Tournights.com

I haven't used them personally. Most likely someone in our office has used them or someone passed along their experience with them. They wouldn't typically end up in our guidebook if one of our editors didn't think it was worth it.

"Tournights" formally 1001 Nights Madrid rents apartments all over Europe and it was our choice on Rick Steves' recommendation so we booked two weeks with Frederick the guy who runs Tournights. What we did not know at the time was that the apartment was illegal and the police came calling. It was a traumatic experience for my wife and I. The took our passport and photograped them and spent 25 minutes drilling me and had I been more forthcoming with information Tournights could possbily been fined 30,000euro. Apparently only about 5-8 % of the 100,000 or more apartments for rent in Barcelona are legal which means the ones with permits meet various health and safety standards set by the goverment. Tournights represents apartment owners, however, I question how many of these apartments have permits. For instance, had there been a fire in our apartment and we were unable to use the stairs we would have had to climb to the top of the building, hope the exit door was unlocked and cross over to the next building for safety. The apartment we rented had no smoke detector or exit plan in the case of an emergency. Frederick is a very charming man, and when we asked to be relocated to a safer, legal apartment. Frederick suggested it would easier for him for us to stay as he was certain the police would not return and if they did return for us to tell the police he was sleeping on the couch. Frederick did relocate us at our expense and we had to pay for the taxi as well. When we asked for a full refund he offered us 10 days and stated "He had done enough"...Ask for permit numbers before you book through Tournights and make sure the permit valid is posted legally in the apartment per Spanish law.