renting in Paris
Has anyone used vrbo to book an apartment in Paris? We are looking for an apartment in Paris for 4 days in May and wondering which site is safe one for booking through. The problem I see with vrbo is that there are never any negative reviews so I wonder if they are true.
Lin
Victoria B.C., Canada 1/16/13
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I have used VRBO to rent multiple apartments in Europe, including 2 in Paris. I loved one and disliked the other. I did write a positive review for the one I liked and a negative review for the one I disliked. The owner was able to make his own remarks about my negative review. That particular apartment does not seem to be listed on any website anymore. Homeaway.com is another one I've used to find apartments.
Why don't you rent from Vacation in Paris instead? Then you don't have to worry about safety, reliability, direct deposit etc. like you do with individual apartment owners. They rent by th enight so you don't have to worry about a one-week minimum like you do with some VRBO rentals.
I've only rented one apartment in Paris and that was through VRBO (based on recommendations from friends) and was perfectly happy. The apartment was exactly as portrayed on the website and the owner was a delight to deal with. I know that when you are dealing with individual owners there are differences in attitudes and services, etc. If you think you're only seeing positive reviews and not negative ones you can alwyas cross-check the apartment on Trip Advisor to see if there are additional reviews on there. I was very happy with my experience and would recommend VRBO to friends, in fact I did just that and the same apartment I rented is now being rented by a friend of a friend for a month this spring. I would also advise that you phone and speak directly with the owner before making a decision and I would also advise taking out the insurance offered by VRBO in case something goes wrong. I did that, it wasn't expensive and did give an additional peace of mind.
Thank you for the suggestions. I did not know about the insurance so I will read up on that. Thanks also for the other hints on different sites. I will check them out also. There are so many options that sometimes my head just spins.
Lin at this date it may be a bit harder to find an apartment then you would suppose, May is a popular month, there are several holidays in it for the French ( and they visit their capital city too for holidays) and some places either won't rent for less then a week, or add an extra charge for "short stays" .
You may wish to line up some hotel ideas too.
Just to explain about Vacations in Paris, it is an American company with lots of apartments all over Paris. They charge in dollars and take credit cards, including for the damage deposit, so no surprises or hassles with getting your money back. You can search the website by size of apartment (studio, one-bedroometc.) and by arrondissement. It need not make your head spin to look through them. They are very easy to work with.
We are also renting an apartment in Paris for 4 days in May - through Parler Paris Apartments. I had trouble finding much on VRBO that didn't require at least a minimum 5 night stay. That said, the Parler Paris Apartments are beautiful and seem to enjoy many positive reviews - I scoured the internet for negative reviews and found none. So far, they have been excellent and very professional to work with. The apartments tend to be a little on the higher end price-wise, but I figure we are paying for the convenience of that shorter stay. The apartments suited our taste and they were still less expensive than staying in a hotel of similar caliber. Happy travels,
As far as minimum stays on VRBO, if you want to stay a shorter period than the stated minimum it doesn't hurt to contact the owner to see if they can accommodate you. Most of the rentals are not a Saturday-Saturday for example, so they may have an odd number of days that they would like to fill in.
I've rented four apartments in Paris (most recently this November) using VRBO and many others in Europe and elsewhere and haven't had a single issue. I've only used Homeaway once this past year in London. It was very easy too. I'm pretty sure they are the same company now. I do sometimes review places and I don't think I ever wrote a negative one but that's because I just never had a bad experience. I'm sure they are out there so do your homework. I google names of owners, adresses, apartment descriptions, just to see if anything odd turns up, and sometimes a cheaper listing elsewhere. Don't forget google streetview of the apartment and neighborhood. I've also used leasing services (not Europe but F.W.I.) every year and can't complain about that either. Ditto what Andrea says. I rented a place in Venice for 3 nights that insisted on VRBO only weekly rentals. Done the same elsewhere. Next big decision: Where? FWIW, I rented in 3,4,5,&7 and enjoyed them in exactly that order. Good luck!
We recently booked an apartment for next October with Homeaway. I've also used Airbnb although only in the US, but I know they have apartments in Paris, too.
We ended up finding a good one on Airbnb...fingers crossed all goes well. It was easy to book...I will post the final result after our trip in May.
Thank you for everyone's help and suggestions.
We just rented an apartment in Paris for Christmas from Cobblestone and it was great! The apartment was exactly as it looked on their website, they had someone meet us when we arrived, they showed us how everything worked and gave us information about the area. We were very pleased with the entire transaction. And it was so nice to live in a neighborhood and have the time to wander around.