humpty - We have also rented countless times through VRBO all over the world, from Bocas Del Toro, Panama to France, Italy and the UK. We've only encountered a problem once - when the property owner and property manager had double-booked an apartment in Rome. When we arrived, there was already someone in the place. They absolutely took care of us. The owner called us from his home in Zurich immediately and had already booked us into a family suite at the Inn at the Spanish Steps at his expense. (That room goes for around 1200 Euros/night, which was half what we were spending with him for a week.)

Now - to your comment regarding so many VRBO properties now being inactive on their website.... I have noted this also. In doing some internet research, a couple of the vacation homes that were listed as rentals have been foreclosed upon. Why you can't make the payments when it's a vacation investment property and it's constantly booked, I just can't fathom, but that seems to be why there's so much of that on the site this year. Sad, but it's a sign of our times, I suppose.

We've booked a gite near St. Remy for next week. Rather than send two bank wires to the owner, I sent one for the full amount. It's a trust issue, I guess. We'd had very good correspondence before then, so it made sense to do so. I did learn, though that her bank charged her about 18 Euros for the wire transfer. I paid $45 on my end. There's got to be a better way to transfer funds.

"Why you can't make the payments when it's a vacation investment property and it's constantly booked, I just can't fathom, but that seems to be why there's so much of that on the site this year"

I think it is probably a reflection of the huge bubble that was created and that people got dragged into. Last year we rented a house, the house next door was very similar and being marketed for $1.4m. We paid $1300 a week for our property.... the figures don't add up somewhere!

I think that much of the rental market is based on rents charged by landlords who bought 30 years and paid off their mortgage years ago. Clearly, they don't have to charge as much as landlords who bought at the top of the bubble.

Thanks for the info Humpty. Hopefully these were just one off situations. I had one bad experience with an Owner's Direct property in Antibes - the owners misrepresented a lot of things - but we got through it and have gone on to rent more apartments with success. Hope all your future experiences are good ones.