Warning: Fraud on HomeAway Vacation Rentals Site!

Many people use HomeAway.com to search and book their vacation rentals.  They think that this is a reputable site and safe to use.   As my son and his friends recently discovered, there are scammers who use this site to defraud people, and HomeAway does not do enough to prevent fraudulent postings on their site.  They also refuse to reimburse the victims for the losses as per their guarantee promise.  Please read the short story below to avoid being scammed when you book your vacation rental.

My son and his friends were looking for a vacation rental for this summer’s senior week.  One of his friends, Brian, volunteered to make the arrangements.  Brian found several houses they liked on HomeAway and send inquiries.  He received various responses.  One response looked as it came from the HomeAway site stated that the apartment he inquired had a cancellation, and, if he moves fast, he could reserve it.  The property number was different than the one he inquired on (which he did not notice), but it represented a legitimate property on HomeAway.

The group made a  mistake paying this fraudster up front by making a money transfer.  After the money transfer was made, the “property owner” emailed Brian that there was a mistake in account number and the funds he wired were not received.  He provided another bank account and requested to make another wire transfer.  The group checked whether the money was transferred back to Brian’s account, and since they were not, they tried contacting the home owner and requested to check what happened.  The emailing back-and-forth went for a few days.  At this point they finally suspected that something was fishy and tried to reverse the wire transfer.  They were notified by the bank that it was not possible to reverse the transfer because the account the money was wired to was closed.

Before the payment was made, HomeAway identified the false listing and sent an email notifying Brian that they delisted this listing for suspected fraud.  However, since the listing of the property now Brian was dealing with was different, he figured this email was in reference to one of the other listings he inquired on and took no action. 

When I contacted HomeAway to see what could be done to recover the lost money and find out how do they let fraudulent listings on their site, their Trust and Security customer service person first implied that it was very likely that the group would be eligible for a $1,000 refund as part of the HomeAway guarantee.  He asked me to collect and submit all documentation including all communications, wire transfer records and signed contracts. 

After I submitted all documentation, HomeAway notified me that my son and his friends were not eligible to receive the $1,000 guarantee, because they made the payment after HomeAway sent the email notifying of suspicious listing.  My pleas and explanations that listing number was cleverly changed by the fraudster did not help.

I feel that although Brian and his friends made many mistakes in this process, HomeAway was partially responsible for the fraud by letting an illegitimate person to make a listing on their site – they obviously do not check good enough whether the listing is legitimate and do not authenticate the people who make the listings.  It is unfortunate that so far they have not been willing to take responsibility for this and honor their guarantee. 

Who knows what other fraud schemes are happening on HomeAway site.   I would not recommend using their service for your vacation rentals -- you are risking losing your money and spoiling your vacation plans.