Why would you want to focus on the worse? That is a negative approach and you probably will have problems.

"Anyone else get that nervous feeling in their gut after they've rented an apartment in Europe?"

No.

And I've never had a bad experience w/ a cottage/flat/villa rental.

I've rented apartments from different agencies in different countries many times and have never had a bad experience. Have a look at Slow Trav vacation rentals reviews for the "NO" (I would not recommend) for some worst stories I guess.

We've rented about 40 different Gites/apts & every one worked out just fine.

Stu Dudley

Never a horrible experience with apartments. The only hiccup was in Santorini, where we rented the most beautiful villa with the most perfect view, but everything in the villa was missing (sheets) or somewhat falling apart (deck chairs, when my son sat in one and it collapsed). It was somewhat disappointing, but we comforted ourselves with the unbeatable view and toughed out the other things.

P.S. While I wouldn't go back to that villa, I'm not sorry we stayed there.

LOL well I was not as fortunate as everyone else it seems. My apartment was horrid to say the least!

We rented a farmhouse in Stroud, UK this past october. I can't describe it exactly, but we were creeped out the entire five days. It was as if elderly people had dwelled in the house, and it was a museum or frozen exactly as they left it.

The books still in the bookcase were from the 1930's. Pictures on the bedroom walls were from the same period, and just seemed to stare at us. The living room furniture was old, and all the windows had mold inside them. I got a sinus infection from staying in that damp, moldy old house. When we left for London, I took a picture of the place from outside. I swear it looked like people in the upstairs dormer windows were looking back at us, but was probably just mist. We were awfully glad to leave, but it was very cheap, so we stuck it out.

We've rented apartments/houses in London, Bath, Paris (twice), Florence and Tuscany. Perhaps we were lucky as they've all been fabulous, and not necessarily expensive.

Thinking this through though I must admit that when I'm on hols it takes a lot to upset me, I try to stay calm, and a shrug of the shoulders and a glass of something bubbly will fix most things. I try to keep my glass half full, and don't want to bother with sharing the unpleasant things that happen.

However I am happy to make an exception for heartofthesouth who did manage to rent a truly awful apartment.

Only one I didn't like but the location was great & it served the purpose.

No.

But then I'm struggling to understand what virgogirl's complaining about.

Are there really people who find 1930s books odd? Admittedly pictures from the 1930s sound a bit nouveau. Otherwise sounds like an ordinary house to me, only too modern for my tastes.

No.

But then I'm struggling to understand what virgogirl's complaining about.

No for me either. But it's no stretch for me to understand virgogirl's complaint -- the house sounds creaky and creepy actually. I can almost feel the dampness, and hear the wind howling. I'm not sure I would have stuck it out.

(P.S. Flanner, my own house is 100 years old, but the books in it tend to be a bit more recent )

We stayed in a mini apartment in London, that we had stayed in about 18 months before. When we got inside, it appeared that no one had entered the room/apartment since we had left. But the rest of the builiding was teeming with people; there were immigrant families stuffed into every studio, cooking, making a lot of noise all night, spilling into the hallways... the place was noisy, crowded, not very clean, and filled with stale cooking odors. Not so nice, but super cheap in a great location.

I have trouble believing that no one was ever disappointed in any rental. You guys must be very lucky, incredibly insightful, and super happy. I want to be you when I grow up.

These days, I try hard to stick with companies or apartments that come recommended.

But you know, a hotel can be as bad as an apartment. We had a hotel room in Florida once that had a Murphy bed with a collection of filth around the edges. Nasty.

I do think that there is enough information on the internest that it is becoming easier to avoid "bad" places.

Anyway, Emily71, I'm sure you did your homework and all will be well.

Some of us (me included) are nervous types, but I'm betting you used good judgement and will have a great time. Care to share your rental information?

I think it's a combination of things to get an apartment that you are not disappointed with - luck, using recommendations from this or other sites, and lots of searching. Along with a healthy dose of holiday laidbackness.

Seamus has some excellent info on another post on what to look for when renting from VRBO.

worst holiday apartment?

Steer clear of the Risbergs (LondonFlatRentals & Ocean Breezes, Bahamas) and you should be fine. Read their tripadvisor reviews its the stuff of Arfur Daley.

They stung me for a small amount but we had the holiday of a lifetime anyway once we rebooked another house.

I am getting increasingly bad vibes (personal experience and reviews) about VRBO - it seems increasingly to be rife with dodgy geezers with £1500 a week sheds - who do not refund security deposits.

markrosy: We had a similar experience with the Risbergs when we rented in London, Our apartment was swiched at the last moment, shower broken, hard beds, no bedding, and on and on, then the deposit myseriously returned with inverted numbers. Not enough to ruin a vacation, but a lesson learned. Three other apartent rentals on VRBO proved to be wonderful.

Yup, I had a rental disaster. My husband and I rented a studio apartment in the via dell'Orso in Rome. It was so tiny that when I stood in the kitchen and stretched my arms out I could touch opposite walls. The bed was a mattress in a loftish kind of set up above the kitchen and the bathroom was miniscule. It was also FILTHY, yes, it deserves all caps. There was food stuck on the wall in the kitchen and the bathroom cabinet was full of old bottles of skin care products and old nail polish.

It was supposed to be fully stocked with everything we needed to cook (although it was so uncomfortable and dirty we didn't really want to stay in and eat but had to for budget reasons at least a few times). Well, there was no flatware. So I went to McDonald's and asked for plastic forks and knives.

It used to be listed on NYHabitat and was called something like Fiora but I don't see it listed anymore. Thank God. And we stayed a week in it because it was Christmas and the hotels that we could afford were all booked. Now if we can't afford a better place, we just don't go. But we laugh about it now and refer to it as the hole.

Every apartment I've rented (Paris, Rome, Northern Ireland) have been fine--and I travel on a budget. Some I liked better than others, some weren't as well equipped as I felt they should be, but all were clean, well-located and worth every penny.

There are a couple I wouldn't return to, but only because I've found something I liked even better.

So, yes, it's possible to have only positive experiences. I think it takes doing a lot of homework:
- How many sites is the property listed on?
- Are the reviews consistently good on all sites?
- Do I speak directly to the owner?
- Does it fit my basic requirements? (I have a little list)

Thanks everyone, I guess horrible is a subjuntive word. I also think a renter has to be a little bit flexible. Luckily, I've had relatively clean, tidy rentals, the worst was the silverware hadn't been cleaned and the electric kettle had a year's worth of lime deposit.

I know a lot of people who swear by agencies but I usually try to find apartments where the owners actually live some of the time. I find that it feels more like a home and they usually think of all the little extras like adapters, sewing kits, etc. Hotels can be their own private hells, as I once booked a place in No.Ca. that had a bare light bulb in the bathroom, and mold all over the shower and tub. Most delightful were the mysterious stains over all the rug and bedspread. Needless to say we stayed for 2 hrs then left without a refund and stayed at the pricier but nicer big chain motel.

I've been generally pleased with VRBO, but reading their FAQ is a must. In general, a owner can refuse to post a renters comments but a negative response will be counted at the top of the comments. The only way for the owner to get rid of the negative comment is to delete the whole comment section and start over.

happytotravel

I am pretty shocked that it only took 5 minutes for another person to share their experiences of the low life family from Abaco.

Just be glad that your rental flat in London was safe. We were due to take our young child to their "luxury" beach house in the Bahamas. From their website (Ocean Breezes, Abaco) it looks like the film set from Miami Vice.

In reality (and we eventually did see it in the flesh) - its a shed on the beach which you have to fight through a jungle to get to. Oh and there's no power half the time.

There are reports on Lubbers Quarters that one couple actually contemplated swimming off the island to away from the place.

We booked, then saw the growing webwide complaints about this scum family and quickly backed out - losing our deposit.

We do sleep well at night safe in the knowledge that the Bahamas frequently attracts a certain type of visitor - who generally don't like being crossed. Lizzie Risberg will awake with the horse's head one day.

We have rented many apartments in a lot of different places. I would say that we would consider ourselves "budget" travelers and I try to find reasonable places.

Only once would I consider the apartment not suitable. We were in Lisbon and we rented a very small apartment in a wonderful location. We had been warned by a previous poster that it was primative. But we really were not prepared.

It was not dirty but it was dusty. The bed was a matress on the floor. The linens on the bed had all of those little nubbly things all over them. If we wanted to open the windows, we were invaded by what seemed like thousands of fruit flies from the fruit stand across the way on the ground floor.
The bathroom had many, many little ants all over everything. The shower was a drain in the corner of the bathroom with a hand held nozzle and which was actually a step up from the bedroom and if you were not careful water could run onto the floor of the bedroom.

We managed to stay one night and packed, and took our chances on a lovely hotel which turned out to be less expensive than the apartment per night since they were not full and gave us a wonderful walk up rate.

But it still hasn't soured us on trying.

We have rented about a dozen apartments in various places in Europe and in most cases they have exceeded expectations. Few have disappointed in any way and only one was a bit of a horror - that was in Oporto.

Only one was a total disaster in a way which was a vrbo in London and I had that gut feeling from the beginning and the owner basically disappeared on us and we had to find an alternative at the last minute - which turned out well.

Our worst accommodation experience was in a B & B just outside Dublin and we hate hotels so happy to take our chances.

I think I have got better at it over the years and now look more of the facts and figures including the overall size of the apartment.I also look at reviews, mostly on www.slowtrav.com.

We would consider ourselves reasonably budget travellers.

I was very nervous the first time I rented an apartment in Europe. Well, my first and only time - it was absolutely disgusting. It was in Paris in the Marais, when we arrived it hadn't been cleaned yet. After hours upon hours of traveling, they made us drop our bags and leave for 2-3 hours while they cleaned it. When we returned, there were no towels and the owner said he'd bring some by later that night. Hello - I needed a shower right then! And it certainly wasn't clean, the mattress looked as if it had spent the last year out in an alley with bums sleeping on it. The bathroom smelled like sewage and the bathtub kept filling up to almost overflowing. Horrible!

We just came back from Italy and rented apartments in Venice and Rome. Venice was adequate but the cookware was poor and the towels were very old and in poor shape and the whole apt smelled bad. The Rome apt was near the Vatican and after freezing the first night we were told that the heat only came on twice a day for 2 hours, which left the apartment very cold!!The mattress was so bad you could feel the bed slats so we took the futon pad off and put it on the bed. Of course then we had no place to sit and relax. We have rented apts in other locations and have had about a 50% success rate.
In my opinion the problem with most of the rental sites is that they won't post negative feedback and the pictures may be 10 years old when it was renovated and now everything is worn out and it's a dump.

Follow theses rules and you are unlikely to have a problem:

1. Choose a reputable vacation rentals company and check their references on Trip Advisor and Slow Travel.

2. Never pay by money transfer – always with a card.

For London, Paris or New York consider Coach House Rentals – I’ve used them several times and not been disappointed.

We've rented apartments through Homeaway.com. We've pretty much had good luck. Although, a few times the beds weren't the best. But overall, we have had good experiences with them. We usually rent for a week. I have found that if we pay a little more and get an apartment with new furniture the beds are better. In London we rented place by Harrods...an expensive neighborhood. The apartment was nice and convenient but the old antique furniture wasn't the most comfortable. We would never rent one with antique furniture again. The bed had been overused and for what we paid, we should have had a firmer bed. Oh well, we wouldn't go back to that place again. Now, we only rent places with new stuff. Overall the website has nice places and we have been satisfied. I always read the reviews from others who have rented and decide from the reviews of this particular place. But, you do take a risk as you have to go into it all with a good state of mind and not a negative one to begin with. I always ask lots of questions by email before mailing a deposit and that usually solves problems before they begin. Good luck to you.