HomeAway Vacation Rentals Software

This home is a jewel. It is spacious, very clean, beautifully furnished and well maintained inside and out. The kitchen is well stocked with everything one will need to prepare snacks or a meal. We had a Women’s Retreat and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. There were 13 of us. We had plenty of sleeping space to sleep comfortably, as well as plenty of bathrooms. It is everything you would look for in a vacation rental. There are local stores nearby. It is easy to get downtown to San Antonio. This was our 4th Annual Retreat and this has been the best vacation rental we have stayed in thus far. Our goal is to visit a different state each year and I would not have any qualms in spending a 5th Annual Retreat in this home. Richard is awesome. If there was a 6 star rating, we will certainly give this home a 6 star rating!

I enjoy the application and it’s ease of use and our rentals have always been wonderful and exactly as described. I can easily and quickly filter on what I’m looking for, the prices are prominently displayed for clarity, instant booking is great and the ease of contacting the owner through the app is also top notch. I also like the ability to look at the cost breakdown, BUT here is where I PAY for all that convenience. This app used to be my go-to to find a reasonable, quality alternative to hotels! Not any more! Often the fees exceed the cost of the rental! What??? No, absolutely not, I won’t pay it, so I end up not booking with you more often than booking! The fees your app are charging owners are passed along to me and in some cases, are pushing prices WAY above even luxury hotels. The original purpose of the app has been lost. I am still giving the app a 4 because of all the great functionality. It’s a shame I can’t give it 5. Go back to your roots, lower the fees. Your model is inching out your original client base.

The HomeAway app is convenient, but there are a few things that could make it better. One very important thing that HomeAway needs to do is punish owners w a fee for not updating their calendars on a regular basis. The calendar/app says the property is available, so you submit a request. It can take a day for them to get back to you to say, “Oops, sorry, our days must be crossed. Can you shift your plans ahead 3 days?” Sure, I’ll just call the conference and tell them to postpone everything. And this happens over and over and over until you’ve wasted a week trying to book individual properties. In addition, the search function needs to be improved. It doesn’t include all possible properties, even though they make you think it does. For example, Pasadena & Altadena CA are adjacent cities. If you do a search for Pasadena, you might have 5 Pasadena properties & 1 from Altadena. This leads you to believe that there’s only one in range in Altadena. But then, do a separate Altadena search, and it gives you 4 additional properties! There’s got to be a better way to do the search on your phone.