I am planning a family trip to Rome, Italy in May. I would like to find an apartment in the middle of Rome for 8 nights.

I've looked at many properties on TripAdvisor and almost none of the Rome properties seem to have any reviews. Other places I've booked in years past on TripAdvisor seem to have lots of reviews.

Anyone have an idea about this?

Thanks!

Loads of other websites do. Some are more trustworthy than TA. I would search for the property on other websites. Just be careful as TA also own some sites on which the property can be sold.

I just checked on Tripadvisor vacation rentals. I put in 2 bedrooms (no dates), and there were at least six pages, over 300 properties, with ten or more reviews. Did you try sorting by "traveler reviews" after you put in your dates etc?
Also, find the "title" of the apartment(s) you're interested in, and do a google search. For example "Rome Suite Cinecitta" was one. Then when you do a google search, you may find additional reviews on another platform for the apartment with the same name. The one I tried has 41 reviews on Air bnb, but only 8 on Tripadvisor. You can also do an image search, using the primary photo, and possibly find other rental platforms for the same property, even if they use a different name (and maybe a better price!).
Hope this helps!

Joan gives good advice. Look for the same apartment on a different site, such as Airbnb and see if there are reviews there. People are less likely to leave reviews on Tripadvisor for soem reasons. I'm a host on both and have just one review on trip and dozens on Airbnb.

May I ask, please, how would one do an "image search??" I've never heard of that term but it is an excellent idea. Don't some rentals use different names on different sites??

you do it with Google. If you have an image on your screen, put your finger on it and hold. Google options box should come up and scrolling down, one should be image search. Then it shows you similar images on the web. At least thats what i do.

On my desktop, I right click an image and the popup menu includes a Google image search.

Yes, that would be on a mobile device. If you're using a PC, then go to google.image.search on a new tab. Then drag (right click first) the pic over to the little picture box on the image search page. Voila!

I was ripped off by an Italy rental agency that advertised best price guarantee. They used a unique name for the same property that went by a different name on multiple other platforms, for almost half the price for same dates. Didn't discover this until the housekeeper texted me on whatsapp a couple weeks before arrival to confirm bed configuration. She kept using the other name for the villa, so I was worried until I contacted my rental agency. When i brought the best price guarantee issue up with the agent, I was admonished that it had to be within a week of booking, and "you could easily have found it using google images" (which I had never heard of either"). Boy was I steamed. So....learn from my mistake.

Joan, that is awful!

Thanks to you both for the help with the images. I use a Mac (prefer to use laptop)...do I follow the same instructions to see the images?? Forgive me, I'm far from computer competent!

EKscrunchy, I'm not sure about Apple stuff... Try it out with a sample image, it's pretty amazing. I've used it also to find (for example) an ottoman I liked, to see where else it was being sold. Save a bit of money this way...
Let us know if it works for you.