After having spent the last couple of days on this site wading through the plethora of wonderful information on travel, I have decided to design and organise my own itinerary. People here seem to have far wiser and better information than ANY of the travel agents to whom I have spoken. So my itinerary...
5 nights in Paris - still trying to choose an apartment.
3 nights in Lucerne - think unfortunately this may have to be a hotel
1 in Lugano - as a connection to Venice - hotel
2 nights in Vence - assuming hotel
3 in Florence - have apartment organised
6 nights in Rome - have sent requests for availabilty on some apartments...

BTW - VRBO is GREAT !

Now comes the really scary part.. what is the safest way to pay? I am not with Paypal, how good is this service? Direct bank transer? Please help

I use good old "snail mail" - I am prepared to live with the slight risk of the putting cash in the mail. Just make sure the envelope is not see through and don't put a "Please handle carefully contains cash" sticker on the envelope.

Myself I am a huge fan of paypal, it doesn't take long to set up so that would be my suggestion. Otherwise you can usually wire transfer the money to pay for the apartment that you want yo rent but IMHO sign up for paypal. I find it's more secure plus!! if you're not too keen on paying with your credit card you can pay right out of your bank account

Also, I have paid for both of my apartment rentals both in Paris and London through paypal and I do a lot of ebaying so I suppose you could call me biased but try it out.

Jaz

My only problem was the email address for the apartment I liked in Florence was a hotmail account... rather than a business email...

address of apartment
http://www.rentflorencecity.com/english/sanlorenzo/
only 372 euros for the three nights.. was pretty impressed.

Direct bank transfers are a hassle and expensive.

Paypal is the most convenient and has worked for me in the past but you have to clarify who is going to pay the 3% paypal fees. Usually, the owners eat it but once they asked me to cover it. Conversion rates seemed decent but I didn't check against xe.com.

The most convenient way for me is when they allow you to send a personal U.S. check for holding deposit. Pay rent in cash on arrival over two days, etc.

I wouldn't be too concerened that their email address is by hotmail. The flat I have rented in London their's in gmail. Just make sure that you check to see comments from previous guests (or ask if they don't have any posted) and if you're still a bit worried ask for premission to contact a previous guest and ask about their experience. Most good renters will do this for you, I know mine did!

Also, part of the reason that their address may be hotmail is because they aren't directed by agents. If you found them on VRBO they are by owner and that might be the owners only addy.

My wife and I recently rented an apartment in Rome for a few weeks in May. At its request, I faxed the rental agency a credit card number to enable it to charge a no-show penalty in case we cancel. The agency normally requires a full rent payment in cash when the renter takes possession, but agreed to accept travelers' checks. Maybe you could work out a similar arrangement.

I've rented quite a few apartments in Europe and the deposits have been a number of ways. I honestly think PayPal is one of the best and easiest.

For this summer two of the independent apartments I'm renting do not have an association with PayPal (although I told one about it and she is checking it out for future deposits). For both of these I ended up getting Euro Traveler's Checks at AAA and mailing them. Both of them checked and found that they could deposit them for full face value at their banks with absolutely no fees. They cost me something like 4% for the currency exchange rate, but still much cheaper than any kind of bank transfer I could come up with. Since the deposits were only for 200 euro and 300 euro, the total cost to me for the two was something like $26. I cannot find a way to send a bank draft for under $13. Both responded quickly that they had received the TCs, had deposited them, and there was indeed no charge to them. Both are happy and so am I.

That sounds excellent.. I will contact them and see if they would do that. In addition, since you were recently in Rome, where is the best area to stay? In paris I am looking at area's 5,6 and 7 (although I found a really nice apartment in the 18th... think they may be too far away), but have no idea about Rome.

Being close to Navonna or the Pantheon, or possibly Campo Fiori are the idea for me in Rome.
I like the 5th and 6th in Paris. I keep thinking we'll try the 4th one time, but it just doesn't seem to happen. I'm really not crazy about the 7th -- it seems that other than the Eiffel Tower, it just doesn't have that much for me (OK so flame me for that). It does seem we find ourselves spending more and more time in the Marais.

good tip, neo.

so any AAA office offers these checks?

Any AAA travel office does, I believe. I don't even know if they have any other kind of office, as the rest of their services don't need a physical "store." Are you a member of AAA? Because if you are, you get them free in USD, but pay some conversion rate to get them in euro, of course.

Howeve, if you aren't a member, there's no particular reason to go to AAA rather than your bank which should do the same thing. In fact, I'm not even sure AAA will give services to people who aren't members. Actually, where I live, I prefer my own bank's travelers checks (which I also get free in USD, as I have a premium account) because they are Amex and AAA uses Visa TCs where I live. Amex seems to be better known for travelers checks, although I'll admit it may not make any difference as Visa is a wellknown brand, also.

I would think so yes. Their currency exchange rate seems to fluctuate so it is worth it to compare to the current bank rate.
Meanwhile you should also know that if you purchase the TCs at AAA with a credit card, it will show up as a if you did a cash advance, rather that a regular merchandise purchase. That means there will probably be a fee on your card for doing a cash advance plus they will charge you interest from the day of the purchase. You should use cash at AAA to buy them.

In regards to buying them at your bank instead of AAA, I checked and they were considerably more expensive at BankofAmerica than they were at AAA. I really don't recall having to show a membership at AAA, but I could be wrong.

Just don't be fooled by "no fee" for buying traveler's checks. The real question is what kind of rate they will give you for buying them in euro. And do not buy them in dollars and send to Europe. You could get stuck with the receiver saying they charged up to a 20% handing fee and you owe a whole lot more.

I'm a member of AAA so I'll definitely check this out in the future.

So you just purchase a TC in Euro and send it off to the owners. Sounds pretty painless, esp. when they want the whole payment upfront. I'll check out the conversion rate before hand but since I'm with B of A as well, it's unlikely that AAA rates will screw me more than BofA...

thanks again.

Although we have been to Europe a lot, we have never ever had to send in a deposit for a room. Many websites do advertise it but when we email for more details we often find that although mentioned it is not necessarily a requirement. So far we have been told (not necessarily in English!), "Don't worry - we trust you."

batraveler, are you talking about a room in a hotel, or are you talking about a private apartment?

Actually in Montepulciano, the two sisters who owned the apartment we rented for a week did tell us not to send a deposit, that they trusted us and they had never been taken advantage of yet. But I think that's been the only one of all the apartments we've rented.

I like staying in apartments too.

But that is one thing that ticks me off, not enough of these agencies or apartment owners set up things like Paypal or use sites with safe e-commerce transactiosn for things like credit cards.

I've even suggested to some to get a PayPal account and they are often resistant to it.

The ones on the ball are usually UK agencies which also rent in Spain, Italy and elsewhere.

The ones who are behind technologically are places like Italy, where I've had to fax my credit card number.

One agency, forget which country, suggested I email my credit card numbers in two different emails. I faxed it instead.

Another possibility is that often, the tourist agency for various cities, have a booking service for apartments and hotels and B&Bs without charging either party. Some seem to have credit card transaction processing setup. For instance, wengen.ch or florencyby.com.