Looking for a reasonible 2 bedroom apartment in Florence to rent the first week of May within reasonible distance from central Florence. There would be 3 adults and would prefer ground floor or builing with a lift. Any leads would be appreciated..
Nick

Last Oct rented a 2 bedroom ( recently remodeled) apt. Full kitchen, 2 baths, In Florence within a short walk of the Domo, apt was one floor up. Rented it for ten days for 990 euros. Want additional let me know.

welcome to flyertalk, wtnicker1

please continue to follow this thread in our Italy forum.

regards,

chrissxb
co-moderator
europe forum

Love, love, love this company:

http://www.italyperfect.com/florence...n-rentals.html

Everything they offer is special with an attention to detail!

[QUOTE=msk6261;18260763]I found you pay way more when you book through a service. If your looking for "reasonable Apt" you'll do better with sites such as VRBO or Homeaway. And I found you can get the asking price down IMO

Welcome to FlyerTalk wtnicker1!

If you're still "here" after your one post - do check out the SlowTravel Italy Forum - those people primarily rent apartments and you'll most likely find the site extremely beneficial.

Here's the link to their Italy Forum:
http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a/frm/f/862600685

And here's their page with all the Florence apartment rental reviews - which will obviously be a good jumping off place for your research:
http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/vr/list.asp?r=Florence

[QUOTE=mike2200;18263127]
I agree with you in general but I believe Italy Perfect is not a service but actually owns and manages their properties.

We rented from ParisPerfect a few years back and we found their apartments to be truly outstanding. Really special, great locations with an attention to detail and wonderful service (No, I don't have any financial interest in saying so) I have had hit or miss luck with VRBO properties not living up to their ads.

They often have sales on non-rented properties which make them surprisingly competitively priced.

I can only assume their Italy branch is similar.

I've been searching - with OCD fervor - for Rome rentals and know for a fact that some of Italy Perfect's Rome properties are represented by more than one agency or are actually serviced-apartments-hotels bookable in several ways. However, it's my understanding that these agencies sometimes are the exclusive company listing a particular rental (I've found this in instances with Sleep in Italy and Rome Accommodation, where it's their agent that's onsite when you check in versus the apartment's owner) but would be surprised to learn that they actually also owned the properties.

I agree with you about the hit and miss of VRBO, Homeaway, Homelidays, etc since they're all independent and can disallow bad reviews from showing on those sites.

Working with a trusted rental agency is very advantageous, for all the obvious reasons, and therefore well worth the additional cost - I agree.

Unless you found a listing represented on a reputable agency site with many positive reviews and with many positive mentions that the owner was great/helpful/responsive to issues that arose - and then you found that same rental listed by the owner himself on VRBO and for far less cost - then that's a great find and a fairly safe bet to proceed. IMO.

But re VRBO, etc, that's where I find SlowTravel so helpful. If several reviews have been posted on the ST site regarding VRBO listings, or other owner-direct listings and they're positive reviews of course, then that's also a "safer bet".