Issues with booking.com reservations requesting wire transfer

Let booking.com know about the request and book elsewhere.

Did you contact the people at Booking.com before posting this?

I agree with Zoe. If the apartment advertised no pre-payment, then they shouldn't ask for one. I have had very good luck with booking.com and when one owner took out a pre-payment after I had cancelled, and did not respond to my requests to return the money, booking.com followed up and made sure I got my money back. So please let them know about the apartment in Florence so they can look into it.

If you respond and pay outside booking.com any problem will be on you. Zoe's advice was perfect: report it and look elsewhere. Not​ a clear deal when owners start using back channels.

Just to be clear, booking.com's policy is no pre-payment, but it says that individual properties may vary; the individual property's policy is disclosed before you make the reservation. The problem with the OP's issue is request for payment to the third-party - red flag!

So many red flags here for a scam. Do not do it. Like others have mentioned I would contact the owner through booking.com, a reliable way to correspond and ask them if they are requesting these funds, then go from there. Know that once you wire money out it is gone, no way to get it back. Your money will be wired to the UK, then wired out of the UK to who knows where to fund who knows what.

Thank you everyone. I am going to contact Booking.com. Will cancel the rental also. It was definitely a red flag for me as well. Has anyone else had issues with other apartment rentals such as airbnb or VBRO?

Thanks,
Joanne

I have had great success with AirBNB and VRBO. I prefer Airbnb because they seem to have a wider range of properties and a lot more reviews. We have used them in Florence and will be using them again in Florence and Rome. You pay AirBNB, not the host so I am not sure how you can get scammed on the payment side. You do need to pay in full at the time of the reservation, which is nice because it's all paid for once you get there. In Italy we usually pay the host in cash for the per person tax charge (Simply hand over an envelope with the appropriate Euros) and they may also request a copy of your passport, which we also have for each host.

I would NEVER NEVER NEVER send money by wire transfer. If you arrive and the place doesn't exist your money will be gone and you could be standing there with nowhere to stay.

"No pre-payment" might to some people mean not pre-paying the entire fee, rather than not even paying a deposit. Wire transfers are also a common thing between Europeans, but not between Americans and Europeans. If the property doesn't take credit cards, then I'd say that's working against you and you'd be better off with one that does take credit cards or accepts the deposit through the middle-man booking site.

The problem was the back channel communication off the booking.com website to save paying bookings commission. Red flag. Indeed, bank transfers are common in Europe, but US $ to a Brit account is bizarre.
Other sites: I had a bad experience with VRBO and won't use them.
Commission: booking.Com does raise the commissions on hotels once the hotel is successful getting bookings, from 12% to 15%. Hotels are really getting slammed from all directions.

I have used VRBO and Homeaway many times with good results. Pay attention to reviews. I NEVER send wire transfers. There are too many other options.

Seems more of a ruse to evade income tax in Italy that anything else to me.