Wiring payment in advance for apt in Rome & villa in Tuscany

We will be going next week to Rome and rented our apartments through VRBO and HomeAway. We sent the deposit through PayPal and another through bank wire transfer. We will be paying the balance when we arrive. The owners have also informed us that when we pay them in person, we have to give them a copy of our passport. We have rented from VRBO many times in the US and the process has been the same.

We rented a place on Lake Como and another in Lucca through these two services. I too felt uncomfortable but (for good or bad) I'm a trusting soul. If we were ripped off, then the seats in the rental Ford Fiesta are going to suffice.

I rented an apartment in Paris listed on VRBO. The owner lives in the U.S. I had to pay 50% when I made the reservation and the balance one month before the trip. I have also rented places in the U.S. through VRBO and had to pay the entire amount before arrival. I've never had a problem.

Italians in general love to "wire" money, much more so than in America. The downside is there is no recourse if a deal goes bad. Paying by credit card gives you the protection of the CC company at the least, as does PayPal in theory. That being said - VRBO is reputable and if there were scams going on the properties would not be in their index. Also sending a wire to a real numbered bank account means you can track and dispute it if necessary. The thing you don't want to do is send money using Western Union - people have been scammed using that.

It is usual to pay deposits on this type of accommodation. And in Italy they do need your passports to register you as a visitor with the local police when you arrive - this is SOP - just like when a hotel keeps your passport.

While the requirements you describe seem to be a very common way of doing business for vacation rentals by private owners, it does open the door to lots of scammers. Trip Advisor has a lengthy discussion of the ins and outs of the situation in the U.K. (Lots of scams going on there.) Contrary to what you might think, wiring to a bank account is no guarantee of legitimacy; as the banks and the police are not eager to become involved in chasing down the bad guys. Again, see the T.A. discussion. I'm way too nervous about such things and will only rent from a reputable agency that takes cc's and screens the listings or from an owner who is recommended by someone I trust.

Last May, we rented through vrbo in Venice and Florence. The apartment owners required a down payment on the rental. No credit cards were accepted. I transferred fund from my bank to their banks in Italy. Payment was due in full upon arrival. I would feel very uncomfortable about paying in full before arrival. However, vrbo is a very reputable site. Have you registered your rental with Home Away (I think this is vrbo's parent company?) They recommend that you do so before any money is exchanged. Our outcome was wonderful. Apartments were great, just like the pictures on the web site. I will definitely use vrbo again.

Thank you everyone for your replies. They have been very helpful.
I found this apt thru VRBO, HomeAway and Owners Direct. It is the same account manager for all 3 sights, Catherine Brown. I offered 25% now and the remainer when we get there. This is her response:

"We wouldn't accept this. We sell the apartment in this way because if guests decide not to come we would not have any income unless we could sell it as a last minute booking. This is the way that Owners Direct recommends and is standard practice. I can't see how any of the properties on Owners Direct can be a scam because guests would soon complain to Owners Direct and at the very least they would be removed from the site and reported to the police."

I have chosen to not accept her response - we will look for another apartment.

Maybe VRBO and HomeAway have a different policy..?

With VRBO it's up to the owner if they will require a deposit and how payment will be made. I booked a place in Florence whose owner required no deposit and offered payment by PayPal but preferred cash on arrival.

We rented an apartment in Florence in July through VRBO and they required a deposit of 100 Euros paid through paypal. The remainder was payable in cash upon arrival.

With VRBO each individual owner sets their own policy. We rented an apartment in Rome for one week last year. The owner had us mail her a personal check for US$500 that she held as security deposit until we checked out. We had to pay (in euro cash) the entire amount for the week when we arrived. At the end of the week she gave us back our uncashed check. This was either very trusting or very naive on her part because if we had wanted to cancel our reservation at the last minute we could have done a stop payment on the check (if we were that kind of people) and she would have been up a creek. But it all turned out fine. We really enjoyed the apartment in Trastevere.