Ownerdirect Reviews 6

HomeAway are really just part of the cartel formed by Tripadvisor, Airbnb, Booking.com and themselves which dominate the accommodation rental market and are basically holding all the market to ransom. They evidently feel that as they now own the market, if you want bookings or to book a holiday rental, you've got no choice but to use them. They can therefore dictate the terms owners must accept and the over-the-top fees renters must pay; in simple words they just expect everyone now has no choice but to just "Suck it up!"

Everyone is now overpaying to feed these vampires share prices or market valuations.

My big issue with HomeAway is the complete lies they feed through their marketing.

They say their service fees protects you. A complete lie - it doesn't, as there is NEVER ANY LEGALLY ENFORCEABLE contract between the Renter and HomeAway

• Your payment on the HomeAway platform is taken through Yapstone Inc by a Yapstone subsidiary based in Ireland: "Holiday Rent Payment"
• "Holiday Rent Payment" is only subject to Irish financial regulation which is among the weakest in Europe.
• Part of your payment went to HomeAway, to cover their Service Fee.
• You have no contract with HomeAway. They have merely facilitated the making of a contract between you and the accommodation provider.

So HomeAway is showing just what a deceitful company it is, when it says their service fee goes to protect you. No No No! It goes to sustain Expedia's inflated stock price.

Expedia is rated on a massive trailing PE of nearly 60. The only way it can keep its inflated stock price is by growing its revenue and profits at a super double digit rate. So it needs to extract the maximum amount it can from both owners and renters. Which is exactly what it has been doing since HomeAway was bought by Expedia for 3.9 billion USD. The original founders have cashed out, They've made their money and now don't care how unethical HomeAway becomes.

Owners and Renters you do have a choice, go out of your way to search for direct channels to book your holiday rental on. They are many, StaySavr is your choice. Continue to feed these vampires or demand better value and the opportunity for a complete unfiltered interaction with holiday home owners. Just as it used to be ! - You don't have to accept the hand HomeAway wants to deal you. Fight back - don't feed these vampires any more !!

Owners Direct say that people who book want to do it online and straight away. I am not one of this people I like to discuss directly with the owner, sometimes on the phone they also want to charge a fee compared I will only look at their site to find the details of where I want to stay before searching for it on google / another web site so I can talk to the owner directly. NB the author of this feedback has no links to theholidaylet and this is not advertising them just Sharing my experience

Typical yankee based firm, take your money and ignore you, nearly a thousand pounds outlay, and do you think I can get in touch with them, forget it.I cannot download the app, I cannot even print the map to show my wife and daughter in law where they are staying, and to find a contact email address where I can take up these issues, I searched high and low for 2, yes 2 days , when I found one, it would NOT accept either property ID registration ID, it managed to accept my email address and that was about all. The next step I guess is Trading Standards.
What an awful experience from an awful firm.
Managed to get in contact via a chat line, 45 minutes it took me to persuade them to send me details, 45 minutes, no more no less, and their site STILL wont let me print anything, do ou know what they said, WE CANT SEND YOU DETAILS OF THE HOUSE YOU HAVE RENTED ITS AGAINST THE DATA PROTECTION ACT/// how ludicrous, it,s the normal excuse for incompetence.
Book with this firm at your peril, incompetence is their byword, they ARE good at taking your moneyl

AND the saga continues, I actually heard from the owner of the property in Sardinia, their idea of help was, Welcome to the house Matthias, the house is 50 minutes from Olba airport, well thanks a bunch
.I actually found an help email address this morning,and spent 30 minutes outlaying my concerns, it actually transmitted,and then comes the cruch,AN ERROR HAS OCCURRED AND WE CANNOT ACCEPT YOUR EMAIL, screaming frustration or what.

Also look on ownersdirect.com trust pilot
There are another 1100, 1 star reviews
This is .uk see .com
So with the 600 that's a whooping BAD BAD 1700 reviews

Like others I came onto the Owners Direct many years ago and can only agree with what everybody else is saying. I am no longer in control of my bookings and have lost patience with the new layout and their ridiculous terms. I had a very good system without their interference but now I am being constantly harassed by them to instil their changes as soon as I go into my account.

I have always had a good rapport with my guests without the interference of the new O/Direct system which has not only taken away business from me but I feel they are misrepresenting me as an advertiser.

I am currently looking at alternative sites to advertise, so be prepared Owners Direct as I will be taking my business elsewhere.

I have ticked the box but having read some of their replies I am not expecting anything positive back from them which will benefit me.