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Which "rent from owner" websites do you like best?

Pauline

Forums Admin
Homeaway own many of the big "rent from owner" sites like homeaway.com, vrbo.com, ownersdirect.co.uk and others. But there are still other websites in this game, and more being added every day it seems.

HolidayLettings is part of Trip Advisor.
AirBnB seemed to come out of nowhere and has vacation rentals as well as rooms.
Pure Holiday Homes started a few years ago and was bought out by the Leisure Group who own on of the large vacation rental agency databases.
Holiday Velvet started small and is growing.
Roomorama has been around for awhile.

I tend to use homeaway.com because I can create an account and keep a list of favorites. But, I have two complaints with them: 1. They have too many listings. It is very time consuming going through them all. 2. Many lists do not have complete information.

I tend to be captivated by photos - if a listing has lovely photos and a good description and some info about the owner and some reviews!, then I feel I can make a decision. I know I miss many good ones because I give up when I see blurry photos.

What Rent from Owner sites do you use? How do you use them?

And I should not forget to mention the vacation rental reviews on SlowTrav - I use them frequently.
 
I'll be using a rent from owner agency, Airbnb, for the first time in Roma coming up in May. Here's the apartment near Campo dei Fiori. I was hesitant about using Airbnb, having no experience with them but I must say, having the quotes and payment in $ and just using a credit card, the rental process was easier than my previous rentals using bank transfers and then traveling with thousands of € for the agency.

I will certainly come back with a review, if that helps...
 
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We've used both Airbnb and Booking.com for our trip to Germany and Belgium last summer, and ended up with the 2 same agencies for our upcoming trip to Italy. I agree with Pauline about the number of listings, and there seems to be no way to 'eliminate' certain listings, meaning that I have to go through the whole list every time. Yes, you can 'save' your favorites, but if you want to review the entire list from time to time to see if new places have been added, you're back to the entire list - again.

For Germany we also used a site called "Live Like A German" and found them to be quite helpful with selecting a location.
 
We were really happy with our first European Airbnb apartment, in Lisbon last October, which I reviewed on SlowTrav; we've recently booked another one for Madrid (and I've used them for UK B&Bs three times now: all good).

In many ways, they act more like an agency than a 'rent from owner' site. Kim and I discussed this on the ST thread when she posted the review: here's my thoughts.

I think they do count as an agency - more so than VRBO, for instance. The renter's contract is with airbnb, they send the bill (and the reminder), you pay them, and then they pass the money (less their cut) on to the owner one day after you check in. They're upfront about the charges: for these 5 nights in Lisbon, the bill was £361, of which £45 was the airbnb 'service fee', and the (advertised) £63 per night went to the owner.

It's very different for VRBO bookings - I made one, at much the same time as the Lisbon one, for a fortnight in SF at Christmas/New Year. With this VRBO listing, I paid the owner direct; I have no idea what proportion of those fees gets passed on to VRBO.

Thinking of those discussions over on the Italy board about bank transfers and the like - airbnb is a lot more straightforward, since you pay with your credit card; for the VRBO SF owner, I was lucky enough to have friends nearby who have both UK and US bank accounts to pass on the payments (thanks, P&S!).
 
I have used both VRBO and Home Away for the last few trips--a total of about 4 or 5 rentals. Only one was a disappointment. That one (in Rome on Campo dei Fiori) was extremely noisy, a fact which none of the glowing reviews mentioned. We have two rentals coming up for this summer's trip--a week in Florence and a month in Venice--and both will be through vrbo. My general sense is that we are getting a less expensive rate by leaving out the middle man/agency.

Also, Heidi--that apartment looks fantastic. Just be careful on those stairs.
 
I've used vrbo and homeaway with successful outcomes. When I was in the Cotswolds, I used a local company Campden Cottages.com - they were great to deal with. In Italy, I actually used two rent from owners sites - one in Cortona and one in Spello. Both worked out great.
 
I use vrbo, homeaway and homelidays but would also like to mention IvyLettings which may just be for London rentals. We had a great experience with them including them helping when we got locked out late on a Saturday night! BJ
 
I gravitate towards Homelidays. As Shannon mentioned, it's a great source of budget rentals. Plus I like the multi-search criteria option - in places like Florence or Rome, the choices can be overwhelming, so I'll try a narrow search with all of my "like to have" options and see what (if anything) comes up in my price range, and then broaden my search as needed. I've also used VRBO and Holiday Lettings (once). So far, I've had only positive experiences with all.
 
Yes! Lots of changes, evolving laws and mores.
Regarding Airbnb, I have an extra bedroom, but 1) who wants to stay in San Jose? LOL and 2) I will never forget that woman whose house and life were wrecked by Airbnb renters. Adding to the anguish of having her house rifled through, trashed, and belongings stolen, she lost irreplaceable family items. I'm glad to see Airbnb owners now have insurance for that, but some things just can't be replaced.
http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/violated-travelers-lost-faith-difficult.html
 
Interesting articles Colleen. In Santa Fe, where vacation rentals are very popular, the city has limited them and I was happy to see that. You don't want whole neighborhoods turning into tourist rentals. I don't know what the right approach is for cities to take on this issue.

I did not realize that with AirBnB you booked through them - I thought it was like VRBO. I kind of like the one stop booking option - at least you know you are not being scammed by a fake owner (although that happens rarely).

One of the reasons that I still like to use local vacation rental agencies when possible is that you have some type of guarantee. For our Sicily trip I booked with an Italian agency and although it was frustrating dealing with them because they were slow replying to emails, I feel a bit safer.

But many agencies are all about large villas or seaside resorts and the only way to find apartments in a town or village is with a rent by owner site, so I do use them. And if I know a place well, I don't need the advice from an agency.
 
And now I read the second link you posted Colleen. What a story! But who would let strangers live in their house with all their personal things when they are not there? A locked closet is hardly protection.
 
I've recently used http://www.flipkey.com/ which is owned by Tripadvisor and is similar to vrbo.com (which I've successfully used on many, many occasions). Flipkey has an internal payment system that converts the billing to USD. So, for instance, to pay your deposit the owner sends you an invoice (like Paypal) and you pay through the site with a credit card. You also pay your balance through their system as well. I haven't actually completed my stay yet. I'm hoping for good luck with this apt. in Rome!
 
Homeaway started taking payments by credit cards last year. I used their system for our October Uzes rental. I even paid the deposit that way and then it was refunded to my credit card. Much better than doing bank transfers.
 
Much better than bank transfers! My bank charge for an international transfer STARTS at $45, which is steep when you're using it to put a $100 deposit on a hotel room or something. I've had a few places that don't take credit cards or paypal waive the deposit when I explained how much it cost to send it.
 
I just read the article, that poor woman. An unimaginable horror. Good friend Colleenk and her husband use AirBNB for 2 rooms in their home in Cambridge, MA. I know that they are usually around but I'm sure there are times during the day when they are gone and the renters are there alone. I kind of don't want her to read that article. As was mentioned above, even though there is a great insurance policy, how do you replace the antiques, the Italian ceramics, etc that you've collected over the years? Scary to think about but fortunately this was a very unusual event. I've always read wonderful things about Air BnB. o_O
 
I've rented so many places over the years-- at least 40 in Europe and more than 10 in the USA. I personally prefer to deal directly with the owner and my "go to" site has always been VRBO. Now there are many other sites under the Homeaway umbrella, and you don't necessarily have to visit them each separately. There are other ways to find rent-by-owner properties besides these big sites, and I enjoy the detective work.

I do use agencies occasionally, but sometimes the same property is listed by the owner and an agency (or multiple agencies) and you might find different pricing. Sometimes a property is listed only by an agency, but there are different sorts of agencies too... some who visit properties regularly and have requirements of their owners and others who aren't too much better than a marketing/listing service and go-between.

There are also "hybrid" listing sites that do some level of due diligence before accepting a property. For example, I've done some rentals through www.gite.com and love their site and the type of properties they list. They only accept certain types of properties. In the Luberon the rental website www.theluberon.com used to be an agency and now is a rent-by-owner site... but the site owner visits all the properties, meets with owners, takes the photos, and writes the copy.

I've only had one terrible experience over the years... not a scam, just a place that wasn't at all what we expected. The owner moved out for a week so we could move in and her stuff was absolutely everywhere. I should post about that on the other thread.

I like having a dialogue with the owner. I always share something about our family so we can make that personal connection. You can begin to build a relationship and also help improve your sense of whether a property is right for you. Sometimes, if they live nearby, we're able to meet the owner, and that's always fun. I think the key is to understand your own needs and wants in a rental, look at the description, photos and reviews very carefully, and ask questions about any concerns or potential red flags. Be careful not to fall in love with a rental for the wrong reason. Many of us here have enough experience with rentals that we do know what to watch for. Also realize that there are different levels of rentals, and not all are set up to meet the expectations of American (or other English-speaking) travelers. Some places are just more basic.

We're now on the other site of the vacation rental business with our apartment in Bonnieux. It's been interesting and fun. I've tried to use what I've learned as a renter to equip our place, market it, and communicate with potential guests. We decided to list on VRBO (and paid extra to be on other Homeaway sites) and also the Luberon site I mentioned above. We also get some rentals through friends and word-of-mouth. I'd rather deal directly with people staying in our little home in Provence than having an agency handling everything. This also helps us keep it more economical.

Kathy
 
My own bank's fee for international transfers isn't too bad. I paid only $13.50 last spring to transfer money to the rental owner's bank account in France. The fees withheld by the owner's bank on the receiving end were 22 euro though (which was charged to us). So it added up to a fair bit. My personal preference for payment options is Paypal.
 

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