apartment rentals - paying in cash on arrival - how to do smoothly

You can see if they will take Pay Pal.
I am also renting an apartment in Paris and we payed through PayPal. There is a fee for using it. Maybe you could offer to pay the fee, which is about what you paid to wire money from your bank.

Risk of transferring it by wire in advance is only as great as the risk of renting from this person. If you trust them, and are satisfied with their terms for return of deposit, etc., a wire transfer is safe, but depending on your bank it may be expensive.

Alternatives like carrying cash are possible, but don't carry $$ and change it there---you would have to buy euros in advance (also expensive) and carry those. Or withdraw from ATM's once you get there. This may require several cards and an awareness of the time change, Most ATM's figure daily limit by US time where the bank is---so you can possibly withdraw twice within a short time as long as you know when the date change takes place for your ATM card.

One thing you could do is ask the owner of your apartment in Paris if they would accept $$$ for the security deposit. You could pay the rent in euros and the deposit in $$, this way you would not have to change that amount again when the owner gives it back to you. I've done this in New York with euros and it worked out fine.

I've paid one flat fully via Paypal and have to pay cash for the other flat.

Best way is to withdraw Euros from the ATM prior to arrival at the flat although you may hit a withdraw limit problem if the amount is very high.

Check with your bank and you can try to spread it out over two cards (your traveling companions and yours) if necessary. I do like to have one card (my wife's) as a backup because we did have a malfunctioning ATM in Venice not give us the 300 euros we withdrew but did take out of our account and maxed my withdraw for the day. Happily, we actually got the money back into our account without too much hassle in 2 days.

We just carry the euros in our money belt and hand it over when we get access to the apt. Have only had to do this once at an apt in London.

I second Janis's comment.
We just carried the Euros (Big denominations) and paid balance/security deposit directly upon arrival. Much easier. Just keep it secure in your moneybelt.

I used paypal for my deposit; then paid the balance with Euro and the deposit with US dollar when I arrived.

We had a similar problem in Italy. I got my euros thru my local bank and took them with me. That way I didn't have to worry about ATM limits. It also guaranteed that I saw the apartment before the owner got the final payment. I carried a money belt and used large denomination bills. The owner got the cash they wanted, and everyone was happy.

We agree with Janis and Debbie. We took the Euros with us to Italy in our money pouch and gave the balance to the owner of the apartment when we arrived. Our back and forth with the owner of the apartment in Florence by email plus the numerous people who had posted positive comments on the vrbo website convinced us we wouldn't have a problem and we didn't. We have never had a problem renting through vrbo and plan to do it again when we travel to Germany in September.

Just like Judy, I am doing the same in about four months. I will happily carry euros, as the other posters mentioned, since the transaction is then complete and no hassles...given this approach, I am asking where is the best place/plan for acquiring the cash in euros here in the States (i.e. lowest exchange rate/fees/etc). It looks like there could be quite a bath taken on acquiring euro cash in the States (and elsewhere, lol). Thanks in advance!!

I called around to the local banks and credit unions. My bank had a decent exchange rate. whatever you do, don't use AAA, their rates are terrible!