I saw a comment about Homelidays for apartments. I'm currently looking at their Venice listings. I've looked at dozens of properties with them and every one lists a dozen or more "testimonials". Nearly all those are in other languages, as so far I have not seen a single US renter from any of them listed. How odd is that? What's more, each renter rates them on a 1 to 5 score on three different factors plus an overall. So out of several hundred I've looked at there is not a single rating of anything other than 5 out of 5. Clearly this is absurd. Are they suggesting not one renter has ever had a single complaint or a single reason to give a 4 instead of a 5.
How about it? Anyone here rented via Homelidays? You seem to deal direct with owner, but is all seems odd to me.

Meanwhile I'm looking at this apartment, and the owner did respond quickly to my email. Is anyone familiar with it? 750 euro per week for its location and with airconditioning seems very good to me.
http://tinyurl.com/y5gkjj

Only in Paris, so can't help you w/ Venice. But I had a great experience renting a homelidays flat

Before one can post a testimonial they have to be registered and have actually stayed at the property. So I wouldn't worry about the reviews being "planted". Most reviews I've seen (and I looked a a TON of properties before making my choice) have been modest to glowing - none were bad. So I guess it is possible that Homelidays edits out the terrible ones.

But my experience was that flat was better than advertised - tho' it was a budget place and I had fairly low expectations. Not only was it better than expected, the owner was wonderful and I ended up posting one of those "5/5" testimonials.

As for the other languages - their largest customer base are Europeans, so that is to be expected. You can always use a translation web site to find out what they say.

I just glanced at the link - It looks nice. That is a LOT of testimonials in 18 months - Either it is a <u>really</u> great place or the owner makes a point of asking folks to post. The flat I rented only had about 3 or 4 (but another 4 or so have been added since I stayed there)

Janis,
Which apartment/location did you stay in with Homelidays in Paris?
We're family of four looking for a 3-nite stay, would love to be in the 5th but need it to be economical.
Thanks

Hagan: Here is the one I stayed at http://www.homelidays.com/venezia/ap...ROMSEARCH=TRUE

How old are the kids? The flat is definitely large enough for a family of 4 - but there are only 2 double beds if that's a problem. The website photos are about a year old and it has been (slightly) upgraded. Over 500 square feet for only &euro;490 per week it is a steal. Large (for Paris) kitchen, small but not cramped bedroom, large-ish bathroom, nice sized kitchen, and a combo living room/dining room w/ the double sofa sleeper. It is not posh but it was clean, in a great location, and the owner is a sweetheart (and totally fluent in English)

See - easy to do a 5/5 testimonial

But if you need more beds - there are several well priced homelidays flats in the 4th, 5th, 6th.

I have never rented from Homelidays. I looked at the listing you're considering, and it does seem very good for the price. I rented a wonderful apartment in Venice, in Dorsoduro, but it was much more expensive than this.
However, the company, http://www.venice-rentals.com/, has less expensive flats available. They were excellent to deal with, and I like all the information they provide on their site. You have no surprises at all with them.
I am put off by the lack of information on the Homelidays site, and the fact that they insist you register with them. I went to their site to check their listings in Paris, and stopped when I needed to register just to find where the place was on the map. This seems somewhat shadey to me.
Sometimes you have to wonder about something which seems too good to be true.
Good luck finding a flat.
Venice is one of the most enchanting places in the world. I recommend you get a Venice Card so you can ride the vaporettos on the Grand Canal. It is a very good deal, in a rather expensive place. And if you intend to cook in your flat, as we did, I hope you'll have a wheeled cart in the flat, as you'll have to get your groceries home in it. You'll see the locals pulling these around. And another good deal is the traghetto, the standup gondola across the Grand Canal. It's a short trip, but very cheap, and you'll feel like a local.

Oaklandlady: I don't find that shady. Registering is free. One's first correspondence w/ an owner is &quot;blind e-mail&quot; through Homelidays. After that you can contact the owners directly. If they didn't control things a bit, there would be no way for them to get their fee. Just a different business model - some agencies do the booking for you and get their fee off the top, but w/ them you book directly w/ the owner

I contacted about 5 or 6 properties before choosing the one in the 5th, and it was very straightforward.

Hi Patrick!

I have used homelidays several times, without any problems whatsoever. The owners are generally very quick and courteous when answering ALL my various emails.

As far as their ratings, I remembered posting a 4 out of 5 for a place in Rome, and I was curious as to how it ended up on the website. So I just went there and, sure enough, it lists one of the categories as 4/5.

That's certainly not an all-encompassing answer for all units, but at least my ranking was listed as I stated.

The place I rented in Paris for next March is through this agency as well, and I have nothing but positive comments to make about how the rental process went. Of course, I won't know for sure until I see the place in March. But for now, everything seems like it should be.

Good luck!

Oaklandlady, some interesting comments. I have looked at the Venice rentals site. But they too seem a little &quot;shady&quot;. Why on earth would none of them have varying rates based on time of year? Everyone else does that.
Do they let you know it's more when you request a specific date, or do they offer a discount for the off seasons, but not mention it on their site? Anyway, while you say they have less expensive apartments -- the LEAST expensive one bedroom they have is still over $300 a week more than the one I mentioned from Homelidays. That's a lot of difference, but I don't see it in the quality. What's more there is no mention of air conditioning (a requirement for us in July) for a number of their apartments.

Anyway, we have rented apartments by the week twice before in Venice. While we liked our last one, we'd rather not bump our heads this year on the beam in the mezzanine bedroom -- pretty much its only drawback.
Here is that apartment -- which we liked and haven't written off yet:

http://tinyurl.com/eha63

Janisj, I only mentioned the resistration because after doing many, many visits to rental agencies, they were the only ones who insisted on it. I also read the small print on the registration form and was put off. But the fact that you and other have rented from them successfully encourages me to revisit them.

By the way, I'm having great fun using an online translator for the testimonials. Here's one of my favorites:

&quot;&quot;We are magic of our stay in the apartment of Giusi. Located very well and of calms absolute. The owner is a charming injury, which speaks French well. Question comfort, no problem, of the kitchen to medical, while passing by the heating, all was perfect. To recommend for two people.

And hi, Kopp. Thanks for your vote of confidence. I do remember standing behind the theatre La Fenice and thinking what a charming spot that was. This apartment apparently is right there and the little canal with the gondoliers passes just one floor under the windows.

Janis, thanks for the prompt reply. It looks like your apartment is not available for our dates. Our grandsons are 15 and 16, very tall and lanky, and would do better in separate beds, but they may not have an option!

Another problem I'm finding is that we just need 3 nights, and most places have a 7-night minimum. We've rented an apt. in Rome for the rest of our stay through sleepinitaly.com, and that one has 2 separate bedrooms and 2 baths, and their room has twin beds. Sure wish I could find something like that in Paris, but I know for certain I won't, so I'm looking at sofa beds!

Actually, location is more important than comfort to me for Paris, and I REALLY like the St. Michel area for activity and convenience, so that's where I'm concentrating the search. I've found several quads in hotels that we can afford, but they're pretty bare-looking!

Patrick, although I know it would be too late to really do you any good, but I'd be more than happy to check it out (at least from the outside) when I'm there in April.

NeoPatrick,
I rented from homelidays in Rapallo, Italy and had a great experience. I was worried as well and all the ratings were also 5 but really the apartment exceeded my expectaions. Good Luck

Trish, shere did you stay?

I know you are asking about Homelidays specifically, but you haven't booked yet, so here is yet another agency...

I rented an apartment in Venice (large - it slept 6-8) booked through this company and had no problems.

http://www.oikosvenice.com/i.html

I know what you are saying about homelidays - it does seem a bit too good to be true, but I did find their reviews quite useful when booking an apartment in Budapest through another agency, and couldn't find many reviews on their website!

Marianna, this is the link to the house http://www.homelidays.com/rapallo/ap...ROMSEARCH=TRUE
If you were driving to the house you would go straight to the waterfront and go past the little castle until the street ends by the childrens park the apartment building is at the top of the street. The only negative is that if you are a light sleeper there is an early morning train that could wake you up.

We believe that the testimonial service is valuable for both owners and renters on Homelidays. It is a Homelidays policy to publish every testimonial that a renter submits on our site, whether it is positive or negative.

Testimonials submitted by renters reinforce the seriousness of an advert. They indicate that the property actually exists and of course enables potential renters to benefit from the experience of previous guests.

Homelidays published all testimonials,
In order to encourage non-biased testimonials, renters and owners cannot see the other party's testimonial until they have submitted their own comments. The testimonials are visible to all other members and visitors to the site after they have been verified and published by our team.

You can view our Testimonial Service guide by visiting: http://www.homelidays.co.uk/EN-Holid...al_Summary.asp

How funny that Homelidays came and found this 4 year old thread. But interestingly enough I DID rent the apartment in my original post above and it was absolutely delightful. Loved it.

There is another thread-very negative-about them. Perhaps they did a search and didn't see the date?