Hello all:
We will be staying in Paris mid April this year and, since we are a family of four, are most interested in staying in an Apartment. Unfortunately, I have never rented a vacation apartment before and am a little leary of handing over money to people I meet on the internet.
Does anyone have advice on the best way to go about it?
Thanks
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One good site to get some reviews of agencies etc. is www.slowtrav.com. Figure out what area you want to stay in and also do a search on this forum for recommended agencies. This will give you peace of mind knowing that you are dealing with reputable people.
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As your time of travel is soon, many apartments will already be booked. Vacationinparis.com has an 800 number, and they will give you a list of what they have available for your dates of travel. It is a New Jersey based company, and I have found them very helpful.
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we have rented 22 times now -- mostly in Europe but also elsewhere -- we have never had a bad experience
it is VERY helpful to have this site because you can check out the reputation of the agency -- I just avoided a very attractive agency (on line) in Amsterdam because there were so many renters unhappy with them
one can get skinned but if you check out the apartment it is not terribly likely
if you can use an agency that uses paypal and credit cards this adds a little security with your credit card company
another safety issue is to see lots of pictures of the place -- if they don%26#39;t have pictures of the touted view or of the bathroom or bedroom, that tells you they are not going to be very nice -- and as a group, you will want clear descriptions or preferably a floor plan -- we had friends who discovered that the second bedroom was the entry way with cots
we have never been more than slightly disappointed and have often been thrilled
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We just got back a week ago after having renting a lovely apartment in the 7th w/a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower. We used parisperfect.com, which came recommended by a friend of mine. There were four of us (two couples) and we stayed in their St. Julien apartment.
The customer service and attention to EVERY detail that we received from them both before - and during - our stay was outstanding. I would highly recommend them!
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You have good advice already. I would second www.vacationinparis.com as it is nice dealing with a company in the USA and they send you the keys 2 weeks before your departure date. They are a well known company. Search %26quot;apartment rental%26quot; on this forum and you will see ones to check out and ones to avoid.
This is a good example of a very good company. Notice all the information they give. Inquire with them about their last minute rentals. One of those might save you a good bit of $$$$$$. We%26#39;ve used them. Super nice folks.
parispiedaterre.com/Pages/…CDM2.html
If you%26#39;re looking to go mid-April, you had sure better hurry!!!!!!!
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Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am absorbing these posts like a sponge and taking notes. Your advice is giving me confidence to book that apartment on Monday morning. (we still need to firm up or FF miles for the trip over, but it looks really good).
I noticed a lot of othe apartments offer free wifi and telephone service, even to the states! Is that true? And has anyone used craigslist for apartments? I have found some fascinating possiblities....
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Hi, we are a family of four (3 adults 1 child) and we stayed at a gorgeous apartment in the Rue Mazarine in the 6th. it was chosen and booked over the internet and turned out to be a very good experience for us. The site is www.paristay.com. Good luck.
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Acorns, on our last trip to Paris I looked at dozens of apartments and finally went with one from a newer company, based in Paris, for a price that was better than the others. Lesson learned the hard way! It was a comedy of errors (in retrospect, at the time it was less funny) from arriving in Paris and being told that we didn%26#39;t have a flat rented, to not being able to figure out how to get into the building, flat was DIRTY and in terrible disrepair (sink falling through the kitchen counter, broken shower, filthy sheets, etc etc etc), telephone and cable were turned off from non-payment, on our 3rd day the electric company came to turn off the power for non-payment (as I was in the shower rinsing the shampoo out of my hair, and my non French speaking husband was hammering on the shower door yelling %26quot;COME QUICK!!!!%26quot;).
What I learned was that, especially with our kids in tow, it really does pay to pay a bit more, go with a reputable, long standing agency or a VRBO type renter that has a long history of satisfied rentals (google everyone!). Maybe most of the time using Craigs List or something like that will work out fine, but when it doesn%26#39;t......oh doggies!.......it can be a nightmare!
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Parisperfect.com and parisianflat.com are two very higly thought of places. I rent from them..in fact I have a ParisPerfect for Oct. and a Parisianflat for April, 2008....there are many others. vrbo.com is a good place to look.....enjoy.........
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Okay,
My eyes have ben opened and I really appreciate all the wonderful sites. slowtrav was a real eye opener, and I now am feeling very confident about booking the apartment Monday morning.
My husband and I were just looking over the apartments I was considering when we stumbled upon the houseboats. Has anyone actually stayed in a houseboat in Paris? Are we insane to consider being on the river in April?
Thanks again.
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