HomeAway United Kingdom 

We were trying to go away at short notice, and we were encouraged by there being dozens of properties.

However, after having given our credit card details, it seems that they weren't. None of them. They were all owned by the same company (KG), and they don't keep their listings up to date.

Since you have to wait up to 24 hours for a response, this makes finding a property impractical.

So my recent review of HomeAway prompted a response... they said someone would be in touch to resolve the matter. Well guess what folks... a week on and still no contact! Am I surprised, Not at all. No communication and now over 100 days and still no sign of my refund. Absolutely disgusting HomeAway... you are playing with peoples lives and you don’t seem to give a damn. Why don’t you man up, pick the phone up, or email me instead of giving me the silent treatment. One things for certain I’ll not give in, sooner or later I will take legal action!! Rest assured.

Having an absolute nightmare trying to get my deposit back for a cancelled booking. Booked a villa in Florida for this summer. I cancelled the booking back in May within the terms of the contract. I was entitled to a full refund of the deposit. Three months later and still no refund. HomeAway are not responding to my emails and seem to have abdicated responsibility. The homeowner claims they don’t have the funds to issue a refund. Absolute joke. HomeAway are happy to take your money but when things go wrong they don’t want to know! Be warned everyone. Let’s see if this review sparks an interest from HomeAway. If it doesn’t I will never use them again.

Will not rent our home on HomeAway again. We haven’t been paid even though the tenants have stayed and gone. There is absolutely no reason other than their own cash flow to hold onto the money. AirBnB pay the day the tenants enter the property.

Rented an apartment on Vancouver Island through this company and paid in full. Due to Covid restrictions our flight to Canada has been cancelled. Wrote to HomeAway enquiring about refund and received a short reply stating they would try. Heard nothing since and all emails asking for confirmation that a refund will not be forthcoming have been ignored. I require this confirmation to enable me to make a claim through my travel insurance. Appalling service to say the least.

As an owner, payment is supposed to come 5-7 days after guests arrive. It didn't, and on day 8 after the guests had left, I was told there had been a hitch and we would be paid in 5-7 days. 7 days later, nothing!! On ringing, I was told exactly the same thing again, so 3 weeks after our guests went in, and 2 weeks after them leaving we are still waiting. Don't touch them!! They take the guests money and hang onto it.

Having used Homeaway a few times without problems this time was different since the "book with guarantee" clause came into play. So far we always booked a house and paid the damage deposit which was always nicely returned after our stay by the owner.
This time was different unfortunately during our stay at a house called Cesoni view in Casaprota, Italy.
The owner claimed fake damages we supposedly had been doing a few hours after we left the house. He actually refused to do a joint tour of the house at checkout to see if anything was damaged or not. I had a feeling that he would make a false claim so I made a voice recording of the checkout process where it can be clearly heard he "would check it later". I handed over the voice recording to Homeaway as clear proof the owner was up to something no good. but they honered his claim for the damage deposit which resulted in us losing 500 EUR on top of the cost for the house (which by the was was not clean at all and we're not the only ones complaining about it).
I do understand the business model of Homeaway that they give priority to the owners rather than to the guests. The owners generate the regular income for Homeaway while the guests only once or so a year. But obviously this strategy is reprehensable.
What I don't understand is that their rules do not imply a document at checkin to check the house and possible damaged items in it and a same one at checkout which is countersigned by the guests and the owners. Something which is common practice with car rental companies. But I guess they don't really care about this and just want to collect money and avoid having the handle unpleasant issues if they come up. So the "book with guarantee" clause is basically a hollow slogan. Beware when you book with them...it could cost you dearly if the owner has bad intentions.

Price increase and no support. I messaged the owner of a property to enquire the price of the property then was increased by nearly £1000.00, connected with the help chat function and Home Away ignored all of my communication and closed the chat. Pleased i didn't book through this company. TERRIBLE SERVICE! Disappointed that they support home owners changing their prices after enquiry!

HomeAway were pretty much invisible. All thy were was a website. There is room for improvement in regards to aftersales/ after stay feedback. The cottage itself was Good. The only complaint I could make is that I was not met by the cottage owner even though I was in constant communication with her before arriving. She told me last minute that her Mum would meet me but when we arrived it was her Dad. I got the impression that she was annoyed that I told her I would be checking in 4 hours later than the earliest checking in time. Since leaving 3 days ago I have not had any communication at all from the owner which is impolite. The mad Scottish woman next door was anti social as were most of the elderly people living or staying in the vicinity. What is wrong with people! People need more education!

Wish I had read these reviews before booking a cottage for my Dad's 80th in Sept with this dreadful company.
This company is terrible - Avoid!!
We booked, paid deposit , no confirmation, then they took remaining amount - no confirmation.
Contacted them again today to ask for confirmation details as there are 14 of us going in a few weeks - only to be told they should not have accepted a booking for a long weekend and our booking ( now fully paid for was not valid ).
Clearly the greedy bas@##rds got a better offer for a full weeks booking.

Just seen your response, so what's your excuse for delaying full refund?
Also that property is still up on another site for same long weekend.
As I said, Really awful company.

Had to cancel due to coronavirus and property owner confirmed a full refund would be given and authorised it but 4 weeks later I have still not received my refund. Finding it difficult to speak to anyone from HomeAway. Very poor service.

26/08 I have already share info with your customer service team and I'm getting no where!

AVOID/DO NOT USE
We paid the deposit for a home in Florida but due to COVID travel restrictions and flight cancellations had to cancel. Before I did this I spoke to their operators and recieved emails that clearly stated we were entitled to a full refund. Despite this they are now refusing to repay the deposit of over £1700. I have tried to contact and they now refuse to reply I doubt we will ever see the money, so avoid at all cost.

I have rented my house out through Home Away for many years and it was fine until they were taken over by Expedia - which none of us knew about until things started to go wrong.
I am still waiting to be paid out over 2 weeks after the arrival of guests.

There is no way of getting hold of anyone, no link to the website, no customer service for owners.
If this is the new sort of behaviour from this platform I can only imagine that no owner will want to remain a part of it and nor should they.

Booked a lovely villa, no issues with that, great owner and communication from him, however he paid my deposit back to HomeAway and they have not paid me back? Really upset and annoyed as owner paid them back in good faith. We left the villa immaculate ..... DO not use!

My wife and I booked a cottage back in march for an October break through this company (home away).
We found a lovely cottage,booked it and payed a deposit, then covid 19 hit, I contacted the owners regarding where we stood with payments and was told the deposit was non refundable and that the holiday still had to be payed on a specified date. I then asked would we be refunded if we were unable to travel due to a covid19/local lockdown and was told again no refunds. I enquired about credits for changing the dates and was told no other dates were available and no credit was available. So basically they wanted me to pay for that week and take a chance. If I could not go there would be no credit and no refund and I would lose the total cost of my holiday.
I then contacted home away and after waiting 35 minutes I finally spoke to a lady who informed me they would contact the home owner on my behalf regarding extending the payment date, she informed me I would receive a response within 48 hrs, 4 days later I received a final bill payment due which basically said pay the balance or lose the holiday. I had no choice but to cancel the holiday and lose my deposit, since then both the owners and home away have been very difficult to get hold of and I will now be finding out what to do next from a 3rd party.
Avoid this company at all costs.

I really do NOT recommend this company to anyone who values their money. If you want good customer service, you'd also not want to book with them. I booked a villa in September 2019.

This company kept 3,045 euros of my money. They lied to me by saying on July 29th 2020 - that I can re-book for next year and then changed their mind. This advice initially gave me peace of mind when my flights got cancelled and we had no way of getting to Spain. I then contacted them yesterday (18/08/20) and was told that this option is no longer available and that I have 2 options -

1. Loose 90% of 3,045 [euros] to cancel
2. Or get 900 [euros] towards re-booking for 2021.

In both instances, the company keeps the majority of my money and I loose out.

Jakub from Porta Holiday - tells me that there is 'no travel ban' and that I should travel against government advice. He also advises that COVID is not extreme circumstances and there is no flexibility for me. It's not just the company you need to be wary off (Their greed and lack of compassion). It's the villa owners! In my case, the owner Maria Angeles Serralvo LLamas, has pocketed ALL of my money and refuses to make any changes.

AVOID this company at all costs! I've never been so ashamed to send money to a company in my life and feel completely scammed.

We booked a cottage for April 2020 for our honeymoon.
Due to covid19 we were unable to go
HA initially said we could have full refund and would take property manager (PM)off their web site if he was non compliant.
The property manager refused to offer us a refund but did offer alternative dates which we accepted
The property manager then withdrew the
dates and said they were unavailable despite the fact we had now rescheduled our wedding.
Throught out this HA have been appalling
saying they would contact the PM and sort this dispute for us.
I have just had a 40 min wait on hold whilst someone more senior deals with this only to be cut off. The CS staff are difficult to understand and very rude.
My fiance is a nurse and this with covid19 has caused undue stress
This company wants your money and is a shambles.
I'm now pursuing through the cc.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!

YOUR REPLY IS A TYPICAL AUTOMATED "I REALLY DON'T care"

One star is too high a mark for these guys. They are selling villas as 'instant confirmation' and instant payment that, according to HomeAway does not result in any contract whatsoever with them directly. The villa owner can then, as was my experience, follow up weeks later with very different T&Cs and cancellation terms on an unacknowledged email. I didn't notice until it came to cancel and the advert had said 90-days canx. By the time you want to cancel there is no record of the web-site or what it said. Customer service non-existent and mostly non-English speakers on the phone-lines, which I have used many, many times to no successful conclusion. If you absolutely must use this company then take screen shots of what was offered and have them witnessed by someone in a legal capacity. Preferably, just try and approach the villa owner directly....they normally advertise on the web as well. Save yourself some real heart-ache and a lot of cash. It's cost me £800 and HomeAway refusing to admit they have played any part in this at all.

Customer Service leaves a lot to be desired.

Booked a villa in Cyprus for 10 days and had a few concerns that it wasn't legitimate, advised I felt I was being taken for a scam.

I contacted Home Away to try and get some peace of mind on the online chat, the first agent just ended the chat when I was asking them questions.
I then immediately called and the second agent was really helpful, and said they'd setup a case and get back to me within 72hrs.
Having not heard anything for 6 days I called again and there was no confidence given, nor any clarification of any of my points.

What they did do, instead of answering my concerns about the "manager of the property" being potentially fraudulent, was, with no warning, placed me on hold and then transferred me straight to the manager of the property for an awkward conversation.

They state "Peace of mind
Our Book with Confidence Guarantee gives you 24/7 support" - but they have not given me Peace of Mind or Support.

Cannot stress how much I want others to avoid this company as don't want others falling into their trap of false promises.
This company has left me with no confidence, and a fear that I will be left stranded in Cyprus with a small child and no support.

Avoid at all cost booked a villa in Ibiza,flights got cancelled due to COVID-19 paid in full months before the pandemic.all for it to be cancelled with no refund or change of dates offered.i have sent countless emails to the owner and home away to have no reply.i feel like they have took my hard earned money and fobbed me off.i book 2 to 3 times a year with Home away all to be treated like this.dont think I will recommend or use ever again.

Having had a dispute with an owner of a property that I had visited, over damage which seemingly occurred to it, I immediately contacted Homeaway customer services to report this. Initially the response from Homeaway was good. The owner agreed that the whole deposit should be paid back to me.
What I didn't appreciate given that this had been a dispute was that Homeaway paid the owner the entire amount including all the damage deposit. In other words the owner has complete control. What a stupid system ??!!! Surely Homeaway would retain the damage deposit until the dispute is resolved ? And that Homeaway would pay this to either the owner or the holidaymaker? No this is not the case.
I was then mucked around by the owner as I tried to get my money back. As a result I wont be booking with this company again. Not a good experience at all..