VRBO.com

This consumer purchased a new subscription on January 1st for listing ***. They have another listing, *** that was active on the site from 9/3/under the Pay-Per-Booking model It appears that the consumer purchased the subscription for the wrong listing number.
When they realized the error they contacted us. We refunded the subscription payment in full and the member purchased a new subscription for listing *** on 2/16/16. As a gesture of goodwill we added two months to the member's new subscription.The Terms and Conditions of the Pay-Per-Booking model states: "Pay-per-booking listings may be converted to subscription listings at any time; however any bookings already made shall remain subject to applicable pay-per-booking fees and commissions."

The online booking option that this consumer decided to try was able to be removed from his listing upon his requestThe traveler service fee that this consumer continued to see on his quotes was, indeed, added to our website in February of This fee is charged to travelers who book through our website using any of our online booking payment methodsTurning on an online payment method, as this consumer did on August 23rd of this year, triggers the traveler service fee to be added to all rate quotes for his property that are provided to travelers on our websiteIn fairness to all travelers and property owners, it was our intent that once the fee was activated by online booking, it would not be able to be removedWe heard a lot of feedback from our customers that since they are receiving payments offline, they do not want the service fee to appear on their quotesAt the time that this consumer requested the alternative payment methods removed from his listing so that the fee would be removed, this was not an option that we had at our disposal because a "turn off" option had not been programmed into the websiteDue to much feedback from our customers, we have since added the option to turn off the alternative payment methods which, in turn, removes the traveler service feeThis consumer has been contacted and his listing edited so that traveler service fees no longer appear on his rate quotes

Thank you very much for contacting us regarding this matter
According to our records we do see that we did discuss this with this consumer in case#*** back on 9/11/
Vacation Rent Payments (VRP) is our third party credit card processing companyWhen a
traveler books and pays via credit card through our site with a member of ours who is set up to receive payments through VRP the credit card is processed thru VRP and the financial institution that the consumer has set up for these funds to be disbursed to and from
In this particular situation it sounds like the traveler did complete his stay and according to the consumers dashboard (account) the consumer refunded his security deposit plus cleaning ($350) on 5/31/Additionally we do see that on 6/17/the entire amount $was reversedVRBO and HomeAway, Inc are not directly involved in these types of transactions and our messaging on the consumers dash does direct him to contact VRP at ###-###-#### with questions regarding this matterWe also do recommend that this consumer contact his financial institution to dispute this action

Our formal Response:
According to our records this Revdex.com Complaint #*** was assigned our internal case # ***The issue stemmed from direct contact by this consumer to us in her case# ***The complaint was due to a technical issue with getting her property
video uploaded onto the ***.com site #*** to match her VRBO.com siteSince it was a technical issue it did take some time to get our IT and dev teams to investigateThe issue was resolved quite some time ago and has not been a problemPlease reference video on the *** listing here: http://www.homeaway.com*** As a gesture of good faith we have asked our billing team to extend this consumers subscription on this ***.com listing for months
Thank you,
*** *** | Trust & Security Lead

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: You need to take responsibility for not allowing customers to leave negative feedbackI rented this place under pretenses due to the lack of negative feedback which was blocked.
Regards,
*** ***

VRBO begun charging a huge booking fee and it is costing me inquiries and rentals I am looking for new businesses to list my property I never gave them permission to charge these booking fees and it is a burden to consumers For shame that they are allowed to get away with this Where is the protection for consumers and Owners Owners already pay VRBO the largest listing fee than any other site, plus credit card trans fees plus VRBO is selling insurance and lots of other "up selling" for better placementThey could not figure out how to charge the Owners anymore money, so they are going after the consumers
I am canceling when I have an alternative Consumers will run from this as well I hope someone with legal muscle sues them for damages

HomeAway.com strives to provide a secure online marketplace
for owners to advertise their vacation rental properties and for travelers to
research an extensive catalog of rental optionsHomeAway has invested in trust
& security technology, people and processes to help
protect consumers
against criminal activity on our sites
This consumer/traveler unfortunately has been the victim of what is referred to
as phishingPhishers are individuals, or small groups, who execute phishing
schemes in an attempt to steal identities or information for monetary gainThe
advertiser/vacation rental owner or property manager’s personal email account
had been phishedRest assured there was not been a breach or compromise to the
HomeAway site
To clarify, the initial inquiry a traveler submits on our site is then
automatically routed to the personal email address that our advertiser/vacation
rental owner or property manager supplies to usOur system forwards the
traveler’s inquiry to the personal email address designated only by our
advertiser/vacation rental owner or property managerIt is the sole
responsibility of our advertiser/vacation rental owner or property manager to
safeguard and ensure that their email address account is safe and secureThe
security of our customer’s personal email address is simply not within our
control
When we learn of a phish attempt of our advertiser/vacation rental owner or
property manager’s email account our Trust & Security team takes immediate
action by temporarily deactivating their vacation rental listing(s) and putting
them through a security process by which they must update all of their account
details, most importantly a new email address is requiredWe also immediately
send out messaging to any travelers who may have inquired on their listings to
protect any travelers from falling prey to a phisher
Phishing is one of the most common internet scams; HomeAway, Incbeing an
internet based business has both programs and educational materials in place
for our site users to protect themselves against phishingWe strive to inform
and encourage our travelers to protect themselves in various waysUpon
inquiring each traveler receives instruction on the safest payment methods
They also are instructed to call the advertiser prior to sending any monies
Travelers also are encouraged to buy the HomeAway Carefree Rental Guarantee
Terms & Conditions of the HomeAway Carefree Rental Guarantee: http://www.homeaway.com/guarantee/tac.html
We also direct each inquirer to learn more about renting safely from our
Security Center at:
http://www.homeaway.com/info/security?Owners
In the event that a traveler has fallen victim to phishing and has not
protected themselves we do have a program in place called the Basic Rental
GuaranteeThis program will reimburse an unprotected traveler up to $of
their lost funds
According
to our records this consumer does qualify for the Basic Rental Guarantee and we
have been actively working with this traveler in Case#*** We did send
reimbursement forms to this consumer today 8/20/We simply need this consumer
to submit the necessary documentation for request for reimbursement to move
forward

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
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From: *** *** ** *** ** ***Sent: Monday, March 07, 2:PMTo: *** ***Subject: complaint *** resolved I submitted this complaint after first contact with the vendorI requested that the vendor escalate my complaint and it has been resolvedI no longer need help with this matterThank you very muchBest, ***
Regards,
*** ***

I would like to give this negative review as my Christmas gift to VRBO and MrCEO SCROOGE
I have been with VRBO for years and have been satisfied until nowI used to have continuous inquiries for my N.YLake front property, but since being acquired by Expedia my inquiries have become non existentThere used to be property listings on our VRBO New York lake site, and now there are over listingsAlmost all the listings are not even in the area and have absolutely no relationship with the New York lake site
VRBO now wants us to accept Online Booking which takes another layer of control away from us and lines their greedy pockets with additional fees , this time from the renters
I wrote VRBO a complaint and since then my listing went from first page ranking down to page number 150'ishMy subscription expires in March and I am going elsewhere
I am hoping a class action suit will be in your future MrSCROOGE

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
Regards,
*** ***

The email included by the consumer is from VacationRentPayment (VRP), not HomeAway. One of our representatives from our Technical Support Team contacted VRP for confirmation and found that the transaction had actually cleared. We followed up with this consumer as outlined below. There is nothing further we can do to recover the consumer's funds.-------------- Original Message ---------------From: [[email protected]]Sent: 1/29/3:PMTo: ***Subject:HomeAway Property Case *** * *Dear ***Thank you for contacting HomeAway Customer SupportI am so sorry you are experiencing this issue with Joshua Toulas's deposit refundI double checked with our payment processor and was told that this refund transaction cleared on 1/10/Unfortunately there is nothing we can do to reverse a refund that has already clearedIf you have any additional questions, please call our payment processor, VacationRentPayments at *** The reference number for this refund transaction is ***If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us again through our Help page at the link belowThis resource also provides commonly asked questions and answers.***Thank you for using HomeAway, the world leader in vacation rentals, with over million listings across our family of brands.Best regards,
***HomeAway.com Technical Support

We sincerely apologize for the delay in our response. We thank this consumer for their comments. We understand that they may disagree with the review policy on VRBO, but our policies for the hosting of user-generated content is similar to many other large-scale, reputable websites and
complies with both the Communications Decency Act and the European E Commerce Directive. Specifically, with regard to user-generated content:We do not edit, modify or alter the content or investigate the accuracy of the content.Each vacation rental owner or property manager is given the opportunity to respond to a reviewTravelers are not permitted to comment on an owner’s response.We may remove any review brought to our attention that does not comply with our Content Guidelines, keeping in mind that we do not investigate the accuracy of a review.At this time the review the consumer is referring to meets our content guidelines and will not be removed

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because it does not address the remedy I was asking. The rental damage deposit was applied in this case so suggesting to do this in the future does not help me. As I indicated in my original claim, the rent and the damage deposit was taken away from me by VRBO so I don't know what good it will do for me to keep applying this if the moment VRBO encounters a credit card fraud, they will keep penalizing me twice. I am not asking to be reimbursed for the damages caused by the renter. I am only asking for VRBO to reimburse me the payment that was processed for the transaction i.e., the rent and the damage deposit. I have contacted the police and my local Member of Parliament to pursue this matter further as well as the media. This busness needs to be regulated if they refuse to be accountable. I would expect that this company will not interfere with a criminal and legal investigation. I have asked and was denied to link me with the credit card company to assist with the fraud investigation.Regards,*** ***

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:The canned response indicates that "All user-generated content is solely the opinion of the author." However, this is not the caseThe owner's reply to my comment is not an "opinion," which as even my third grade daughter can understand, is "a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge," but is instead stated as factThis too, is not the case, and should be readily verifiable if it were factualInstead, the owner has defamed us in their post and has blatantly liedThus, the post does not meet the guidelines established by VRBOIf VRBO were to follow their own policies, the owner's response would be removed.The subject property also includes various reviews that are clearly posted by the owner themselves, which is against VRBO's own policyHowever, VRBO appears unwilling to enforce their own policy in this instanceThis owner has proven deceitful and fraudulent such that anything posted by the owner should be carefully scrutinized, including each of the positive reviews of their properties
Regards,
*** ***

Thank you for bringing this consumers concerns to our attentionThis consumer has also reached out to us directly in case ***.This consumers listing is showing the correct city of address as the location (Grayland, WA): https://w***It is also showing on the first
page of results in the search for Grayland, WA: https://***
Our map searches are now based on the actual location (map pin showing the verified address) instead of the selected advertising region on the dashboardThe map view will display all listings within the latitude/longitude coordinates for the specific regional location as wellIn addition, your listing may be included in nearby search results when using the keyword search Your listing showing up in nearby searches, such as Westport, is not guaranteed.Our search results are dynamic for each traveler based on best match, which is a sophisticated process that looks at traveler preferences as well as the booking experience a listing provides to place listings within search resultsOur goal is to provide an efficient experience for owners, property managers, and travelers by showing properties that are most likely to be booked.Traveler PreferencesHomeAway enables a variety of search options and features designed to help travelers find what they are looking for without difficulty, which in turn also drives qualified inquiries and bookings to our owners and property managersWe use the information travelers enter into the search box, such as date and location, and take into account any filters selected, including map viewsSince each traveler and search is unique, search results vary for each traveler.Booking ExperienceThe booking experience refers to how easily and reliable a listing can be booked by travelersIt can be indicated by factors such as an accurate calendar, response time, and accepting online bookingsThe most important way to be successful is to enable online booking and increase the number of onsite bookingsIf we don’t have visibility into your booking activity, we can’t factor that advantage into listing performance with best match.HomeAway continues to strive to drive more bookings for our owners and property managersDelighting travelers with an excellent booking experience encourages repeat travelers and repeat bookings that help our shared marketplace thrive.Please go to our help portal for more information regarding Best Match.-------------------------------------------*** *** Trust & Security Lead | HomeAway, Inc.*** | o: ***.***.*** | m: ***.*** | Skype: ***

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:My property manager asked, as you suggest, for credit towards creating a new listingThey were told that they must agree to but this new listing at the higher platinum package rate of the original which they (and we) were unwilling to do based on our experience with your companyOur property manager was told that even though the promised services we had prepaid for had not been delivered for many weeks-- with a resultant loss of potential income, VRBO was unwilling to give any credit for time lost unless we were willing to lock in a new listing at a higher rateThis is not transparent nor equitable business practice. In the meantime it is now the end of December without a resolution to this issue (several months later) and an incorrect misleading listing is still up for our property on th VRBO websiteIt boggles my mind how this is acceptable for VRBO since this means defunct or inaccuarate listings are live on your site while your exisiting customers are put on indefinite hold and ultimately driven awayThe business model seems to involve taking client fees and then perhaps delivering services promised if no structural changes or other technical issues arise (neither of which are the fault of your client --the burden is on VRBO to fulfill their obligations regardless) -- and if services cannot be deliivered as promised then pressure the client into accepting their loss (we were told to see ou pre-paid fee as an "investment") or to buy a band new contract at a higher rate with no recompense or good faith gesture for the many weeks of lost potential income through VRBO's inaction and poor service We would like the modest refund due us requested in the original complaintThis could be paid to us directly or to our current property manager to be applied to other listings but we believe this is not only fair but the only ethical course of action for VRBO.
Regards,
*** ***

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 publicWe 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 complaintOur 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 managerSee the Terms and Conditions below that the consumer/traveler and landlord/property manager agreed to about our role hereTherefore, this complaint is incorrectly being associated with HomeAway Inc, and it should be associated with the landlord/property manager.Section 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 SiteHomeAway.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 SiteWe 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 usersAs 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 userYou 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."We encourage this consumer to contact us directly to file a formal property complaint against this advertiserAs part of that formal complaint process we reach out to the advertiser on behalf of this consumer in order to try to get the two parties to settle their disputeWe 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 filedOur policy is to carefully document both sides of a dispute, and keep track of all complaints submittedWhen a pattern clearly develops where an advertiser is causing problems for our travelers, we do not hesitate to remove that member from our site. *** *** *** Trust & Security Lead | HomeAway, Inc.*** | o: *** | m: *** | Skype: ***

This complaint is not against HomeAway IncWe 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 publicWe 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 complaintOur 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 managerSee the Terms and Conditions below that the consumer/traveler and landlord/property manager agreed to about our role hereTherefore, this complaint is incorrectly being associated with HomeAway Inc, and it should be associated with the landlord/property managerSection of our Terms and Conditions http://*** “The Site is a Venue and We are Not a Party to any Rental TransactionWe 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 propertyWe do not own or manage, nor can we contract for, any vacation rental property listed on the SiteInstead, the Site acts as a venue to allow homeowners and property managers who advertise on our Site (each, a “member”) to offer for rent in a variety of pricing formats, a specific vacation rental property to potential renters (each, a “traveler” and, collectively with a member, the “users”)We are not involved in any transaction between travelers and members even though we may from time to time provide tools that relate to a booking, such as a tool to enable a traveler to enter into a transaction to lease a specific property directly from a memberAs a result, any part of an actual or potential transaction between a traveler and a member, including the quality, safety or legality of the properties advertised, the truth or accuracy of the listings (including the content thereof or any property or guest book review), the ability of members to rent a vacation property or the ability of travelers to pay for vacation rental properties are solely the responsibility of each userWe are also not responsible for the condition of the vacation rental properties listed on our Site or the compliance with laws, rules or regulations that may be applicable to any vacation rental property in any jurisdiction.Finally, 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 actionsIn the event we do provide warnings or messages to users about any such activity, we do not warrant that such messages or 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, result or action." According to our records this consumer also filed a formal property complaint against this advertiser (case# ***)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 disputeWe however do NOT mediate; we simply try our best to put the two parties together to work the situation out if possibleWe also closely monitor accounts that have had formal property complaints filedOur policy is to carefully document both sides of a dispute, and keep track of all complaints submittedWhen a pattern clearly develops where an advertiser is causing problems for our travelers, we do not hesitate to remove that member from our siteI assure you we have taken the appropriate action in regards to this complaint

This complaint is not against HomeAway IncWe 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 publicWe 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 complaintOur 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 managerSee the Terms and Conditions below that the consumer/traveler and landlord/property manager agreed to about our role hereTherefore, this complaint is incorrectly being associated with HomeAway Inc, and it should be associated with the landlord/property managerSection 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 TransactionWe 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 propertyWe do not own or manage, nor can we contract for, any vacation rental property listed on the SiteInstead, the Site acts as a venue to allow homeowners and property managers who advertise on our Site (each, a “member”) to offer for rent in a variety of pricing formats, a specific vacation rental property to potential renters (each, a “traveler” and, collectively with a member, the “users”)We are not involved in any transaction between travelers and members even though we may from time to time provide tools that relate to a booking, such as a tool to enable a traveler to enter into a transaction to lease a specific property directly from a memberAs a result, any part of an actual or potential transaction between a traveler and a member, including the quality, safety or legality of the properties advertised, the truth or accuracy of the listings (including the content thereof or any property or guest book review), the ability of members to rent a vacation property or the ability of travelers to pay for vacation rental properties are solely the responsibility of each user.We are also not responsible for the condition of the vacation rental properties listed on our Site or the compliance with laws, rules or regulations that may be applicable to any vacation rental property in any jurisdictionFinally, 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 actionsIn the event we do provide warnings or messages to users about any such activity, we do not warrant that such messages or 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, result or action." According to our records this consumer has not filed a formal property complaint against this advertiser with HomeAwayWe will contact the consumer directly to begin that processAs part of our formal complaint process we will reach out to the advertiser (once we have this consumer’s complaint in writing) on behalf of this consumer in order to try to get the two parties to settle their disputeWe however do NOT mediate; we simply try our best to put the two parties together to work the situation out if possibleWe also closely monitor accounts that have had formal property complaints filedOur policy is to carefully document both sides of a dispute, and keep track of all complaints submittedWhen a pattern clearly develops where an advertiser is causing problems for our travelers, we do not hesitate to remove that member from our site

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: VRBO is simply choosing to ignore fact This advertiser has NEVER had any connection with the property he listed I have PROVEN this through contacting the actual property owner, and the realty company that recently SOLD this property The logic that because the lister had previous success and therefore could not be fraudulent now is ridiculous THIS LISTING WAS PUT ON VRBO FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF FINANCIAL GAIN WITH NO INTENTION OF PROVIDING THE PROPERTY FOR RENT THE LISTER COULD NOT, BECAUSE HE HAS NO CONNECTION WITH THE PROPERTY WHATSOEVER, AND NEVER HAS VRBO PAID HIM BEFORE THE CONTRACT WAS FULFILLED, AND AS A RESULT, ABETTED THE FRAUDVRBO IS NOT DEALING IN GOOD FAITH EVERYTHING ON THEIR WEBSITE ADVERTISES PROTECTION FOR RENTERS, BUT WHEN FRAUD IS COMMITTED, THEY CLAIM THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT I WILL BE CONTACTING THE ATTORNEY GENERALRegards,
*** ***