Best Way To Rent In Italy

Gabe

Gabe

Community Member
Nov 9, 2014
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What is the best way these days to rent somewhere short/long term? With so many sites on the internet, people are advertising properties themselves or doing home swaps.

I wonder if people have sites they have had a good experience with? Sometimes it's better to go self-catering when you want to relax than have a hotel or bed and breakfast. I also like to sometimes cook my own meals rather than go out. I have stayed in some hostels and they are great, but it would be good to find an alternative.
 
When I looked for a place in Rome, I used the different online sites in Italian to look for apartments or bedrooms, as well as walking down the street and calling the numbers that people plaster over the walls to rent something. Both ways got me a few appointments with my boyfriend; some we did not even want to try, because we did not like the idea of living with an old couple, etc. If I had been looking alone, it might have been easier, as many places offered a room or a bed for female students. Prices usually started at 250 euro/month (extra costs not included). As it was, for two people, we got a room in a shared apartment for 300 euro/person/month (so 600euro/month plus 60 euros of other expenses per month). This was pretty expensive in my eyes, but Rome is not too cheap, I guess, and I had to find a place before uni started (meanwhile, I stayed in an hostel).

If it's for very short term, Couchsurfing could work (if not in the time of the exams). People are friendly and they love to have someone to talk to, and who could cook with them. AirBNB is also a common way of looking for accommodation for upcoming trips.
 
For students, big cities like Milan or Parma have lots of options! I don't know if this fits into the long or short term renting, but I'm sure that when the Universities start, all newspapers, all websites, everyone goes wild with offers, even real estate agencies. So, if you're OK sharing an apartment with a bunch of students for a while, then this is an OK way to rent.

Other than that, I usually just look on booking.com for offers. You find mainly hotels and B&B over there, but if you widen your search range, you could also find some nice apartments /rooms for rent, by private people (as in, not an agency).
 
I don't like using airbnb as I had a bad experience as I used them to rent out my own place and they are really unprofessional when there are problems and deduct your card without telling you and have no idea how to deal with things. I prefer now to rent directly from an owner and then if they have reviews read those or if they have their own Facebook page. I know there are sites that do listings from owners and that's really what I am looking for where you can negotiate and also ask questions.
 
I have used Airbnb before and had no problems, but it is for more short term rentals and vacations. If you are looking fore more long term options, you might want to look at HomeAway.com They have vacation options as well as long term options. There seems to be quite a few good postings for Italy.
 
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