive, unprofessional and useless. I have lost so much money due to the global pandemic and I have reached out on MULTIPLE occasions to work out a solution with ZERO response. I have asked for an intervention given my property owner will not respond to any of my queries and they have simply said there is nothing they can do but offer me $150 refund for a property I paid $500 for! They refused to escalate my matter and have advised there is nothing they can do. This organisation is a scam!! Please do yourself a favour and DO NOT BOOK THROUGH THEM

Would like to give zero. Had to cancel booking due to covid 19 pandemic. Property owner was excellent, processed full refund same day I called him 23/3/2020. Still no refund from stayz home away. Contacted stayz home away today 9/4/2020. Told all sorts of rubbish including australian banks issue credit on the day it is paid for. Was paid in full September 2019 and cancelled March 2020. Then told phone back on 13th April, I asked why, told it will be 3 weeks and that is the maximum time. They then told me my refund was supposedly processed by stayz 23/3/2020, so why are they sitting on it. Deliberately sitting on people’s money to earn interest. 100 percent fraudulent. Earning interest on money that does NOT belong to them. ACCC needs to shut this company down. They are liars, cheats and frauds. Will phone ACCC to lodge formal complaint. I will never book a property through stayz home away again. Beware, do not book anything through them.

Would give no stars if it were an option. Booked property in JINDABYNE NSW and paid IN FULL in December 2019, for a trip to occur over Easter, 2020. As soon as government travel ban directive came in, we were in contact with the property manager seeking either a credit for the stay, or a refund. Property manager would not respond to calls, voicemails, messages or emails. When we heard back after weeks of trying to make contact, response was to defer to 'usual cancellation policy' which meant we lost money. We questioned the validity of the usual policy, given the choice not to travel was completely out of our hands and requested either a travel credit or refund. No further response from property manager. Further, the property manager took it on himself to cancel our trip, so we could not get a credit for the stay. We phoned Stayz/HomeAway customer care on two occasions, they are completely useless and cannot do anything to arbitrate, as the decision around cancellation and refunding is completely at the discretion of the property manager or owner. Suffice it to say, we will never use Stayz/HomeAway again and will actively warn EVERYONE of this unethical business. If you would like to donate your hard earned money for no service, use Stayz.

I will never book through stayz again. I booked with coastalholidayrentals they are rude and extremely hard to contact just like stayz itself. I asked the owner of the house for a refund, part refund or change our date further in the year due to the corona virus. I didn’t stay at the house and because I booked a month earlier I Didn’t have to much time to cancel. I have a suppressed immune system and I wasn’t willing to risk infection. The owner refused any refund or put our stay back at another date. Well greed obviously has got the better of the owner and he made a quick $3600. The owner is obviously better off than we are we don’t live in a mansion. No compassion for customers during this pandemic and such an unaustalian act.

I have had a similar experience, booked a house when the national parks closed- we were still allowed to go away at that point and be in groups of 100. Have since tried to cancel, not offered a full refund, partial refund or credit or transfer the dates to some point in the future when no one has any idea of how long this will go on. Very irresponsible. Numerous contacts to Stayz, no response. The owner refusing to give full refund. I have put in a complaint to Consumer Affairs.
The owners unwilling to provide full refund- suggested we could come anyways, we can’t- it’s against the law right now or offered a credit six months into the future- which is pointless, who knows if anyone will have a job or money to go anywhere then.

I also would like to rate them a Zero but am unable to do so. I will never book through Stayz again! Impossible to contact them. The owner of the property we booked with in Perth was brilliant and a delight to deal with. Due to Coronovirus, we were forced to cancel our trip. She immediately refunded all of our money however Stayz has kept their fees which when I found out how much was awfully high.

Stayz is rubbish! Stay away.

Wish I could have given 0 stars. Horrendous customer service, hidden charges and huge fees charged. 8 weeks later and they have refused to refund our $700 damage deposit, instead telling us to sort it out with the owner. The owner has kindly offered to EFT, but neither of us could get anywhere with Stayz or Home Away by phone or email. Book with Agoda or Airbnb, Stayz / Home Away are just not worth the hassle.

I was searching Stayz Bali and noticed that many properties had photos that were badly photo-shopped. I contacted Stayz but no reply. Be very careful about any photos or information on this site.

STAYZ has become a totally fraudulent business.
This company set everything up to avoid direct responsibility/accountability for incorrect invoices and openly misleading information.
ACCC is where we should all complain to stop STAYS ripping off other people!

Stayz advised us when we had issues that they are only a marketing platform. They do not have any level of responsibility for operating standards, customer service, accomodation standards or any form of accountability. We had a bad experience and I should have searched the reviews first as all are pretty terrible and we can confirm there are far better options out there. We recommend avoiding them completely.

Located a property on Stayz and proceeded to book. Received email from Stayz confirming my booking and providing bank details to transfer money to (over $2.5k for the stay). Received an email from Stayz confirming the money had been received.
Was unable to further communicate with property "owner". Stayz confirmed was a scam but REFUSE to refund my money saying I didn't book through them despite my proof?????? THEY ARE BIGGER FRAUDS THAN THE SCAMMERS!!