Ever use Booking.com for an apartment rental in Italy? Plus a bonus question.

I booked a room with private bath in this apartment in Rome last summer through Booking.com. The owners run it either as a B&B or as a full-apartment rental. One owner indicated he would have rented it more cheaply if I had contacted them directly through their website, but I've had good success with booking.com for all kinds of rentals - agriturismi, apartments, and hotels. This booking went smoothly, the owner was waiting for me at the appointed time and was easy to contact throughout my stay. He also arranged an early-morning ride to the airport for me.

BTW, I recommend this place highly. It was very clean, modern, comfortable, convenient, with a killer view of St. Peter's out the living room window. Fantastic kitchen and living space. Just up the street from Castel Sant'Angelo in Prati.

After booking direct for the past 12 years, I took a chance last September and used Booking.Com.

We, two friends and I, we're very happy with all four apartments we rented over a three week trip.

The response from all owners was quick. They answered all questions, and one even allowed us to switch dates when our plans changed.
I would not hesitate to use them again.

I would never book a place like what you're describing with Homeaway. However, have you tried looking for the same apartment on other websites? Most apartments/rentals in Italy are listed on several different sites. Do a google search for some unusual phrase or words in the description of the apartment you're considering. Good luck.

About the Homeaway apartment.

I did Google it and discovered that it had already been booked through...Booking.com. There were reviews. It hadn't come up in my searching there because I marked the box to ignore places not available for my dates. I just checked and there is no indication on Homeaway that it is booked. Hmmm? Maybe because the Homeaway listing is so new? Oh, well, scratch that one off the list.

Try airbnb.com and, in my opinion, do not book without several solid detailed reviews. Because you are paying the service fee on airbnb, it seems the number of decent apartments has skyrocketed as the landlord will get more in the end. We have booked with homeaway twice with fairly good results, and we now have an airbnb booking in Rome that seems nice. Booking.com has the advantage of verified reviews as opposed to, say, TripAdvisor.

I have used booking.com to find apartments in Italy, Austria, Portugal and Spain. l have always been very satisfied. I would tend to trust the reviews on booking.com because they only accept reviews from people who have actually stayed at the property.

Booking.com, and Agoda in Asia, offer the most redress if something goes wrong. They will put you in another property (it may not be exactly the same, but that's the nature of apartment rentals) even if it's 2 am. HomeAway has a less robust redress system, they don't even guarantee you'll get a refund of the whole amount if there's actual fraud, unless you pay by credit card, through them, and it's less than a certain amount (I think it's only $1,000 but not sure).

Airbnb makes you go through the property owner for redress, which can be awkward or impossible. I assume if that doesn't work they eventually jump in. I rented an Airbnb in NYC last summer that was listed in a different, neighboring area that was more desirable than the actual address. After the booking, the owner contacted me to tell me the real address, and I didn't quite get what was going on till I arrived there and realized I was in Kip's Bay and not Murray Hill. When I complained to Airbnb, they referred me to the property owner instead of fixing the obvious cheating going on. In that case, the owner ended up refunding me more than 50% of the rental cost, but the listing didn't get fixed.

Anyway, all to say it depends on your appetite for dealing with things that might go wrong.

I used booking.com to rent in Bruges, Belgium and everything went fine. In fact, they stepped in with assistance when the owner wasn't confirming receipt of a requested response from me and I was worried that we were all set.

Have used VRBO/Homeaway in the past for rentals in the U.S. but I don't now how comfortable I'd be using them abroad. Booking.com just feels a little more secure/supportive than doing ALL dealings through the owner. I'd also never book a property that didn't have a lot of legitimate reviews.