APT Rentals in advance

Thank you!

In Vienna we stayed at Apartments Augarten. http://www.apartment.at/eng/apartment/66
We have used the above service for other apartments in Vienna as well. Augarten apartments are great and there is a Ubahn stop right out the front door so you can be in city center within 5 minutes. Depending on how long you stay you are looking at about 63 Euro a night.

I have used vrbo.com and homeaway.com for apartment rentals. They are 'sister' sites, and the listings are primarily the owners renting out apartments or homes they own. Every owner decides for themselves how they want to handle their rental. Some will take credit cards and some won't. Some want cash up front, some want a deposit with the balance paid upon arrival. I wouldn't think that renting apartments on the fly would be very feasible. With apartments, as with hotels, the best most economical places will be rented well in advance. If you're willing to stay at hotels, B&B's or hostels you might have better luck renting on the fly. It's not too hard to find hotels with 2 single beds. When will you be traveling?

We once got something on the fly when an original place didn't work out. We were in the neighborhood where the agency is located in Paris, had already rented from the agency many times, speak the language fluently, and were lucky something had just come on the market. It took several hours out of our afternoon and we paid through the nose. I wouldn't recommend it.

Agree with all of the above posters. You do need to set up apartments in advance. If you want to do on the fly, I have to agree that B&Bs or pensions are your best bet.

We have rented apartments for between 2 and 7 nights perhaps two dozen times in a dozen different countries. The financial arrangements all varied. In a couple of cases, no deposit was necessary, but CC numbers were shared in case we didn't show up. In many cases, a partial payment was required ahead of time - anywhere from 20-50%. In a few cases, we had to pay in full before we left home. In every case, there is a certain risk involved. You always wonder if this might be some sort of scam and there isn't really an apartment to be had. But we have never been burned. Each apartment has ranged from decent to fantastic. We have primarily used HomeAway and its affiliated sites. When I research an apartment, I cross-check as many facets of the listing I can - including a google maps search of the precise location, and a web search of any other pages for the same property (to get more information and some confirmation that it's legit + more access to reviews). We've shared our CC numbers too many times to count and so far, not a single unexpected transaction. However, of all those apartment rentals we've done, not a single one was reserved less than 5 months in advance. You can do it closer to your arrival date, but the best ones get taken far ahead of time.

Thank you for the good advice.

About your Global railpasses - they aren't 'hop-on, hop-off' anymore like they used to be. Be sure you understand where you'll need to buy reserved seats and when you'll need to pay pass supplements!!! It's gotten a lot more convoluted...and the rules change each year. Apts - you might luck out here and there with a last-minute apt rental, but I wouldn't want to count on it. It's not like you can walk up to an apt. and speak with someone about renting it for the night. Usually you need to pre-arrange a meeting with someone who can give you the keys, accept your rent, and show you around the apt. Most apts want to rent for a minimum number of days, too (3-7), but not all of them require this. Here and there, you might just stay at a B&B, as suggested by the others.

Thank you Eileen. I'm mostly troubled about booking trains in Italy. Thus far, using Bahn, the first reservation we are going to need is a night train from Budapest to Venice. Also looks like we have to cut our wish list, Croatia is out.
We've also dropped Prague from our wish list circle( Munich, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Zagreb, Croatia's coast, Florence, Cinque Terre, Lake Como area,and Switzerland around Chur or St Moritz). The first leg looks workable, Munich airport to Salzburg for three nights, a short side trip overnight into the high mtns, then on to Vienna for two nights before departing to Budapest for three nights. Budapest to Venice by night train. Now, can we manage to get from Venice to Florence to the coast, either Cinque Terre or Portofino, then up to Milan and lake Como into Switzerland without having reservations on Italian trains, it really is confusing for this novice. Also, accommodation recommendations for any place in the circle are greatly appreciated. A hearty thanks again for your advice. :)