paying for apartment rental

I would never wire money myself. We do cash...gives you achance to make sure its not a dump.

Is it such an extraordinary amount of cash that it will be hard to either travel with it or get it right upon arrival? I personally would rather pay cash when I meet up with the person. I've done bank wires, though, and it's not a big deal. There's about a $40 fee at my bank and, having just done one in February, I was surprised at how long it took them to get it all set up. I must have been at the counter for at least 30 minutes.

I'm in the minority on this site in that I like to travel with my Euros in pocket when I leave SeaTac, so if I need to pay cash at an apartment on arrival, I've got it in my neck pouch. Be aware that if you're getting your cash on arrival in Rome, there are limits to what you can take out of an ATM. Maybe someone else will weigh in with the current daily limits. I've never taken cash from an ATM in Europe.

We have found that ATMs will generally give 500 euro at a single withdrawal. You can make multiple transactions at the same ATM, but the daily limit is at the discretion of your "home" ATM.

If it's a site like VRBO or Homeaway, I prefer to pay through the site or use PayPal, but will do a wire transfer if I feel good about the owner. Having never heard of citiesreference.com, I would be reluctant to wire transfer. When we've had to come up with a large amount of cash, we acquire said cash during the preceding day or two. Is this your first stop in the Euro Zone? Ask if you can give them €500 on arrival and the rest the next day so you do not have to travel with thousands.

FYI, there is a transfer service called Transferwise that is far easier to use than a bank, and costs less. We use it all the time.

AirBNB has some protection built in. Homeaway has some sort of insurance you can buy against fraud I believe. We have often paid in advance where we have some confidence in the agency or have dealt with them before, but for a new rental like this I would much prefer to pay in cash. At least you don't hand it over until you see that the apartment exists. Understand though that the owner is probably running a tax dodge on this. When we need money on arrival from the US, we get it from our bank and carry it in the money belt; if we are in country for a few days before needing it, we stockpiile it from ATM withdrawals. I think it is probably slightly more secure to carry it but we have never had an incident with money at ATMs. Do take care -- it helps if there are two people one with back to the withdrawer and one doing the business as there are teams of kids that sometimes target withdrawals and are good at creating chaos, punching a few buttons and grabbing cash. Rare, but not unheard of, so be vigilant.

For our Florence apartment stay in March 2015, we used VRBO for initial contact, then was EMailing with the owner from then on. We used PayPal to send a one-day deposit (about 100 Euro) two months in advance, and upon arrival at the apartment in Florence, met with the owner, got the lay of the land and the keys, and paid cash upfront the rest of the way. I think once she saw we were good people, she waived the original 200 Euro security deposit. That was the last we saw of her our entire 5 day stay.

I have rented an apartment for next week in Italy and paid a small deposit via pay pal. After that a contract was sent to me via e-mail. The rest 310 euros is due upon arrival in cash. I plan on using the ATM once we arrive. When traveling to Europe I always use ATMS since it gives me the best exchange rates at the time. I also always have a few euros cash with me upon arrival. It is customary in Europe to pay for housing upon arrival or at check out.