HomeAway United Kingdom 

Like so many people, we have been affected by Covid this year. We booked a villa in Florida with HomeAway and VRBO back in February 2020. Due to Covid, our holiday was correctly cancelled, first by the airline. Despite being told by VRBO, in writing in an email, we could have a full refund, minus a booking fee of about $80, they then decided it wasn't their policy to refund and have, in my opinion stollen $1,000. They have failed to provide the service I paid for. I appreciate it isn't there fault, but having been told by them I would get a refund, to then change direction is just not acceptable. Now, if you take a look at their accounts, it all starts to make sense! Their accounts (published on the UK Companies House Website) shows HomeAway is in trouble. Millions of pounds in dept to be accurate. HomeAway has been 'taken over' by VRBO. VRBO don't seem to publish their accounts. VRBO themselves is part of Expedia. Expedia, registered in the US, also seem to be in trouble - their accounts (published on the US site 'SEC dot gov') shows a massive loss. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY MONEY. YOU WON'T SEE IT AGAIN! Of course, this is only my opinion.

Update: I’ve now managed to get a full refund for the villa deposit, from the villa directly, but HomeAway/Vacassa/Expedia have still refused to pay up and still owe me $518.

I’ve emailed as requested and received a case ID - M-30124475. I will update this post with more updates!

Update 2:
Sergio - your response is clearly designed to deflect me and readers from your obligations. I neither mentioned property owners or believe the property owner kept my money. I had received an email confirmation from your company that I would receive a full refund, minus the booking fee of $79.99. Clearly this was just a lie. Please do not attempt to patronize me, or cover for your company’s deceit.

Update 3!
Really! OMG! So, sent an email with my booking ref, date and email address used so my original booking could be found ... received an email back (not automated) saying ‘sorry, we can’t help as we need your booking ref, date and email address’. You have got to be kidding right? Please ... someone ... anyone ...

Although HomeAway/Vrbo strongly encourages property owners and managers to issue at least a partial refund on cancellations due to Covid, a lady-houseowner in Callao Salvaje in Tenerife simply ignores this advice and sticks to her “non refunding poilicy”.
But is grows worse. Just a few days before the second payment she writes - quote - if there is a problem in October this year then yes I will transfer your booking to 2021- unquote. Having read this, we made the second payment. But after receiving the money she informes us that she can change the date of arrival in 2021, but the rent has to be paid again.
In a chat with HomeAway/Vrbo Online Support the employe writes: (translated from Dutch): “Yes, in fact it is misleading, because we encourages the property owner to offer flexibility whe someone has to cancel due to Covid 19”
The property owner still refuses to move and HomeAway/Vrbo promises “to escalate the matter”. Unfortunately the involvement of Home Away/Vrbo ended here and it remained silent.
HomeAway/Vrbo protects the way of acting of their property owners and leaves the client empty handed with the financial damage.
There is no alternative than to take legal action against the property owner. We wil do so.

After publishing the above review the customer support center of HomeAway/Vrbo and the propertyowner of Villa Palomar in Callao Salvaje on Tenerife arranged a satisfacory solution; so eventually our problem is solved.

Having booked with HomeAway, the owner/manager asked that we email him direct for any questions etc. which I did on several occasions. All of those emails have subsequently disappeared, so I have no trace of these conversations now. Then I was advised that HomeAway is now VRBO. The UK then announced the second lockdown which meant we couldn't fly. I am currently trying to get the refund due through my bank as I paid on a Visa debit card. As other people have commented, they are happy to take your money, but then it all changes and they are not ethical business people

HomeAway claim to have responded to my previous review here regarding a scam posted on their website. What did they say? Only that they are not responsible for anything. Since that time, I have been made aware that the very same photos of the villa we booked were identified as fraudulent 20 days earlier! Whatever the name: HomeAway/Arbitel/Vrbo/EG Vacation Rentals Ireland Limited be aware that you will go around in circles getting an answer if something goes wrong.

When we arrived at the property for our week long stay we decided to leave early. The property owner agreed to give us a refund and we left after two nights. We never reviewed a refund and homeaway did not help us get this from the owner. We had the agreement in writing.

Another low score. So just got off the phone with Wayne, he is my customer representative. Not sure he knows which way is up. Answers the phone and calls and me, Martin! Takes him about 5 mins to open up the right account. Enjoys telling me I'm wrong and eventually after telling me I'm wrong, say ah I will open a case on that.

HomeAway you are advising me to sell at a night rate of 1,000, I only sell at 280 now. I've been giving you feedback and writing about this on Trustpilot and emails over the last few months and now you are going to open a case? Glad to see you are responsive.

HomeAway you need a serious shakeup but then again I've been saying that for years. Your tech stack and customer support is hopeless.

Absolutely shocking how this business can rip people of in a pandemic and won't give full refunds back to people like it the people's fault that they can't go on the trip's that they have booked... I also work in the hospitality business and the company I work for have given people there deposits back and full refunds back to people who paid for their bookings in full because it's only right to do so why should people be ripped off, its only you that will go out of business eventually because people will realise that you rip people off with there money and they won't book with you again and they will worn other people also, because I know now not to use this company again I will book direct!!!!

See my previous reviews on HomeAway. As HomeAway suggest we have tried to sort out a refund from the property manager. She encouraged us to re book which we cannot. An initial offer of a 50% refund was withdrawn when she realised we were not able to rebook. We offered a compromise that covered her costs for our aborted week in her villa due to covid travel restrictions but she stopped answering our emails and has kept all our money. So thak you Homeaway for helping us with this! I do not understand why you.paid her the full fee prior to us travelling. This is not how holiday let companies work. Or perhaps she wont refund us because she never got a penny from HomeAway. DON'T USE THIS COMPANY.

DO NOT BOOK with this company!!!! Absolute shambolic customer service and don’t know how to treat their customers when they made a HUGE mistake.

I booked a trip with 9 people and got to the property where it had been double booked! I got in touch with the host who told me it was a mistake on the HOMEAWAY booking system. I called them up immediately to which they apologised and said they’d put us up in a hotel. We wanted to stay in a self catered place as we had bought loads of food so I luckily found a last minute property on AIRBNB.... when I got in touch with homeaway after the trip they offered me £50 compensation. I told them that did not suffice to which they stopped replying! Awful awful company , please always book through AIRBNB. Shame on you HOMEAWAY.

After having to cancel our booking due to being placed in tier 3 we have been passed from pillar to post. We have been refused a refund and also refused a date change which is a breach of terms & conditions. Appalling service. Nobody seems to care. All they say is “we’ll contact the owner”. The owner is clearly ignoring messages and has just decided to keep our money. I’m shocked and disgusted. Never again.

We booked a holiday villa in France that was listed on the HomeAway rental platform. We had booked via HomeAway the previous year and were satisfied with their service. This year we had a completely appalling experience.

After contacting the owner, we followed the payment instruction that they sent through. When we had not received a receipt of payment we contacted HomeAway only to be told that they do not manage the property that was listed on their site.

We immediately went to the police, contacted our bank and the recipient bank. The recipient bank said the account had been closed and our 2800 Euros gone.

In short, it was a scam.

Throughout this ongoing situation, HomeAway has evaded responsibility for the duty of care that they have to customers on their website. They have not addressed the fact that they do not have sufficient internal controls: neither did they assess this fraudulent property before it was listed on their site, nor do they offer protection against scammers on their platform.

Now rebranded as Vrbo, Trustpilot reviews for HomeAway/Vrbo remain consistently negative.

Steer clear.

I would avoid Homeaway/ VRBO
Their customer service is rubbish, in fact although you pay them , they do not consider you a customer, when something goes wrong they tell you that it’s nothing to do with them , it s the owner you have deal with
We are in our 70’s in December 2019 we booked with Homeaway an apartment in Tenerife, Apartment paradise at the Playa Paraiso, in Adeje at the time of booking no one had heard of Covid-19!
We booked the apartment from December 14th 2020 until January 11th 2021 , at the time of booking there was no cancellation refund
In July 2020 the owner changed the terms and offered a full refund if the booking was cancelled up to 30 days before check in , l messaged the Owner and asked it the new terms covered my booking, they messaged back and said if l cancelled because of flight cancellation, lockdown or reasons of Covid-19 they would give me a full refund
In September British Airways cancelled our flights, apart from this the virus was spreading fast across Europe and the British foreign office were advising against any non essential travel to Spain including Tenerife, l messaged The owner and explained what was happening and would she refund my deposit as she’d promised, her reply was to not take any notice of the media , she said we would be much happier going over and to spend our time in warm Tenerife rather than the cold U.K. , beside which if we were to catch the virus, Tenerife would pay for all medical and accommodation costs , l explained to her that l had had a heart attack 4 years ago, as well as that my wife and l were in our 70’s and should we catch Covid-19 out there lying in a hospital bed on a ventilator knowing my medical bills were being paid by the Tenerife government was no consolation! the other concern l explained to her was that although we had E111 come December 31st 2020 these would be useless because the United Kingdom would have completely have left the European Union and because we had travelled against the British Foreign Office advise our Travel insurance would be null and void, so from the 1st January 2021 if my wife or l broke a limb , got hit by a car or l had another heart attack we would have no medical cover what so ever! The owner was not interested in these concerns, she offered a voucher less Homeaways service charge but refused to give us a refund as she’d promised, she reminded me that the final booking payment still had to be paid at the end of October 2020 whether we went to Tenerife or not, Homeaway didn’t even offer us a refund of the service charges
The funny thing is , here we are in November 2020 and the virus is on the increase in Tenerife especially in Adeje
So think very carefully when you book with Homeaway/ VRBO even if they promise a full refund, once they’ve got your money, they’ve got it!!!!!!!
You will notice that after 3 days of this review , HOMEAWAY/ VRBO haven’t responded
AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THE HOMEAWAY REPLY TO MY REVIEW, I WAS INVITED TO CONTACT THEM WITH THE VIEW OF SORTING THIS OUT FOR ME BY ME PUTTING IN A FORMAL COMPLAINT, I’VE DONE THIS , WHAT AN ABSOLUTE WASTE OF TIME , ALL THEY DID WAS TO REPEAT ALL OF THE REASONS WHY THEY WONT GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK, I DON’T WANT ANYONE READING THIS REVIEW TO GET AWAY WITH THE IDEA THAT THIS COMPANY HELPS IN ANY WAY !!!!!
HOMEAWAY HAVE A BOOK WITH CONFIDENCE POLICY, WHAT A JOKE !!!!

Used Vrbo(old name Homeaway) in June 2020.
Got ripped off by a home owner who had double booked her property. She cancelled my booking within hours of confirmation and refunded half of the paid amount. Homeaway/Vrbo did nothing to help me to solve the situation, they just took sides with the fraudster home owner. Their "booking guarantee" is worthless. After a long investigation by my credit card company, my claim of fraud was upheld ,and I was refunded in full.
Please avoid this company and save yourself the stress that my family and me went through.

Terrible organisation, please do not use them.
Despite their so called booking guarantee they have not refunded a holiday I legitimately cancelled under their cancellation policy. Even worse they took a payment after I cancelled.
Their staff are obviously trained to use every deferment tactic in the book 'we are contacting the owner', 'not sure that property could be cancelled', 'have you not received a refund, we will contact the owner again'.
I am now contacting the CMA, and my bank/police given the last payment was taken fraudulently after I legitimately cancelled.
Please avoid this organisation.

We booked a holiday through Home away - we were told that if we cancelled more than a week before we would be due a 50% refund. We contacted the owner and asked to postpone due to Corona virus over a week before and asked them to confirm. They agreed to transfer the booking - then refused when later we tried to re-book. When we contacted Homeaway - they refused to help. PLEASE BE AWARE THEY ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN YOUR BOOKING AND FEES AND HAVE NO INTEREST IN CUSTOMER SERVICE OR PROVIDING A SERVICE. AVOID. THERE ARE VASTLY BETTER HOLIDAY COMPANIES!!!

Terrible company. Accounting system for booking kept showing wrong amount due after owner and I agreed to move booking date. 4 weeks after holiday and I am still waiting for return of my £200 damage deposit the owner has approved for release. No replies to any emails on the subject. Money was due back to me week after stay. HA-W6JP3M

Similar experience to many below. Booked a villa through HomeAway but unable to use it due to Covid. HomeAway referred me to manager who refused refund and even a voucher. HomeAway refunded their small part of the deposit but still leaves me 1800€ out of pocket. Credit Card company refused compensation as they alledge the contract was with HomeAway not the manager and therefore they have no liability. Crafty set up by HomeAway to dodge their responsibilities.

This operation just stinks, period !! Tried their "chat"service just now to make it clear we have an issue with them only releasing monies to us 7 days after a guest has arrived. They take the money OK from the traveller, hold on to it for what seems like a lifetime, and leave the hosts swinging.
They also have detailed in their smallprint, in the event Home Away / Vrbo runs into any financial difficulties with travellers payments, ie unable to pay out !! the host must still make good and allow the traveller stay for nothing.
OMG what a set up !! We have been with them for about 10 years, before Expedia bought them for a song, now Vrbo, what next I ask ??

Similar experience to below. Booked A large house sleeping 30 people just as lockdown measures changed and we were forced to cancelled. We we’re refused the opportunity to postpone until a safe time to travel. Homeaway’s communication throughout was non-existent. Refusing to pick up the phone or answer emails. They are extremely unhelpful, slow and unprofessional. We are now £7.5k out of pocket as a result of greedy homeowners and companies, benefiting from lockdown measures. Please please do not book via HomeAway!

Similar experience to many of the reviews below. Profiting from the pandemic. Refusing to answer phone calls. They will take your money and run.