Our family of 5 will be traveling to London and Paris in June/July. I just booked an apt. in London with yourstay.com because a good friend used them over Christmas and said it was fabulous. Then I saw the info. on this site regarding yoursay and began to panic! I have just e-mailed them to cancel. Can any fodorites recommend a reputable company to book an apartment with in London and Paris?

Hi,

I am a travel agent and there are lots of good companies that do independent travel arrangements for London and/or Paris. I would look for a company that works with the British Tourist Authority, if they are Britain-based, or is a member of the U.S. Tour Operators Association (USTOA), with insurance to cover refund costs if they go out of business, here in the U.S. - if they are able to post $1 Million in insurance, they are generally a large, financially stable company. Both of those resources have some type of quality assurance for you.

A travel agent, who specializes in Europe, will probably be able to help you, too, because they work on Europe all day, every day, and will have personal contacts. For instance, I have personal contacts in both London and Paris. If you came to me, I would use these personal contacts to help me find a good, local, reputable apartment for you.

Good luck!

We were pleased with the service of
www.london4rent.com
we will use them again this fall.

We used rentparis.com last year and had a very good experience. They have mostly small apts. though and they might not be big enough for your family.

Thank you to all who responded! I did a fairly extensive search on this site and came up with 23 agencies or apartments that were recommonded by Fodor travelers. I check them all. Many did not have large enough apartments. Finding 1.5 or 2 bathrooms was a real problem, but 5 people in one bathroom is very difficult. Often when they did have something large enough it was over $500 per night. UGH! My budget is up to $350, which you would think would be enough. Anyway I have booked an apartment in London with Nick Price Apartments, which has been recommended by many on this site. In Paris we are going with welcome2france.com (which I also found on this site). I'm happy to report that I received an e-mail from yourstay.com today saying that they have cancelled my reservation and are crediting my Visa account. Whew! Thanks again,
Greta