The Duct Cleaning Pros

We apologize to this consumer for any frustration caused.  Our records show that the consumer contacted our Customer Support department who updated the advertising regions and maps for each listing, and extended the consumer's subscriptions because of the issue.

Thank You for bringing this consumer's issue to our attention.No listing may be transferred to another party. In the event of a property sale or change in property management, HomeAway will provide guidance on options for creating a new listing.If you are selling your property, please contact...

Customer Support to assist in deactivating your listing. Please be sure to log in to your account and cancel any scheduled payment requests. If the new owner would like to continue advertising the property, they can purchase a new subscription and create a new listing. We recommend that you work with the new owner to gracefully transition future reservations and message those travelers.For help in choosing the optimal subscription, the new owner is encouraged to contact our Sales Team at [redacted] Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m and on Saturday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. CST. Tell us why here...

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:I did not agree to pay the fee and was not notified there would be a fee.  I do not see anywhere when you make a reservation that it tells you they are charging you this fee.I could have booked straight through with the rental agency if I had known there was a fee to use their web site.I understand them charging the rental agency to advertise on their web site but do not understand why I should pay extra to make a reservation on their web site when I could save that money and book with the owner or agency directly which is what I have done before.
Regards,
[redacted]

Thank you for bringing this consumers concerns to our attention.According to our records we do see we have been actively working with this consumer in case [redacted]It would appear that this consumer was in violation of our Terms & Conditions of advertising and was notified the steps necessary...

to be in compliance and for us to continue to allow the consumer to post their rental properties on our site.It does appear that this consumer is now within compliance and listings have been reinstated to our site(s) effective 11/9/2016

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:Their response was to state their policy and to explain their service fee. I may not like the fee but the fact that they charge a fee was not anywhere part of my complaint. I will not be refunding my non refundable deposit which was $200 they took a percentage of the entire transaction up front. A fair policy would be to refund all but the same % they took on the whole tans action which would be less than ten % off the $200 deposit. Homeaway says they will not refund the service fee. If that is their policy then a business built on trust would specifically and openly explain that policy at the time they took the new service fee. These actions are unfair and this company should charge no more than their stated % of money collected. A company can have any policy they want that is legal but to award a company an A- rating when they practice this anti customer policy is inconsistent with a business that is a superior customer service organization. In addition the company failed to answer why they hide the fact that they are charging a fee. Once again a company built on trust would just openly admit they charge the fee. They chose to hide it. Their response and their business practices are inconsistent with their Revdex.com rating. 
Regards,
[redacted]

This complaint is not against HomeAway Inc.   We cannot comment on this consumer/traveler’s complaint, because it appears that this complaint is not with our online advertising service, but appears to be the result of a marketplace transaction between this consumer and the owner or manager of...

an individual vacation home rented by that owner or manager to the public. We are in no way a party to the agreement or contract between this consumer traveler and the owner manager, and cannot solve this consumer’s complaint. Our advertising service is an online site for owners to advertise and travelers to find vacation homes to rent, but we are never involved in the transaction between the traveler/consumer and the landlord/property manager. See the Terms and Conditions below that the consumer/traveler and landlord/property manager agreed to about our role here. Therefore, this complaint is incorrectly being associated with HomeAway Inc, and it should be associated with the landlord/property manager.   Section 1 of our Terms and Conditions http://www.homeaway.com/info/about-us/legal/terms-conditions:   “The Site is a Venue and We are Not a Party to any Rental Transaction.   We urge all users to be responsible about their use of this Site and any transaction entered into as a result of either listing a property or renting a property.  We do not own or manage, nor can we contract for, any vacation rental property listed on a Site. HomeAway.com and other Sites act as a venue to allow homeowners and property managers who advertise on the Site (each, a “member”) to offer for rent in a variety of pricing formats, a specific vacation or short term rental property to potential renters or renters (each, a “traveler” and, collectively with a member, the “users”). "Members" may also include property owners or managers who originally advertised their properties on another website and their listings have been redistributed on the Site. We also may offer online booking or other tools or services to allow users to communicate with each other and enter into rental agreements or other transactions.   We are not a party to any rental or other agreement between users.  This is true even if the Site allows you to book a rental or provides other ancillary products or services, as the Site may facilitate booking a rental or other tools, services or products, but we are not a party to any rental or other agreement between users. As a result, any part of an actual or potential transaction between a traveler and a member, including the quality, condition, safety or legality of the properties advertised, the truth or accuracy of the listings (including the content thereof or any review relating to any property), the ability of members to rent a vacation property or the ability of travelers to contract for properties are solely the responsibility of each user. You acknowledge and agree that you may be required to enter into one or more separate agreements, waivers or terms and conditions prior to making a booking or purchasing a product or service and may place additional restrictions on your booking, product or service.   While we do take certain measures with a goal to assist users to avoid potentially fraudulent or other illegal activity of which we become aware, we assume no liability or obligation to take any such measures or actions.  When we provide warnings or messages to users about any such activity, we do not warrant that such messages are accurate or that such messages will reach any or all users they should have reached in a timely manner or at all or that such messages or measures will prevent any harm or otherwise have any impact."   According to our records this consumer also filed a formal property complaint against this advertiser (case#[redacted]). As part of that formal complaint process we did reach out to the advertiser on behalf of this consumer in order to try to get the two parties to settle their dispute. We however do NOT mediate; we simply try our best to put the two parties together to work the situation out if possible. We also closely monitor accounts that have had formal property complaints filed. Our policy is to carefully document both sides of a dispute, and keep track of all complaints submitted. When a pattern clearly develops where an advertiser is causing problems for our travelers, we do not hesitate to remove that member from our site. I assure you we have taken the appropriate action in regards to this complaint.

Thank you for bringing this consumer's concerns to our attention.   HomeAway introduced a service fee in February 2016. The service fee is currently launched on listings that were purchased through VRBO, HomeAway and VacationRentals.com. When booking and paying for a property on a HomeAway...

website, the Service Fee is clearly included in the breakdown of the total cost of the rental.   To read more about what the service fee is and why we introduced it, see this article:    https://help.homeaway.com/articles/What-is-the-service-fee-and-how-does-it-work   This fee covers the cost of providing 24/7 customer support, enhanced site and mobile features for both owner and travelers, plus expanded marketing efforts to generate more exposure to global audiences. Additionally, when a traveler books and pays through HomeAway, they are eligible for the Book with Confidence Guarantee.   https://help.homeaway.com/articles/What-is-the-Book-with-Confidence-Guarantee   We do hope this information helps explain the recent addition of the traveler service fee on HomeAway.

Thank you for bringing this consumer’s concern to our attention.   Every consumer who lists properties on HomeAway’s website agrees to our terms and conditions, which state that a listing will remain on auto-renew unless the consumer chooses to opt out. Since this consumer had listed...

their properties since 2013, they had auto-renewal active for 2014, and so they were aware of its functionality. Although the consumer contacted our customer support outside of our standard refund window, we did make an exception to refund the two subscription charges made in 2016. However, because the subscriptions from 2015 had already expired at the time of refund request, there was nothing remaining to refund.   We are unable to find any record of this consumer requesting to have the auto-renewal of their subscriptions turned off, or have their listings cancel upon expiration. If the consumer could provide written record of their claim to have canceled the listings prior to their 4/23/2015 renewal, we would accept the issue as our fault and provide a refund of the 2015 payment. Without this proof, we see nothing that points to HomeAway’s error in the automatic renewal of the listings. Although the consumer may not have benefited from them, we provided a service for both listings up until the time of the cancelation and refund request we received in May of 2016.   As we have already provided an exception to refund the subscription fees from 2016, and given the extreme amount of time that elapsed since the ealier subscriptions were purchased in 2015, we feel this is the best resolution we can offer the consumer at this time. We consider this matter resolved and closed.   [redacted]

Thank you for bringing this consumers additional concerns to our attention.According to our records this consumer had a traveler by the name of [redacted] book his property on 2/20/2016, and this consumer required a $200 NON REFUNDABLE deposit from this traveler at that time. The traveler took ill notified this consumer and unfortunately explained that she had to use her sick time at work, and would not be able to make her vacation trip planned for Jul 30 - Aug 6, 2016. We do not normally see owners/advertisers keeping travelers funds (non refundable deposits) especially when a booking is so far out in the future with plenty time for the owner to re-book the property. It is our policy that unless the owner cancels the reservation in the system for the full amount then the traveler service fee will not be refunded. Also this consumers account has been flagged as in violation of the our Terms and Conditions regarding the traveler service fee and was required to remove verbiage from his advertisement instructing travelers how to avoid the service fee. Our policy stands, the traveler service fee would not be refunded to this traveler unless this consumer were to refund this traveler in full.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  This does not address the fact that upon my contract renewal in March that this was a change in my contract and the only way that I would be able to reserve bookings through Homeaway.   On the contrary to the facts Homeaway provided regarding research, I recently had a request to NOT book with a credit card. The renters should be given the option.  It also does not address the fact that I did not (and still have not) received a supervisor call back as requested.
Regards,
[redacted]