Great websites for renting Villas or Apartments

www.rentvillas.com - They have select villas and Apartments in Europe, Turkey and the Caribbean.  They have tons to select from, anything from 2 people to large groups.  They have been around since 1984 and are very reliable and have stuff in every price range.

www.villeinitalia.com - A great site for anywhere in Italy you might want to go.  They offer everything from Luxury rentals to weddings and affordable villas.  Their pictures are quite extensive and their prices are very specific.  No hidden costs there.

www.summerinitaly.com - Another great site for Italian Vacations.  Again they offer lots of pictures.  Italians who really know the areas and have people who have seen all the villas run it.  I had great correspondence with them and they would continually help me try to find what I was looking for.

www.vrbo.com  - This site is great.  It has been around since 1995 and it was started by home owners who self-mange their second home rentals, ie Vacation Rentals by Owner.  Make sure you get a lot of pictures if you use this site!  They don't always have a lot on the site.  I like to see as many as possible before renting.  I have found some really interesting villas from vrbo.  I rented my first villa from a site that I found through them.

www.tendencygroup.com - I used them for Apartments in Barcelona.  They have some really great stuff.

www.friendlyrentals.com  - I have booked an apartment in Barcelona with them.  Their apartments are great, however you need to ask for measurements if size is an issue.  They are a little smaller than they appear in the picture.  Not an issue, just a little smaller.  But overall exactly what you are expecting.

www.villascarpariellorelais.it – My first true love.  This villa is spectacular in every way.  There are 10 apartments in the villa, all ranging from 1 bedroom to 3 bedrooms, most come with their own kitchens.  Basic daily cleaning is included.  You will feel as though you stepped into a fantasy when you stay here.  All the rooms have ocean views.  There is a salt-water pool and access to the ocean (which you share with the other apartments).  The staff is wonderful and I can’t wait to go back this year.  Completely affordable and in my opinion, Ravello is the most beautiful place to stay on the Amalfi coast.

I am sure there are others out there, but the ones I have mentioned have reasonable prices and great apartments and villas.  Also Fodor’s travel guides have some good sites listed in their books for apartment rentals.  There are plenty of sites out there that are geared towards those with unlimited budgets and they are listed in Travel & Leisure and other travel magazines.  I decided to focus on amazing accommodations on any budget (you will think you can’t possibly afford it! Oh how wrong you are).  I will keep you posted as I find more.

Questions to ask & things to look for when renting a villa or apartment.

1.  Pictures, Pictures, Pictures.  The more pictures you see, the more likely you are to get what you are looking at on the internet.  You can always ask if there are more pictures available if you like a particular property. Definitely get as much visual information as possible.  Sometimes you will see that a site has the same pictures for the different apartments they are renting.  Be wary of those apartments and be sure to ask for more pictures of the specific apartment you are interested in.

2.  See if there are reviews out there.  A negative review here and there should not deter you.    You are looking to get a good sense of what the majority of people have to say.  TripAdvisor is a good source for that.  Some sites offer their own testimonials as well.

3.  Check out a lot of sites.  I will discuss later some great sites that I have found, but the more you see, the more you will have an idea of what is available to you.

4.  Pictures of the villa or apartment are often taken with wide-angle lenses.  The effect is that the rooms in the apartment or villa will appear larger in the pictures than in person.  If you want to be sure of what you are getting size-wise, ask for the square footage or measurements.  This way you will have accurate information about the size of the place you are renting.  I find this to be more crucial with apartment renting than with villas.  If you are like me, and don’t necessarily have a great picture of what square foot measurements look like, measure your bedroom.  You can go on line and use a square foot calculator.  Then compare the measurements of the apartment to the measurements of your bedroom.

5.  Ask if there are any charges not included in the published price.  Things like heating & air conditioning may cost extra.   Also some places require that you have cleaning during your stay and that you pay for it.  That is not to say that you don’t want to rent that place, just make sure you know what all the costs are so there are no surprises.

6.  If you are really interested in renting something but it is a little more than you want to pay, offer the price that you are willing to pay.  There was a villa for 6 that I wanted and we dropped to 4 people.  I asked if there was any way that they would drop the price so that the price remained the same per person.  They agreed to that.  This is especially true if it is getting within the 2-3 month out range.   Often they would rather rent it than have it empty.  It is always worth asking.

7.  Ask to see if there are other people sharing the grounds with you.  Sometimes bigger houses are broken up into different apartments so that they can be rented to a couple of smaller groups as well as one large group.  You also might be sharing the grounds with the owner (who might live next door) and that may not be the experience that you want.

8.  See if there is a map of the exact location or a description of how far away you are from the town.  That could be a deciding factor, especially if you are not planning to rent a car.