sending a deposit for a ferienwohnung

Can be fraud. Take care. Do you know that this is an established provider?

There should be plenty of places that accept a reservation without advance payment and require only your name and contact information to reserve. I've been using Ferienwohnungen for years and never sent a single deposit. Just be sure to show up and pay so that this traditional practice can continue.

If it is listed on the city tourism website, and has some history there, it is unlikely to be a fraud, but you should be able to confirm that it is legit.

As for the cash deposit, it is very common (in my experience) in Germany at least. They generally expect you to wire money into their bank account, which is very common practice in Germany and some other European countries. As this may be expensive (depending on your bank fees), I generally ask for some other method of sending the deposit if they do not take credit cards, such as PayPal. In all but one case, I was relieved of the obligation to send the deposit in advance, and they simply trusted me to show up.

But that may be uncommon.

In any case, be sure you understand the cancellation and refund policies. If there is a problem, it is harder to recover money you sent by wire transfer (or by check) than if you used your credit card (it generally offers you some protection from fraud or deceptive practices).

lola, is it the case that you normally book through agencies and/or booking engines? Or with the owners of private Ferienwohnungen, the ones at "local city websites," as rob inquired about? IME the latter only rarely demand deposits. But perhaps there's a more recent trend toward deposits at play in certain places, or in larger cities... it would be interesting to hear where you've found this to be so.

If you decide to proceed with this, check out transferwise.com, which several people on the forum have used (I have not). No one has reported a problem, and the fees are apparently much lower than a bank would charge--quite possibly better than PayPal, too.

I have used www.transferwise.com several times. Much better rate and fee than using a transfer from your bank. Of course never send actual cash. In years gone by, I would send international postal orders.

Whatever "local city websites" mean concretely, it is neither guaranteed that this webpage is from the community nor that they check posted offerings - maybe it is just unchecked embedded content.

Indications: Every website from a commerical German housing / rental provider / company needs to have an imprint (Impressum). There the full company name, address, responsible manager, chamber register ID, and tax ID must be listed; sometimes also the registration number of the aprtment / house from the community (e.g. Berlin, Hamburg, Munich). Example for an Impressum.

Normally in Germany if you book a Ferienwohnung or a Ferienhaus a pre-deposit of 10-30% can be seen as business as usual. You can check various booking platforms to verify that. The rest is paid on arrival (if cash ask immediately for a receipt of payment).

I'd have no hesitation using a local tourit board website, and am in the process of doing it right now (spur of the moment trip, cheap flight into Frankfurt). Germany in general is wonderful for this. In the past I've booked places with and without a deposit. My bank charges me no fees for a money transfer.

Update for me. Turned out place I'm staying at didn't require a deposit.