Anyone have experience with homeholidayitaly.com?
 

I originally found an apartment listing through VRBO but when I got an email back, it was this agency, www.homeholidayitaly.com handling the booking for the owner. Does anyone have any experience with this company? They seem to be very new, as I can't find any online reviews about them and they appear to only have four apartments.

They're asking for a deposit via PayPal, so that's a bit reassuring, but the lack of reviews is making me nervous.

Thanks everyone!

I've been in the apartment in Via Crispi in Rome in january with my wife. We enjoyed it; location was fantastic and the apartment is quiet and clean.
From homeholiday we have met a guy called Daniele, that manage the apartment; he has been very nice. No problem at all.
Say ciao to Rome for us, we really love it
Dave

I guess a guy could be called Dave whose English is heavily Latin-accented, as "Dave's" is.

1. "in" via Crispi, not "on" via Crispi
2. "january" not "January"
3. No madrelingua could write: "From homeholiday we have met a guy called Daniele, that manage the apartment" (You and I would both write: "We met a guy from homeholidays called Daniele, who manages the apartment")

But when the guy has JUST joined Fodors and has posted only once?

Man, that screams "troll" to me.

....Which calls into question the enterprise he is praising, doesn't it?

The recommendation COULD be legitimate. But I'd say: Proceed with caution!!!

Argh now I'm concerned, why would someone want to do that unless it's a scam? I guess on another note then, how do you ensure that anything is really legitimate on vrbo, since anyone can post listings?

tedgale,
Do we think alike!!!

I was quite amused by the "accent" of a person named "davecollins".

Why would he use a "real" name and make it so obvious?

I have booked through vrbo.com and have no hesitation about recommending it to others.

Nothing is 100% safe but you can usually tell a good place from a bad one: The good ones have lots of photos, lots of info and most important, client feedback -- recent posts, a balance of critical and positive commentary, not just gush.

When I see "Hey, these flat is great and the manager were great, too!" I press CLOSE.

Woh, what a mess! Dear nandgexperience, mier and tedgale, I just wanted to be useful. I just went in the apartment some days and I founded it ok. That's all! Of course my real name is not Dave Collins (I love baseball ...), cause I'm mexican.
In any case thanks a lot to nandgexperience, cause from your question I've discovered this forum and I like it very much. Now I'm planning to go in Portugal. Have someone some experience?

the domain name is registered to an address in Holland

Thanks for the advice everyone. I decided not to book just out of an abundance of caution and went with an apartment with romecapitalapartments instead. Very sharp eyes and research skills here! I'm very impressed.

romecapitalapartments is my company of choice, as you may have noticed from my Rome/Tuscany etc Trip Report.

I have posted photos of the apt we rented from them on that thread.