Yet Another Flood of 4 & 5 Star Reviews!
We’re trying to get this atrocious company’s activities regulated in some way SO PLEASE JOIN OUR FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN “Stop Homeaway UK”. Firstly, before you people at HA try to get this review taken offline, thank you for demonstrating that my doubts were unfounded. You acknowledged receipt of my letter after I suggested via a Trustpilot review that using the “Wilmer Post Room” was a devious way of denying receipt by HA. Your message is the event that allows me to write another review.
Now some home truths. My review, posted 2 days ago, made you feel threatened so you immediately initiated yet another flood of reviews that were intended to consign my review to a page so far back that almost nobody would read it. You’ve done very well, it’s already on page 8 but everyone can still read it very easily, along with my previous reviews of your despicable company, by clicking on the link at the end of this review.
PLEASE EXPLAIN TO US ALL how no less than 71 people apparently posted 4 and 5 star reviews of your company, some in the middle of the night, in a period of just 24 hours immediately after my review was posted, in early December when very few people are booking holidays. 47 more appeared in the subsequent 24 hours. The average daily number posted over the last month was just 8. Based upon your previous performance, it was totally predictable that this would happen. Maybe you hold these reviews yourselves to be posted when you choose, or do you perhaps offer some kind of incentive for selected customers of yours to very quickly post reviews?
Trustpilot defines your overall rating of 77% as being “Great”. You profess to do little more for your extortionate fees than introducing travellers to homeowners. Most of them are honest people so 77% is a very bad score. 23% of reviewers, almost 1 in 4, rate you at the lowest possible level and that is in spite of your extensive efforts to distort the picture.
I hope that you will want to add your comments to this review.

If I could use another company ... I would!
I have been pestered by HomeAway to write a review regarding my booking experience, so, here it is!

I found the villa we wanted, just outside Marseilles. I booked for two weeks at the end of August. The cost of the villa is just under £6,000 for the two weeks and there is a security deposit of £3,000. You would think that HomeAway might just take a deposit and the balance perhaps six weeks before the due date. No, HomeAway is so greedy it snatched almost £9,000 from my Visa account before the end of November and this is for a booking at the end of August 2019! WOW! Did I miss something on the booking form or is this standard practice? Most holiday firms take a deposit and the balance later.

Secondly, the contract, as I see it, is between me and HomeAway. This does not seem to be the case. I have now been sent a contract in French, which I do not understand, by the owner of the house. Sums of money are mentioned in the contract and I see no reason for signing something I do not understand. The house is on the HomeAway website. HomeAway takes the payment. My contract must, therefore, be with HomeAway.

Try to contact HomeAway ... good luck!

I could not find an email. There is a London phone number so I rang that. I spoke to a very pleasant person but I would have said that she was in Mumbai rather than London. (Don’t know if I’m even allowed to say that anymore!) You simply cannot have a detailed conversation with a person on the telephone if their first language is not English.

So that’s our booking experience. Let’s hope the house is somewhat better!

If I’d known this site was just a feeder site to a cottage company I’ve used before and felt dissatisfied with I wouldn’t have used them, not only did I have to pay £69 pound to this company I was then sent an account for bloody Sykes who had the same cottage only cheaper than home and away had, lesson learnt, won’t be using these rip off txxts again !!!!

So i thought the idea of rental sites…
So i thought the idea of rental sites was you charged the owner not the renter - clearly not the case as i had to pay holiday rentals their fee e which was quite high in comparison to the rental fee . Also the amount they quoted was less than i was charged by the owner

A company that has lost the plot and now charges on bookings
OwnersDirect was a brilliant system which enabled me to deal directly with owners and to get villas I wanted.
HomeAway has destroyed that concept and you are offered villas miles away from the resort you are seeking.
I love Dunas Douradas in Portugal and have been going there for 30 years and the system doesn’t even recognise the resort now nor can I find the villa I want.

CAUTION TO OWNERS
Writing as an owner a cautionary word for those thinking of using HomeAwayUk: generally they are ok but it is impossible to get them to correct a mistake where they paid out on a wrong booking and now owe me money. I have never come across an organisation that is so completely useless and evasive. They won't even supply a contact address to write to! Instead you are stuck with a chatline (the phone line just cuts you off) where you will be disconnected part way through and having started again, just told that they have to refer to the tech dept who won't contact you. If I knew where to find them I would report them to the Fraud Squad!

HONEST ANSWER, PLEASE!
HomeAway please, surprise me by having a go at answering the below. We are no longer with you- though we were you for 14 years from 2004.

I have asked before. You have said you can't find me through my property ID. You have ignored the post, hidden it under a deluge of short verified reviews.

Of course, there are many excellent properties on HomeAway. Dead easy to ask for positive verified responses. What happens if things go wrong? Then HAway becomes an advertising platform only. Claim against bank, owner....anyone at all! The 10% Service Fee, plus the Yapstone fees for the owner mean you are taking five times as much from each property as you were pre- Service Fee.

Any honesty on your part would be appreciated.

Published 09 October 2018
HA can't retrieve my Property ID....that's no surprise!
Would you like to have another try? The property reference came from you. If you can't find it, what chance is there for anyone else?

Published 17 September 2018
Updated 4 days ago
Complete refusal to reply honestly-
Yet again HomeAway amaze me! I posted this on 17 September and there was no response from HA- they did respond to several posts either side of mine. I had given up all thoughts of a response. Then, on October 1, by the time I was buried on page 16 or 17, a response appeared 2 weeks after the event!

And.....the response says we can't find your property from your ID number. Please send us your email details! It sounds like a scam..... send your bank details so we can send the $1,000,000 you have inherited!

If HomeAway can't find me from the ID number they have given me what hope is there? I'm afraid I don't consider this to be an honest reply.

I have already made a Subject Access Request. The HomeAway Privacy Team has contacted me and returned data held on me. The responses on this site, I am afraid, are insults to their paying customers.

I should no longer be with HomeAway- I did not renew last year, though they tell me I did. I despair of the company from the point of view of the small owner. HomeAway serves its own needs, in that it takes loads of money- but it does not work for me. I hope that I can be allowed to leave on 18 October 2018. For those interested, you can see that I was leaving last year, too! Feel free to check the thread below.

Sad- we joined Holiday Rentals in 2004- when they got us started very successfully.

I reviewed 4 days ago- I said then that there was no point in replying if it couldn't be done honestly. So HomeAway didn't reply- that says it all!

I gave my listing number which made it a bit difficult to say ``Without ID, we can't help``! And, no doubt the excuse to avoid the necessity of a reply gratefully accepted!

I have received a reply from Trustpilot today. They explain that HomeAway objected that I am a multiple reviewer using multiple identities! I am the Sadoldman who reviews HomeAway time after time simply because HomeAway refuse to answer the questions asked/ issues raised.

I copy in the review from four days back. Rather than offer a reply to that, HomeAway have been very busy coming up with over 300 verified reviews in 3 days. They joined Trustpilot in 2013 and I realise that they canvass for reviews but... I complained that the frivolous objection above buried an earlier review to page 4 or 5. Now I am on PAGE 16 as quickly as they can claim their Service Fee.

HomeAway would you like to tell me when owners were informed the Service Fee was to be increased? I have promises of averaging a 6% initially.

Also, when were we informed that the cap was to be removed?

Further to this, the thread of reviews and non-answers can be traced through MORE REVIEWS box below.

Published 4 days ago
Ridiculous replies from HomeAway
HomeAway objected to my review below ``Average Company etc``. The objection was overruled- why will no-one- neither HAway nor Trustpilot tell me what the specific objections were? I understood that the objection had to outline which guidelines had been broken. I am assuming that HA didn't like the post because they didn't like it- and objecting buried the post for a few days. But, I would like confirmation.

With regard to the Service Fee INCREASES (not simply changes). To the best of my knowledge, I wasn't informed- see previous post! I find it very difficult to believe that others were informed- without having had to ask directly.

I was told by the call centre staff that the £249+vat cap no longer applies. The reply below skirts round admitting that!

Can I suggest that if HAway is not prepared to give honest replies then it is better not to reply at all! The phoney, disingenuous, fake blustering stuff simply makes the indefensible worse.

To make things nice and easy for HAway my property is 14166. I have already asked for all data that they hold on me. Please feel free to add this to the list.
Edit

Reply from HomeAway United Kingdom
Published 01 October 2018
Hi there,

Thank you for leaving your comment again. Unfortunately, we cannot retrieve the property ID number that you have provided. Please could you supply your email address that you used to manage your account so that we can investigate this further.