I am looking at an apartment on VacationRentals.com. We were ready to reserve the apartment. The owner sent over a contract which states payment must be payed through western union. My husband didn%26#39;t feel comfortable with this, so contacted the owner with another possible method of payment. He declined, and gave the excuse of not wanting to deal with banks because of a bad experience. What do you think? If it is a legitimate deal, I really do not want to miss out! But, I am very skeptical!
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There are many nice apartments in Paris whose owners are willing to deal with customers on reasonable terms.
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If you%26#39;ve read previous threads, you would know not to send money via Western Union. Do not do it. Most reputable owners will take CC or paypal. Unless you have great references from people you know who have rented from the owner, run.
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%26quot;gave the excuse of not wanting to deal with banks because of a bad experience%26quot;
Hmm, this does sound more than a bit fishy. Personally, I%26#39;m with the others and would find somewhere else if I were you. There%26#39;s just something about the words %26quot;Western Union%26quot;, %26quot;apartment%26quot; and %26quot;Paris%26quot; used in the same breath that make me nervous.
Just a general observation leading on from this: I can understand that apartment owners don%26#39;t accept credit card payments by the usual retail method (quite costly if you only have one or two apartments to let), but I%26#39;m always surprised by the number who aren%26#39;t set up for PayPal. The fees for the owners are minimal (and they could always charge them back to the customer if they feel so inclined), the customer can pay using bank account or credit card. Easy and quick. I have dealt with a few legitimate places in Europe where I%26#39;ve had to pay deposits by bank transfer - the fees for me were terrible, it would have been so much easier to use PayPal! And I could have earned Frequent Flyer points, too... (But the places were great and we thought they were worth the extra cost!)
Anyway, minor rant over - best of luck.
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Here%26#39;s a prior post with a link to an article with a warning about paying for an apartment through Western Union. I remember reading other posts with similar warnings.
I recommend finding another apartment. It%26#39;s possible this is legitimate, buy why take the chance.
tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187147-i14-k21806…
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I%26#39;m sorry I jumped all over you about the rental owner, it%26#39;s just that there are scams going on. Try renting from vacationinparis.com, or vrbo.com. Good Luck.
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I am not upset about your comments. I know it all sounds terribly fishy! I am just upset about it all! I wanted very badly to rent a nice apartment at a good price. Now I can%26#39;t seem to find anything up to my standards, within my budget. I am leaving in three weeks! This was a very last minute thing! If anyone has any suggestions as to apts at good last minute rates, please tell me.
As to the VRBO.com suggestion. I know they are affiliated with homeaway.com which is also who runs vacationrentals.com. That is where I found this apt in discussion. I contacted them about his demands. I hope they pull the listing!
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Try sending an email to some of the agencies that get good reviews on this forum to see if they have any last minute availability.
Vacationinparis.com has a variety of apartments and gets mostly good reviews on this forum.
I%26#39;m renting from PerfectlyParis on my upcoming trip. Their apartments are mostly in Montmartre.
Good luck!
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%26gt;%26gt; I wanted very badly to rent a nice apartment at a good price %26lt;%26lt;
Alarm bells!!! If you haven%26#39;t found anything except this apratment to fit yuour criteria, that would automatically make me think something was not right.
There are many recommended apartment rental companies listed on this forum. Given you are only 3 weeks away from your trip you might find you can get a last minute deal from one of them.
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From everything I have read/heard, red flags should be going off all over the place. My advice is, don%26#39;t rent if you can%26#39;t use a credit card (which you can with almost all agencies) so you have at least minimal recourse if things go wrong (which they rarely do, but why take chances).
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If something seems to good to be true ...( a great plac cheap and last minute) then it probaly is.. .too good to be true.
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