is it legit to send a deposit directly to a bank account for reservations?

What is the complete name? I was trying to see whether there were reviews on TripAdvisor. There is a place on the listing to ask questions and you could perhaps post there for clarification of that method of payment.
A few years ago, Western Union had a huge upset doe to fraudulent transfers and may be more cautious these days.
I used to send transfers to Africa for safaris when the alternative was paying the 5% merchant fee on credit card payments....For those companies that even took CC payments...not all did.
It may be cost savings for the Dutch couple and a way of keeping the money in their home country....not necessarily something fraudulent.

I have sent a deposit (deposit only ) directly to a bank account for a vacation apartment in Italy in the past - having lived there I know this is done within Europe more commonly. I knew the owners from local friends though so perhaps worth doing some background checking. It cost an extra fee at our bank which we were fine with.

As an aside (for the future), I would check out the fees on Wise, I bet they are lower than Western Union or other transfer services. Their fees are very transparent: https://wise.com/us/send-money/

Sending directly to a bank account is a fairly common way of paying in Europe. There are on-line services that will assist with direct transfer for about a quarter of your bank's fee.

We do that as long as we have a good feeling about the place and we always use Wise, as Agnes recommended above. Great service at low cost.

necessarily something fraudulent.

It is Not something fraudulent for their guests, but I think they want a money transfer to a Dutch bank account to avoid paying taxes in Italy

Could you provide a link to this website?

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. The full name is Agriturismo Borgo di Cortona for those inquiring... and good idea to look up reviews on Trip Advisor. Thank you. They are a private entity it seems, not found on Booking or AirB&b, or VRBO. I will investigate further, i rather hate to give up on them but i don't want to get all the way over there with no place to stay! Thank you for advice using Wise to send money in the future.

Thank you Dario, that makes sense.

This is their Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/borgodicortona?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Im not near good wifi with now to capture their website address. I will post that later.

Is this the place?.... https://borgodicortona.nl/en/accommodatie/rosemarino/

After reading the Terms & Conditions, I suspect I would search for somewhere with more customer friendly terms.

The only time I was asked to send money this way, I explained to the owner of the small hotel how much money it cost to do that from the US to Italy and he was quite surprised (less expensive in Europe?) and we arranged to use PayPal instead.

There are TripAdvisor revues, but none in English, so it may be a remote chance you will receive an enquiry answer...but try.
Their T&C are very well spelled out, but do appear limiting. Maybe that is a good professional approach?
As mentioned, in a lot of the world bank transfers are normal,but you could pose the PayPal option, as at least with them you are sure to have a recourse.

less expensive in Europe?

Yes, it's free.

Up until a few years ago, you paid if you were transferring money to another country (like say from France, where we live, to Italy, where my husband is from), but even that has gone away now.

It's very common to transfer money / pay for things via bank transfer in Europe.

Chase Bank, which I would not consider a low fee bank, charges me $0 for bank transfers to my Italian bank in Italy (or any bank overseas) if the amount is $5000 or more, and $5 if the amount sent is less than $5000. If your bank charges you $75 your bank must be in the bank robbery business.

A Bank Transfer (“Bonifico Bancario” in Italian) is the most common payment system in Europe since it’s free or, at most, no more than €1 for each transfer.

Use Transferwise, formerly Wise, for small transfers like this from the US. This is how currency is commonly handled in Europe. In fact, German banks don't even issue checks anymore.

Always avoid having your bank send overseas unless you have a setup like Roberto's.

Transferwise, and other exchange services have US accounts. Your bank sends it to their US account. They then send it to an European bank which sends it to their Netherlands account. They appear to be catering to tourists from the Netherlands.

https://borgodicortona.nl/en/ <-- This is the website to the home page of Agriturismo Borgo Di Cortona as requested Dario, and yes Joe the website you posted shows one of the lovely accommodations there... beautiful photos. Same website includes some of their blogs in renovating this place, I really want to believe this place is for real, but yes, that requires more research. With the hiccup today at Western Union, it left us a little uneasy about the legitimacy of the business at all. So, I was wondering if anyone had heard of or used this Agriturismo before? Nancys8 and MariaF your comments about PayPal possibilities were actually what we were thinking of asking them as an alternative mode of payment, I sure like the idea of recourse if necessary. Agnes and Laurel the suggestions about using Wise was a great one. Like I said we are new to all this and it appears their fees are less than PayPal. Roberto, sadly we do not have a Chase account but used to! Wow that is amazing set up you have! So very interesting hearing about the common Bank Transfer practice in Europe. Something we obviously we are new to. We have long watched the Rick Steves programs over the years and this is the first time I've used this VERY HELPFUL forum. So very grateful. Thank you Bets, you have some very good points, especially asking them for a receipt, and Transferwise seems like a very good one to look into. They do also have a campground but im not sure about Dutch food. They do have a pizza oven however! And most of the reviews are in English, a couple in another language which I don't recognize.

There is one review in Italian (the short one) and a long one in German, both very positive. The German one mentions that they had no car, and that the owner of the place drove them around a few times, for a small compensation. You can use Google Translate if you want to translate the reviews to English. Have a nice stay at this agriturismo and please report back on your experiences.

I am not commenting on this place in particular, but I have also used Wise to wire payment for accommodations in Europe. In general, the concept is not unusual, but like any accommodation you need to do your due diligence.

Bets has it backwards. It was transferwise.com, now wise.com. I used them twice, for about $5 fee. My bank fees for prior transfers were $40 and $35

Someone had mentioned earlier — I guess they deleted their post — that they were shocked to learn that Canadians couldn't use Venmo.

Well, neither can Europeans, nor anybody anywhere else in the world except the U.S. Venmo is limited to U.S. only.

Americans can't even sign into it when abroad.

https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409685942675-Accessing-Venmo-While-Abroad

I used to be able to sign into my Venmo account while abroad and now I cannot

Venmo is currently only supported within the U.S. If you try to sign in while abroad, you’ll likely get an error message. We will be able to further assist you with any login issues upon your return to the U.S.

We are always somewhat skeptical of putting a deposit up front unless it's through a booking agency. But that's just us.
We love love Cortona. Been many times. You will have a car, correct? Your selected property will definitely need a car for getting around. We have stayed at https://www.monasterosansilvestro.it/ which was a lovely place, and most recently La Vita e Bella which was a lovely place in the heart of Cortona.

https://planetofhotels.com/en/italy/cortona/agriturismo-borgo-di-cortona

That seems very strange to me. I have only wire transferred one time for something like this. It was for my daughter’s dorm room when she studied in Germany. When we did this it was all arranged by our local university too, way less shady. I’d stay clear of this kind of arrangement. Surely there are more secure options. We are going to France next week and haven’t paid anything yet. It should be that easy at lots of places. Good luck.

It's not a special deal I have with Chase. The $5 fee for amounts under $5000 is for any Chase client, as you can see in the small footnote 1 and 3 here. If I were you I'd open an account with them if you plan to use it for international transfers in the future.

Incidentally my Italian bank charges me €6 for receiving my transfer from outside the EU (it would be only €1 if within the EU). I need to change my Italian bank (Banca Intesa), they are ridiculous with their fees, but unfortunately few allow US citizens to open an account with them since the enactment of FATCA.

Good info Roberto. I do have a Chase card and they are always soliciting. Will look into it. That is the best rate yet bank-to-bank.
My French bank is outrageous, too. LOL.

If they are a rather small business, it is very difficult for the bank to allow them to receive payments without the physical credit card, so bank transfers are the way to go. I used to work with tourists and know many are weary of bank transfers, however it is the way to go. They could also set up Paypal but it is somewhat complicated with fees and billing.

Thank you Roberto for clarifying on Chase bank. Getting an account with them is a great idea for bank transfer if we decide to go with these people. Interesting to know there are more charges on the other end from the bank receiving the money. I did download the Wise app, Bets, in case that is an option these people will accept. Stephen, the fees for Wise sure do seem reasonable. I sent the owners a message that our bank would charge $75 to process the bank transfer for deposit, and I asked if they have other options for payment such as PayPal. They responded saying they are working on a solution. It's been 3 days, and we haven't heard anything back on progress. Could be they are a small business and actually working on it, needing the time. We are just used to quicker responses universally. Our trip isn't for another 6 mo. but we need to nail down a place in Tuscany for a 1 week stay before the choices dwindle. MR, my guess is that they are a small business and your comment pretty much sums up what I'm imagining they are going through. Jack, yes there are still other choices. Because we are doing the planning all ourselves, not doing a travel group or anything, we didn't realize the one place we kind of fell in love with would have an unforeseen hurdle like this. It is interesting though, to learn from the comments on this thread that bank transfers are fairly standard practice however. Enjoy your trip to France next week! JR, thank you for your comments about Cortona and other beautiful suggestions for lodging. I appreciate the links! Some beautiful ideas! Yes we plan on renting a car. We'll be taking a train from Rome, and need to figure out where we rent the car from. There are 2 cities near Cortona. Any suggestions out there I am OPEN to them! It's a little complicated connecting dots. After a week in Tuscany, we will head south to Priano for 2 weeks, then backtrack to Rome for our flight out back to USA. Veerie, if we do end up at Agriturismo Borgo di Cortona, I will indeed report back our experiences! Good idea to use Google translate on reviews, and I'm happy to know the ones you were able to read were positive ones.

We rented a car in Chiusi - on the way to Cortona from Rome, 1 hr. 44 min direct train, and easy walk from the train station to car rental. (Budget/Avis) Auto Europe required a three-day or more rental. Small town, easy to maneuver. You can also rent in Arezzo.