lmb221

I recently tried to book an apartment using the "Book Now" feature on the HomeAway website (HomeAway and VRBO are different websites run by the same company). I got an error message saying that the booking was not made and to try again later. So I used the "Contact Manager" feature on HomeAway's site to contact the property manager. (I could have reserved with the property manager directly on their own website, but they are in Europe and I'm in no hurry to have to go to a European court to get my security deposit back if need be.)

Later I got an email from the property manager saying that my booking was accepted and two pending charges came up on my credit card, one for HomeAway's service charge and the other for the rental. On HomeAway's website, however, there was no indication of the booking -- the property was not listed in "My Trips" and there was no Reservation ID.

After I emailed HomeAway customer service, they said that this reservation was made directly through the property manager, bypassing HomeAway entirely. Well, that can't be true because I never provided credit card information by any means to the property manager and the only entity that had my credit card information was HomeAway.

The only way this could have happened is if HomeAway provided my credit card information to the property manager. To be clear, I intended to book through HomeAway, and through HomeAway only, and provided credit card information to HomeAway, and to HomeAway only. I've sent a few emails to customer service, and eventually to HomeAway's CEO and the parent company's (Expedia) CEO & CFO and there's no progress on this.

To sum up, either HomeAway customer service is mistaken and the reservation was in fact made through HomeAway, or HomeAway has illegaly provided my credit card information to the property manager, thus enabling the property manager to engage in credit card fraud with the assistance of HomeAway. If this is just a mistake, not clear why customer support and C-level people, who were alerted to this, can't fix it.

I am wondering if other people have had similar experiences or any recommendations.

Thanks

jackal

I can confirm that owners never get access to the guest's credit card details--actually, not even the last four digits of the card number are shown at any point (only an indication whether it's VI/MC/AX/DS/etc.). Furthermore, I do not even know by what channel an owner could ever be given the card number--it certainly would never be delivered in one of the activity alert emails owners get of new inquiries or bookings, and there's no place where the guest's payment details are accessible in the owner interface.

What does the charge on your credit card account say? I actually don't know how charges show up on guest's accounts when using HomeAway Payments, but payments made through HomeAway's credit card processor are done under the HomeAway Payments brand by VacationRentPayment, a brand of YapStone, Inc. If any of those names show up in the credit card charge, then it may have been processed by HomeAway Payments.

For what it's worth, if it's helpful:

lmb221

I assume this is for a regular account. This property manager is a pretty large business -- they have at least a few hundred properties offered in Europe. I'm assuming HomeAway offers an enterprise-type account for larger customers that integrates with the property manager's backend, which may be where the credit card data was passed. I see no other way to explain this -- the charge from the property manager has posted to the credit card I have on file with HomeAway and I didn't give any of that info to the property manager.

That's why it looks to me like HomeAway is actively assisting in credit card fraud.

The charge only lists the property manager's name and does not mention HomeAway/VRBO/YapStone etc.

Thanks for your suggestion, I've been calling and sending messages for a few days (eventually including the C-level folks) and still no progress.

jackal

You may be correct:

https://www.homeaway.com/platform/property-managers (for PMs with 5+ properties)
https://software.homeaway.com/featur...ust-accounting (full-service PM management software)
https://software.homeaway.com/products/v12-software

etc.

I do not know to what extent credit card information is shared in those types of accounts, but basic card security requirements (PCI compliance, etc.) are certainly followed.

I think "actively assisting in credit card fraud" is a stretch. You got your reservation at the price you wanted (presumably). There may have been an IT glitch of some sort, but so long as you were not charged a different rate or for the wrong property or your card number is stolen and used for something else, I think the word "fraud" is a little strong of an accusation.

If you believe it was a fraudulent transaction, cancel the reservation and/or dispute the charge and call HomeAway directly to re-book via phone or something.

lmb221

I think putting a charge on a credit card requires express and unambiguous authorization from the holder. When someone puts an unauthorized charge on a credit card, that's generally called credit card fraud. Here I didn't authorize the property manager to charge my card, I didn't even provide them card info. It looks like they got my card info from HomeAway, and charged the card without my authorization. If that's what happened, then HomeAway assisted in credit card fraud by providing credit card info to someone who engaged in credit card fraud. The fact that HomeAway is stonewalling after being alerted to this is what is particularly troubling.

Thanks again for the thoughts.

sallymaine

I'm in a similar situation right now. I've used HomeAway successfully a number of times and my latest booking went as normal, or so I thought, until I got a call from Mastercard. An attempt had been made by a company they consider to be fraudulent so they didn't allow the charge to go through and called me. The company is a property management firm with a legit looking website. One the company owners/employees was the person I was emailing with regarding the property details. In our various emails he said: my payment didn't go through so could I try another card; their payment system was down so could I please be patient while they sort it out; and I should talk to my bank and let them put the charge through. The individual's email address was from yet another property management company so twice I asked who I was dealing with and could I get a statement and fee schedule, particularly since the amounts they were trying to charge did in no way correspond with the original payment schedule from my HA booking. At no time did I give this company any financial information. I did the booking the same as always: all credit card information only on HA's website and correspondence with the owner limited to practical details. HA security insists they do not keep or pass along credit card info, but if they didn't, how did this company manage to attempt at least three charges to my card?

jackal

I've talked with the people at HomeAway, and it turns out that HomeAway does not even allow professional property manager accounts to use its own payment system (powered by Yapstone)--professional property manager accounts must use their own payment vendor.

So, what happened to you was completely normal and expected.

It is, however, not clearly communicated on the HomeAway site, where it does appear when you give your credit card that all charges will be processed by HomeAway. Perhaps they do need to make it clearer. But since that's the normal process, nothing fraudulent happened, and it is unsuprising that HomeAway was not willing to reverse anything, because they did nothing out of the ordinary.

As for credit card security, HomeAway has several different software packages for property managers that they interface with. Only these specific software vendors qualify for direct, instant confirmation on the HomeAway site and for direct transmission/processing of credit cards provided through HomeAway, and these software packages maintain full PCI compliance, so your card data is never exposed to anyone.

Again, nothing fraudulent going on here. I took a look through HomeAway's TOS and there's enough legal wiggle room in there to allow third parties to process your payments (technically, HomeAway's own Yapstone service is an independent processor that isn't part of the HomeAway organization), so I don't think you have much of an argument. Plus, you didn't indicate that anything bad happened or that you were overcharged or anything, so I really don't see any basis for a complaint at all on your part. You're just unhappy that the payment wasn't taken directly by HomeAway, as far as I can tell.

Gwot