HomeAway Downtown Austin

Kimberly Babich _{on Google}

Dec 19th, 2020

Every day all day you get to see the reviews of renters good or bad on VRBO/Home Away. You do not ever get to see the reviews of owners or property managers. Why are these reviews hidden? VRBO/Home Away has made many changes over the 26 years My Co-op group has been using them. Over time they have become more difficult. Their customer service for owners and property managers has profoundly plummeted. In the past 4 years, only once have they been able to solve a problem for me. Every time I call, they either can't help or will not depending on the situation. Currently our vacation property is on the market and under contract. All rentals will have to be canceled, despite the state law protecting them from being cancelled by the new owner. They have no easy transition for guests to move from one owner to the next, nor can the new owner keep the reviews when using the same property management company. This is only the latest issue of many for property managers and owners. They have sincerely gone down hill since being purchased by Expedia. We need some real honest competition in this field.

Jon Eizinger _{on Google}

Nov 16th, 2020

I have been a commercial owner renting 6 homes in the Black Hills of South Dakota through VRBO for three years now. This company does not treat the property owners well. The customer service is overseas and good luck getting any help or understanding what they are saying. Last week I had over $1000 removed from my bank account by VRBO because a renter never showed up during the 2020 Sturgis Bike Rally and wanted a refund. I told the renter no because I could not rent the house back out on such short notice and my company policy did not allow for it (I have a 30-day cancelation refund policy). In the end the traveler disputed the charge and won so VRBO refunded them directly from my bank account and I was out an entire week rent during the busiest time of the year. These guys are just a bunch of crooks taking advantage of the property owners who have made massive investments into this business. VRBO uses every excuse in the book to pass the blame off, See attached photo of the email from them.

N Y _{on Google}

Sep 14th, 2020

how come we do not receive payements for our rentals we tried chat no results phone number 30 minutes wait for nothing
VRBO has said that they have fixed the software glitch for payments. We have gotten three payments so far that were owed
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Still a glitch. Second time I received 50% of the total payment. Received the balance following week. This is 🐃💩
I don’t believe this is a glitch. I think that’s what they are feeding everyone. VRBO is hurting for money. The longer they hold on to yours, the more interest they can draw in it all those weeks that it’s “glitched”. Interest is big when you’re dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars (maybe millions).

Ken Krueger _{on Google}

Oct 23rd, 2020

Buyer beware! I have used this service to book four trips in the last couple years. 2 out of 4 were cancelled THE DAY BEFORE THE TRIP by e-mail. No phone call. Customer service, on the current trip said, “well, we refunded your money” (or we will in 5 business days). Like that makes up for it? “The case has been sent to our re-booking team and they will send you an e-mail tomorrow to tell you if they found another place to stay”. Tomorrow? Really? Guess what, everything is booked. They can’t transfer you to the rebooking team, asked to speak to a supervisor and was on hold for 30 mins, then they hung up when the supervisor was supposed to speak to me. Ann from customer service was very rude, she hung up when we asked to speak to a supervisor also. Very poor customer service. Don’t trust your vacation to HomeAway or VRBO. You and your family might just be disappointed...
Update. Called the property manager and was informed VRBO. double booked the property. That’s why our vacation was canceled. She told us it wasn’t just us. Read BBB reviews. I’ll never use them again.