Paying deposit with a bank transfer

First of all, do your due diligence that the vendor is legit, then pick a vendor. I have used xoom and Western Union. Xoom is a subsidiary of PayPal, it is handy if you have funds in PayPal so you don't need to input other funding method. Western Union is popular with intl fund transfer. Compare exchange rates and fees. You can use credit card (higher fee), debit card, or bank direct. Sometimes you need to learn the iban and study the layout of account numbers. Start a hypo transaction you know what I mean. I have used both for Scotland, Italy and New Zealand, all worked fine.

Yup, it's very common here. Log into you bank account, search for bank transfers and follow the instructions. Personally I hate them so I call my banker and make him do it for me. Oh, that international bank transfer might come with a hefty fee, depends on your bank and your perks.

Yes, your bank is likely to charge a hefty fee and give you a terrible exchange rate.

Wise does have good service with low fees and good exchange rates.
https://wise.com/

My concern would be that you are not afforded the same protections as with a credit card payment.

Yes, within Europe, sending money by bank transfer is standard practice. Nobody uses checks any more. You might also ask them if they will accept your credit card with a 5% fee. That is what I did the one time I was asked to send money by bank transfer.

The fees are not hefty and you don't need to have your bank to do it, it is not a "wire transfer". Go to Xoom, Western Union or Wise, fees are 0.99 (using bank account number) to 12.99 (cc), sometimes it's free the first time. The exchange rate is pretty bare bone like xe.com

A bank transfer is called a BONIFICO BANCARIO in Italian.
Europeans use that method a lot (and I do too for my personal needs) since it costs nothing (from €0 to €1 per transfer within the EU), therefore it is used much like in America we use Zelle or Venmo.
I have to do a lot of such transfers in Italy, but I use my Italian bank account. I do do bank transfers from my US bank account to my Italian bank account sending money from my Chase US account to my Italian bank account. It is called an International wire transfer.
Chase charges me nothing for transfers over $5,000 and $5 per transfer under $5,000. So you need to check with your bank about their fees.
Wise has reasonable fees for international transfers.
The recipient will need to send you their bank account data, known as IBAN (International Bank Account Number). The US doesn’t use the IBAN system much, but you can use your bank or Wise to make that transfer.

It's a very common method of payment here in Europe and easy for us. So the proprietors aren't aware -- or don't care --;that it isn't something super easy for clients from the States, unfortunately.

The few times we've been asked to do this, we asked if we could use PayPal instead and pay the fee ourselves and that worked out fine --- just did it a week ago for a rental house in Sicily.

I booked an apartment in Budapest last year that required a deposit by bank transfer. I had booked the same apartment in 2020 and was able to pay the deposit by credit card, but that was no longer an option and I obviously wasn’t able to travel in 2020. I downloaded the Wise app and paid the deposit that way. It was easy and inexpensive.

Wise is what a lot of Americans who have multiple transactions here in Europe use, particularly for small transactions such as this. First, Wise puts the dollars into their US account, so you don't have a foreign wire fee. Next, it's changed and sent to the recipient.

Last year I used Charles Schwab for a money transfer for an apartment in Europe. If you have an account with Schwab, there is no charge. But their fraud department called me and tried to talk me out of doing it. I was reasonably sure that the rental was not a scam, so I went ahead with the transfer, but I was glad that they were advising clients of the risk.

Good info about Schwab, but I'm curious about the last post and want to know who did the currency conversion? The French bank or Schwab?

We have wired deposits to several accommodations in Italy over the years without any issues - my credit union wouldn't do it, and my husband's credit union charged an unreasonable fee so the next time we used Western Union at our local Safeway store. It's very inexpensive and we've done so several times since. Just be sure you're sending to a legit place.