Has anyone used Homelidays in Paris recently? Is it safe to rent thru owners from this site? I have mostly only seen reviews of VRBO. I am just finding sites thru owners rather than agencies to be so much more reasonable.

When people have rented directly thru owners how did you decide the owner was legit? By reviews? Terms of agreement? Also is it customary thru owners, to have to pay deposit by check or money wire/ bank transfer rather than Paypal or credit card?

Any advice much appreciated. Tia!

I've used homelidays and vrbo and both were just fine. Since w/ both you deal directly w/ owners, you must do your research/due diligence of course.

But I've rented 2 different Homelidays-listed flats in Paris and could not have been happier

One thing I like about Homelidays - you have to register to get the full details and your first contact w/ the owner is through the website. Just feels a teensy bit more secure.

Hi fia44205,

I've used Homelidays as well, through Janis's (above) recommendation. I've rented two apartments in Paris and one in Rome with absolutely no problems and actually the whole process was easy as pie!

Oh yes I think the apartments are very reasonable and my last one I secured for about 70 euro a night - I was very happy with it.

The two flats I am looking at seem great with lots of positive reviews.I have corresponded with the owners and they seem nice. Both require deposit by bank transfer not pay pal. Is that normal?

Every owner will have their personal preference for payment. Bank transfers are totally normal --and probably a bit more common than paypal. Some take credit cards. Some will take a personal check and hold it until arrival when they return it to you for € cash.

re reviews. Homelidays sends an e-mail after one's trip is over and solicits a review. So I think you can assume all reviews are from 'real renters' and not shills.

We used them to rent an apt. in Nice. We got what we paid for. It was decent and pretty cheap. I had a problem with the owner, but that is not Homelidays falt. I repaired a damaged washer and asked for half compensation and he never responeded.

Homelidays is a publisher of adverts for private holiday homes available to rent direct from the owner.

We have a dedicated team worldwide who work to prevent fraudulent listings appearing on our site. In addition, if we had received serious complaints about a property, this would result in the advert being removed from our site.

However, for extra peace of mind when booking a rental property, we recommend the following steps:

1) Read testimonials from past renters

Read testimonials from past renters who have stayed at the properties advertised on our site. For this, simply click on the "Testimonials" tab on the advert.

2) Check how long the advertiser has been with us

Find out how long the owner has been advertising with us by scrolling down to the "Prices and availabilities" section of the advert. The longer an owner has been with us, the less likely they are to have been troublesome.

3) Register for the Carefree Package with Europ Assistance

Homelidays has an exclusive partnership with Europ Assistance who provide a comprehensive insurance policy for renters booking a property advertised on our site. For more information, visit:

http://www.homelidays.co.uk/EN-Holid...ance_price.asp

4) Get a rental contract before sending payment

Before sending any payment to the owner, request and complete a rental contract. The contract should specify the dates you are booking, the deposit and total rental fee plus any additional charges, cancellation and refund policies.

5) Use our recommended payment methods

When making payment for a holiday rental property, some forms of payment are more secure than others. Credit card payments offer the safest method followed by Paypal. Bank transfer or personal cheque are also common payment methods accepted by private owners. We strongly recommend that you never make payment by cash transfer services such as Western Union as these are untraceable.

We hope this gives peace of mind about booking a property advertised on our site.