HomeAway United Kingdom 

I booked through HomeAway unbeknown to me it is part of Vrbo.......avoid!avoid!avoid! Unable to leave a review on their own site after logging in due to having cancelled the trip within 30 minutes of booking! After 5 long months my credit card company managed to get my money back. No response from the owner after the wrong date was added onto the site!!!!! I was transferred to an agent working for VRBO who was working from home. Dogs barking throughout the conversation. The agent spoke with broken english who within minutes told me I would receive my refund within 60 days. I didn't know I had been charged for 5 weeks until my statement arrived. On their site it states refunds would be 3 to 5 days. The agent then told me she would contact the owner after I pointed out it was NOT 60 days but 3-5 days for a refund. The agent emailed back to say there would be NO REFUND!!! And no reply to the said email. Absolutely disgusting. Thank god for John Lewis partnership card after they struggled with communication to get my refund. Do not use this dreadful company!!!!

Following my review below I was contacted by Vrbo. The excellent Sergio contacted me and has sorted out my refund. Happy days!

Having had to cancel our rental due to COVID, we are still waiting for £1658.00 back from VRBO, one month after cancellation.
The owner has been fantastic in trying to chase up our refund and has shown me her message exchange with VRBO who are blaming “Technical department issues” for the delay in returning my money.
We are not just disappointed to have had to cancel our holiday (which was already carried forward from March 2020 due to covid) but are also disappointed that VRBO aren’t being decent with regards to the refunds.

UPDATE:

Having had two customer service representatives assigned to our case and having completed and signed the documents necessary to receive our refund, we received confirmation that both parties had signed the document. We expected our money - finally.
As of today, still no refund.
The owner of the property we booked has been nothing but supportive and has also being chasing our refund but to no avail.
I am now sending messages to vrbo customer services almost daily and not even getting a reply.
If my refund of £1658.00 is not in my account by tomorrow- I will be forwarding this to the press.

STILL NO REFUND ACTER ALMOST TWO MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!

And as for Scott’s reply below, saying I had not responded as requested - rubbish. I have emails from a lady called Natalie, apologising that the refund had not been activated despite me returning the required documents - so the ONUS IS ON YOU VRBO.

Due to the ongoing issues with travel due to COVID19 we have been forced to cancel our bookings with Homeaway or VRBO as it is now.
The T&C’s says 100% refund, I received my service fee straight away but I have not yet received the refund for my booking. They informed that they have paid it but it is not in my bank, they gave me an ARN number which the bank doesn’t accept and have consistently ignored my concerns and won’t fulfil there side of the conditions. They have also issued my other refund via a cheque from the property company despite me asking for this to be paid back to the card that I was charged. The amount of times being fobbed off is absolutely disgraceful to what I thought was a reputable organisation

Spoke with VRBO support (Sergio) and after confirming with my financial institution I have now been refunded the monies, thanks very much to all involved

I booked a break away for myself and 5 friends going away in October 2020 but due to Covid restrictions this had to be cancelled. I got in touch with the property manager who organised a refund of the payment made to them (they were a 3rd party) and when I asked about the service charge part of our payment was told that I would receive this from Homeaway direct.
After receiving the refund for the accommodation I got in touch with Homeaway to enquire about the service charge refund of £73.20 and was told I needed to send confirmation to Homeaway that the refund had been made by the 3rd party which would confirm to Homeaway that the arranged accommodation had been cancelled.
I emailed this confirmation to Homeaway and after a couple of weeks having heard nothing from Homeaway I rang them to be told no email from me had been received. I made several other attempts to email with confirmation, I got in touch with the 3rd party and asked them to email the cancellation details to Homeaway but still Homeaway say they are not getting any emails regarding this matter. At their suggestion I got in touch with my internet provider to check my email was not at fault, it was not.
I posted a letter at the end of November to Homeaway head office in London with a copy of the original confirmation of cancellation and the copy of the email sent to Homeaway by the 3rd party but still nothing from Homeaway.
I rang again in January to ask how things were proceeding and hit a blank wall.
I know that the £73.20 is not a huge amount, for me now it is the principle, I feel I am being fobbed of as with each phone call I am given a new case number the latest being 29658121 and in my opinion the time spent by their staff must be more then the service fee I want refunding.
I have used Homeaway without issue in the past but will no longer being using then.

Update.
Within an hour of posting this review I was contacted by Homeaway and I have now received the service charge refund. Many thanks to Trustpilot

DO NOT use this company! Cancelled a reservation in November last year, in time to receive 100% refund. Impossible to get the money owed to me. Now going to go down the Small Claims route.

I see the company has responded below but I have tried everything they have suggested and the latest reply from them is the following:-
Please note that Vrbo is a platform which connects travelers and hosts but is not part of the final rental contract.
This is why we incourage you to work directly with your contractual partner Belvilla in order to receive your refund.

They also suggested I try to get my money back through chargeback with my bank!!!!

I thought the point of booking through this company was the fact that our deposit etc was protected! Obviously not! Airbnb have been AMAZING snd I will use them from now on. DISGRACEFUL!

I cancelled a holiday through home away in 2020 going to Soller in spain and have now cancelled my second soller holiday because of Covid. Both times so easy to cancel on Home Away website. Both times excellent service from the host Andrea and both times received refund back to my card within a few days. Thank you to Home Away(Vrbo) and thank you to Andrea. It is a terrible time for the tourist industry. I hope both buissinesses survive. I recommend and i will use again.

Seems like the same shocking customer service for many customers! In October 2019 we booked a stay in Croatia for 27th June 2020 for 10 days at property ID 8229835. Paid $2096.40 and after the Pandemic hit we was basically told to either move it or loose the deposit and that a refund of any kind was not an option. I understand homeaway are the 'middle man' between customers and the property owners but our payment was made to homeaway for them to then pass it on to the owner. So they can't just ignore having any involvement! Working with insurers a solicitors letter has been sent to the property owner but trying to get in touch with homeaway is near impossible, with online chat agents 'disconnecting' every time. We are now talking to the financial ombudsman who have stated we are within our rights for a refund! Safe to say we won't be using homeaway again and will certainly be sharing the experience with others!

DO NOT BOOK THROUGH THIS COMPANY. Holiday cancelled in June due to COVID lockdown, travel ban into Spain yet villa owner refused to give refund and HomeAway were no help whatsoever! I had to keep contacting villa owner myself for refund in which he flatly refused. He even kept the cleaning fee! Property ID 6734994

Holiday Ref: HA-524JK4 booked for 20/6/20-27/6/20
Hayle property ref 8026534

I canceled this holiday on the 17/3/20 at 08.47
have still not received a refund having spoken to the property owner he said he has a no refund policy. I then told them I would put in a claim for cashback on my credit card to which he said he would take me to the county court if I did.

10 months and still no refund
will never book with them again
Mr Carl Bolding

Although HomeAway/Vrbo strongly encourage property owners and managers to issue a full or partial refund on cancellations due to Covid-19, the owner of villa Property # 804327vb ignores this advice and sticks to their “non refunding policy”. After numerous attempts to plea with this owner to show some goodwill, they flatly refuse. Even though they have secured an alternative booking, so are now profiting from covid-19. HomeAway/Vrbo promote that they encourage the property owners to offer flexibility when someone has to cancel due to Covid-19, but I can find no evidence of this. I have tried to connect with customer support several times but the chat begins and no-one answers your query.
Unfortunately, the involvement/support of Home Away/Vrbo just seems like an empty gesture and offer no assistance at all. This leaves hard working families out of pocket for a substantial amount of money. If you have been a loyal customer for a number of years, that counts for nothing and HomeAway/Vrbo only protects their property owners and leaves the client empty handed with the financial damage.
It is such a shame but due to this experience I cannot recommend that you use this company or their clients, unless you want to get completely ripped off.

On the 15th December I cancelled a property for a Feb half-term ski trip we were hoping to do so well within the cancellation period...it's now a month since I did this and still nothing when it's only supposed to take 5 working days to get a refund as per the terms of business. If this is not resolved this week, I will be forced to take other actions.

As an owner who has just had to cancel a booking due to the worsening Covid situation, I’m not happy that Homeaway have rescinded their policy whereby the owner did not get a black mark in their metrics system when cancelling with a full refund due to Covid. We now get penalised for following the Government Covid regulations. As the pandemic is probably worse than ever this seems a ridiculous situation.

Following the response from Matt, I think the ball is in Homeaway’s court. I was told by their Customer Services that they changed their ‘no penalty’ cancellation policy last July. I was informed that, as it it stands, the only way I could ensure that the guest got a full refund was for me to cancel the booking but that it would detrimentally affect my record in spite of selecting Covid as the reason. Nothing more I can say to Homeaway other than asking the to reinstate their previous policy of allowing no fault Covid cancellations.

I would like to give zero stars, trying to get a refund now for six months. Constantly told it’s coming, then need card details or IBAN etc. Do not ever book a holiday with these cowboys!

In February I booked Sa Font Fresca, a property in Deia, Mallorca. I booked a week commencing 30th August and paid a deposit of 585 Euros. I ensured there was a cancellation policy as Covid had just arrived. Under the Terms and Conditions of my booking I would get a full refund of my deposit if I gave 60 days notice when cancelling, this was unconditional.
I cancelled my booking on 1st June giving plenty of notice. Homeaway did refund their service charge of 147 Euros. However an email from Geoffry /EU Guarantee Specialist at Homeaway confirmed I would not be reimbursed for the remainder of my deposit in compliance with internal procedures and policies in place in relation to the current global position. He also stated the Covid cirsis was a 'Force Majeure'. I argued stating the T&C of my booking but with no success.
The management company Reservas Mallorca emailed me on 12th June confirming they would refund the remaining part of my deposit but it would take time. Since then I have heard nothing from them despite sending 8 or more emails I have also contacted Homeaway customer services who have been unhelpful.

I am still owed 437 Euros, which I am entitled to under my booking Terms and Conditions. Homeaway have not been helpful despite their 'Book with Confidence Guarantee' which means nothing.

It isn't the actual company but the owner property number 8147282. Property in Benijofar Spain i cant believe how rude aggressive and unprofessional the owner is does not follow site policy

If I could give 0 stars I would.
We booked a cottage to go to in May but unfortunately due to covid this was cancelled.
The property that we had booked was a no refund cancellation booking but the owner messaged me via the app and offered us a refund in full due to the covid 19 situation.
I did as she advised and cancelled the holiday. 7 months later I still have not received a penny of my refund.
I have contacted homeaway numerous times and explained the situation but the response I get is that it was a no refund cancellation. This I am very aware of but even when I explain the owner had authorised a refund they are unwilling to help me and say I should ask the owner for a bank transfer refund. Shock horror the owner is not responding to my messages and homeaway have been unwilling to help me with this matter.
My contract is with homeaway not the property owner so they should be helping to get me my money back.
Very quick to take my money but very unwilling to help me get any of it back.
Absolutely appalling company!

We booked ten nights away for September 2020 in Turkey but sadly had to cancel due to my step-father passing away. The villa was cancelled in June this year (well within the cancellation period) and yet as of December 2020, we are still waiting for our deposit refund.

Our experience of speaking to HomeAway has been a non-stop merry-go-round of being told:

- They'll speak to the villa owner and will get back to us in 24 hours (they never have)
- They'll escalate the case and will get back to us in 24 hours (they never have)

Despite countless telephone calls that more often than not get cut off after being on hold for ages, emails that get ignored and endless promises of callbacks broken, we are still at square one.

We have spoken to the villa owner directly and he advises us that HomeAway have changed their payment provider so every time he tries to put the refund through it fails - on one of our many phone calls to HomeAway they said they were assisting him with this and (guess what) we'd hear back in 24hrs. I think that was three months ago and we've heard and received nothing.

This situation has caused my grieving mother untold stress and upset during what has been an awful time for her, all of which HomeAway are aware of. Sadly this has made no difference to the appalling customer service they've given us. Unfortunately we feel there's now little option but the small claims court in the new year.

Erfahrung als Vermieter:

Unser Konto für Einzahlungen musste unvermeidbar durch die Bank geschlossen werden. Die Einrichtung eines neues Kontos bei FeWo/HomeAway (FW/HA) kann aber erst dann eingerichtet werden, wenn alle noch ausstehenden Buchungen storniert (!) werden. Die Gäste müssen danach neu (!) buchen. WTF? Haben wir auch gedacht, aber ist so. Weder der betreffende Gast noch wir konnten das natürlich akzeptieren.

Der Gast zahlte also, das Geld konnte aber natürlich nicht auf unserem Konto eintreffen, da mittlerweile gelöscht.

Es folgten über mehr als 3 Monate mindestens 18 Mailwechsel (hab sie gezählt) und zusätzlich 6 Telefonate. Allesamt glaubhaft bemühte und schnell erreichbare Mitarbeiter, die aber an der Methode scheiterten:

Ein - selbstverständlich nicht kontaktierbarer -Dealer namens Payoneer wickelt die Zahlungen ab. Auf den hat FW/HA wohl keinen direkten Einfluss. Außerdem fungiert FW/HA selbst als eine dubiose Art Bank, indem die Gäste das Geld sehr früh an FW/HA zahlen, das Geld aber erst Monate später nach Antritt der Reise beim Vermieter landet (hier bei Trustpilot schon in einigen Bewertungen erwähnt).

Gibt es Probleme, wie bei uns, wird man sauber zwischen diesen Schurken in diesem Drama aufgerieben. Der eine schiebt's auf den anderen - Kafka hätte es nicht schöner schreiben können.

Das Geld habe ich schließlich nach dem Mail-Marathon, Einreichen allerlei Unterlagen der Bank und Androhung von Übeln (Rechtsanwalt, Klage, Pest-ähh Corona-an-den-Hals-wünschen etc.) erhalten.

Ende gut - alles gut? Ein Gnaden-Stern? Vielleicht für die echt freundlichen Mitarbeiter, für die ich wirkliches Mitleid hatte. In der Summe aber sicher nicht: Würde ich den Stundenlohn für den Aufwand ausrechnen, stünden mir die Tränen in den Augen. Wir werden keine Minute länger mit FW/HA zusammenarbeiten.