markrosy

happytotravel

I am pretty shocked that it only took 5 minutes for another person to share their experiences of the low life family from Abaco.

Just be glad that your rental flat in London was safe. We were due to take our young child to their "luxury" beach house in the Bahamas. From their website (Ocean Breezes, Abaco) it looks like the film set from Miami Vice.

In reality (and we eventually did see it in the flesh) - its a shed on the beach which you have to fight through a jungle to get to. Oh and there's no power half the time.

There are reports on Lubbers Quarters that one couple actually contemplated swimming off the island to away from the place.

We booked, then saw the growing webwide complaints about this scum family and quickly backed out - losing our deposit.

We do sleep well at night safe in the knowledge that the Bahamas frequently attracts a certain type of visitor - who generally don't like being crossed. Lizzie Risberg will awake with the horse's head one day.

Sher

We have rented many apartments in a lot of different places. I would say that we would consider ourselves "budget" travelers and I try to find reasonable places.

Only once would I consider the apartment not suitable. We were in Lisbon and we rented a very small apartment in a wonderful location. We had been warned by a previous poster that it was primative. But we really were not prepared.

It was not dirty but it was dusty. The bed was a matress on the floor. The linens on the bed had all of those little nubbly things all over them. If we wanted to open the windows, we were invaded by what seemed like thousands of fruit flies from the fruit stand across the way on the ground floor.
The bathroom had many, many little ants all over everything. The shower was a drain in the corner of the bathroom with a hand held nozzle and which was actually a step up from the bedroom and if you were not careful water could run onto the floor of the bedroom.

We managed to stay one night and packed, and took our chances on a lovely hotel which turned out to be less expensive than the apartment per night since they were not full and gave us a wonderful walk up rate.

But it still hasn't soured us on trying.

eliza13

We have rented about a dozen apartments in various places in Europe and in most cases they have exceeded expectations. Few have disappointed in any way and only one was a bit of a horror - that was in Oporto.

Only one was a total disaster in a way which was a vrbo in London and I had that gut feeling from the beginning and the owner basically disappeared on us and we had to find an alternative at the last minute - which turned out well.

Our worst accommodation experience was in a B & B just outside Dublin and we hate hotels so happy to take our chances.

I think I have got better at it over the years and now look more of the facts and figures including the overall size of the apartment.I also look at reviews, mostly on www.slowtrav.com.

We would consider ourselves reasonably budget travellers.

gypsy2_25

I was very nervous the first time I rented an apartment in Europe. Well, my first and only time - it was absolutely disgusting. It was in Paris in the Marais, when we arrived it hadn't been cleaned yet. After hours upon hours of traveling, they made us drop our bags and leave for 2-3 hours while they cleaned it. When we returned, there were no towels and the owner said he'd bring some by later that night. Hello - I needed a shower right then! And it certainly wasn't clean, the mattress looked as if it had spent the last year out in an alley with bums sleeping on it. The bathroom smelled like sewage and the bathtub kept filling up to almost overflowing. Horrible!

Chach

We just came back from Italy and rented apartments in Venice and Rome. Venice was adequate but the cookware was poor and the towels were very old and in poor shape and the whole apt smelled bad. The Rome apt was near the Vatican and after freezing the first night we were told that the heat only came on twice a day for 2 hours, which left the apartment very cold!!The mattress was so bad you could feel the bed slats so we took the futon pad off and put it on the bed. Of course then we had no place to sit and relax. We have rented apts in other locations and have had about a 50% success rate.
In my opinion the problem with most of the rental sites is that they won't post negative feedback and the pictures may be 10 years old when it was renovated and now everything is worn out and it's a dump.

PJR99

Follow theses rules and you are unlikely to have a problem:

1. Choose a reputable vacation rentals company and check their references on Trip Advisor and Slow Travel.

2. Never pay by money transfer – always with a card.

For London, Paris or New York consider Coach House Rentals – I’ve used them several times and not been disappointed.

mrsgilly

We've rented apartments through Homeaway.com. We've pretty much had good luck. Although, a few times the beds weren't the best. But overall, we have had good experiences with them. We usually rent for a week. I have found that if we pay a little more and get an apartment with new furniture the beds are better. In London we rented place by Harrods...an expensive neighborhood. The apartment was nice and convenient but the old antique furniture wasn't the most comfortable. We would never rent one with antique furniture again. The bed had been overused and for what we paid, we should have had a firmer bed. Oh well, we wouldn't go back to that place again. Now, we only rent places with new stuff. Overall the website has nice places and we have been satisfied. I always read the reviews from others who have rented and decide from the reviews of this particular place. But, you do take a risk as you have to go into it all with a good state of mind and not a negative one to begin with. I always ask lots of questions by email before mailing a deposit and that usually solves problems before they begin. Good luck to you.

mike1728

emily71,

Dont understand what the worries are about. If you do your research you should be OK, I've rented apartments/villas over twenty times in Europe (Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland,)....NEVER had a problem, and actually loved every rental, for various reasons every time!........mikek