apartment rental on myparisvisit

Hi

We have been corresponding with someone on myparisvisit.com about an apartment we want to rent. We have been told to wire money, and that they do not accept any other form of payment right now. We don%26#39;t feel comfortable with this. Has anyone else that has rented from this site? is this a common form of payment with these sites?

Thanks!

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I used vacationinparis.com and was very happy.

I would not wire money to anyone in this economic time. If you cannot send a check then they must not want your money. It does seem a bit odd.

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There appears to be a lot of owners (agencies, websites, etc.) that require payment by bank draft or cheque (or wired funds). It is big leap of faith but a lot of people do business this way.

If you do a search on parisbestlodge, you will see that it has good reviews ... and this company wants payment of $700 dollars (cheque or travellers cheque), which is then held as security deposit, plus payment for the rental upon arrival.

On the other hand, there are quite a few people who have been scammed by fraudulent rentals.

I find it odd that there are no reviews about this site or any of its apartments.

I have been looking as well but have decided to go with feelslikehomeinparis.com. I have booked with PerfectlyParis.com in the past (happy with the apartment rental) and this was one of the companies listed on their links page. Both accept Paypal.

If you decide to go ahead with myparisvist, would you post a review? Good luck!

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If you do not feel comfortable with the arrangement, then do not go with it.

Before I settled on an apartment, I researched and enquired on a lot of apartments. I used my instinct. One agency asked me to send my credit card number - although the apartment looked great I just did not want to do this.

There are so many apartments out there, and so many agencies. there are heaps that use secure paypal facilities.

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Further to the Paris Best Lodge security deposit, Thierry does not cash your cheque, he just holds it until your day of departure and hands it back to you if everything is in order in the apartment. Therefore, you don%26#39;t have a large amount of funds in limbo during your vacation. I really like this aspect of his booking process.

Jo

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This is the place where I found my perfect apt, but it was rented. Have a look at Servanandi and then look at the price and location.

While I really don%26#39;t like the idea of wiring money, I think they%26#39;re legit. They%26#39;ve gone to waaay too much trouble on the website for it to be a fly-by-night scam. When I inquired about that apt for my dates, they told me it was booked which probably wouldn%26#39;t have happened if it was a scam. I%26#39;ve also seen their apartments on other legit rental sites.

I found the site from another post in this forum. Search on myparisvisit and you should be able to find feedback on it.

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I think security deposit is being confused with downpayment. A security deposit is money in hand that can be used to pay for damages. A down payment (or pre-payment) is usually about half the rent which is paid to secure the rental. This prepayment is standard to almost all rental transactions (and some will want full payment before arrival). Individuals (or small agencies) will almost always want money wired or a bank draft in local currency as they dont have a credit card system in place and they dont want bank charges on a US check. This prepayment is obviously applied to the total cost but it is not refundable (the downside of apt rentals and subsequently the renter should have some form of travel insurance the moment he/she books). The security deposit is usually dealt with at the time of arrival. It is either a check (and usually a US account is fine) or credit card imprint which is torn up on departure if things are in good order.

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emma, may I suggest you go here and look through the reviews

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187147-i14-k26308…

The very last post (so far) mentions myparisvisit, although the person did not actually do business with them so far as I can tell.

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Hello -

I thought you might like to know that I shared your very understandable reservations about wiring money to this agency, but that I took the plunge with them %26amp; had a great experience in Paris. I was afraid they might be %26#39;scammers%26#39; but actually, among European travelers it is not all that unusual to do business in this manner (i.e., wiring the deposit ahead of time). You may check my other Forum contributions under my name to see the details of my successful interaction with www.myparisvisit.com.

Cheers,

Anne Marie

New York, NY