www.rentalinrome.com?
 

Has anyone used www.rentalinrome.com to book a short-term Rome apartment? Horror stories? Endorsements?

I rented an apartment on Via del Corallo in April 2009, i had no problems at all. I am renting with them this October and all is well so far.

Excellent. Thanks for the response. They have some gorgeous properties!

I don't know about this company, but I definitely recommend staying in the Trastevere area. It is absolutely the best spot to be in Rome. I have been there twice.

We considered them and ended up going with Romeloft.com. We did notice that rentals that were available on rentalinrome.com were sometimes also available on other websites.

Thanks for the tip on Romeloft.com! I hadn't seen their site yet. Any others I should check out, fodorites?

www.sleepinitaly.com is another popular option.

have you looked at reviews on TA? slow travel?

annhig - I have. Some good, some bad. I am also looking at other options, but I wondered (given that they have such a variety of listings in the city) if they were worth considering.

I know Kristina rented from them and did a trip report on Fodor's, but she also has her own website. I don't recall her mentioning a big deposit, but here's the report.
http://www.wired2theworld.com/ROME2008Day1.html

I raised the same question as I was concerned that I was asked to pay E780 in cash to the owner as a security for damages. This fee was in excess of the total rental for 4 days. I have since looked at SleepinItaly and Vbro.

We had a negative experience with Sleepinitaly just this week. The representative was an hour and 20 minutes late to let us into the apartment, and never showed up at all at our 6:00 appointment to check us out on Thursday. The apartment didn't have a phone, nor did we so it was not easy to communicate.

I called the rep at 7:00 Thursday evening, an hour after the check-out meeting time, and he didn't answer his phone. I left a message telling him our 17 year old kids would be in the apartment, and that my husband and I would be celebrating our anniversary in a restaurant around the corner literally 2 minutes away. I also told him that the kids could bring him over to us or come get us once he arrived. I made these calls from the restaurant owner's phone. I also called the apartment owner who said she'd try to reach him. After another hour of him not arriving and not hearing back from him on the restaurant's owner's phone, we had the kids join us for dinner at that same restaurant. It was our last night in Rome and who wanted this to happen!

We left the apartment in immaculate condition so we were not worried about the check-out, but what about our $450 security deposit check which he was supposed to give us at that time???

I emailed Sleepinitaly the next day and got a response from the office. They told me the representative had had an emergency with another apartment, checked out our apartment after we left and ripped up our check. They also said he tried to call the number from which we called back and got no answer but that he could have come over anytime after 8. It's just so coincidental that he was free after 8, exactly the time that I told him that the kids would leave. I hope he really did rip up the check, but this didn't leave a good feeling with us. I think he should have at least taken the check to the office so they could either rip it up, send it to us, or at least see that he ripped it up.

I'm hoping that Sleepinitaly is reputable enough to have really ripped up our check. I've heard good things about them in the past which was why we used them and the apartment was very nice, but I'd have to think about it before using them again.

hey also said he tried to call the number from which we called back and got no answer but that he could have come over anytime after 8. It's just so coincidental that he was free after 8, exactly the time that I told him that the kids would leave.>>

mm, i think that i would feel a bit dubious about this too. however, now you are home, can you not just stop the cheque?

annhig - that's what I think we are going to do just to be sure.

Dang. Anybody have a personal experience with romeloft.com? We are staying 10 days, and I'd much rather have an apartment than a hotel room, but these stories are making me dubious.

I've had good experiences with both rentalinrome and sleepinitaly. Personally, I don't think renting from them is significantly different from VRBO or anywhere else. Those agencies often just put you in contact with the owner (this was our experience in both cases). We never actually met anyone from the agencies.

I think there is always a risk of something going wrong when you rent an apartment. A friend just had a bad experience in Rome; her apartment did not have hot water for the last 3 days she was there. The owner said they would come 3 separate times and never did.

All you can do to mitigate the chance of a bad experience is to try and find reviews of a specific apartment.

That said, for me the risk is worth it and I am in the process of looking for another Rome apartment, this time for only 3 nights.