I have rented on Homeaway as a tenant and have been very happy with the rental experience. Now I have just started listing a furnished apartment on Homeaway and have only just taken a booking from my first tenant. I hope I can still keep my rating high down the road both as tenant and landlord. I will certainly update my review if that changes because transparency is very important with the boom of this new temporary/furnished rental trend. Be warned, scammers will infiltrate!! I am considering as a landlord using my own rental application to learn more about the tenant when I use Homeaway – and I definitely do use a lease. I also am going to learn more about the landlords moving forward when I rent as a tenant – ask lots of questions. I will look up on the local tax rolls to be sure that this person truly owns the property. With the new Airbnb trend I will need to be sure it is not an illegal sublease (which is becoming very commonplace). So even though – so far – I have had great experiences with Homeaway I can see there is need moving forward to be more cautious. The key is to do your own research, get your own verification from the other person – get last names, ask for their website, ask if they have a Facebook and linkedin, ask for a driver’s license picture (for goodness sake bouncers at a bar ask for that,certainly you don’t need to be shy about that). And I mean both tenants and landlords should do this! Don’t be shy. I don’t want some bad actors to ruin my experience in renting vacation/temporary homes – this is a much needed service for me that I enjoy and appreciate.
