BOOKING APARTMENTS IN ITALY

Sunday, 03 April 2011 21:44
Written by Gemma

PITFALLS FOR THE INEXPERIENCED!

I recently have had a huge challenge booking many apartments in Italy at short notice for a large family in the July school holidays which as you all know is also the European and American summer school holidays.

Also many Italians take holidays in July to avoid the August traffic jams. Large three bedroom apartments are rare as hens'teeth in the major cities of Italy as all the large properties have been split up into smaller apartments for rent.

At the end of it all I was so happy that I was able to help this family because if they had tried to do it themselves without knowing the Italian ways - it would have been a disaster as it was challenging enough for us and we know who we are up against!!....

Passion for Italy is here to do for you, those difficult bookings in Italy as they are indeed fraught with a lot of (unfortunately shall I say it?) - deceptive and underhand apartment owners or agencies who are willing to put your family's holiday into calamity. Their only concern is getting an exorbitant fee up front with no accountability. It is only from dealing with Italians  for so long now that I know their little tricks of the trade and it still disappoints me when I catch them out and have to confront them!!

Many Apartment owners are often private ordinary people who have often inherited their property and are renting it out on the internet. They are not professional offices or agencies and often they act in an unprofessional manner. When you smell a rat trust your instinct which is always correct!!

I once did an experiment where I wrote to an apartment owner for a booking in Italian as a an Italian tourist. I then wrote to them as an english speaking tourist and the apartment was 150 euro per week higher in cost!! This really upsets me when english tourists are ripped off because I strongly believe in parity for all human beings in all ways.

This is why our team here at Passion for Italy Travel work so hard to bring prices down for our clients. Sometimes we have to fight huge wars over prices that can go on for a week and risk a heart attack by throwing an Italian tantrum back at those normally lovely people who turn into sharks when negotiating apartment prices  or bank fees.  We try very hard to make sure that our clients are not getting ripped off and that there is parity for everyone.


This is why we are travel agents - to do the hard work for you out of organising your holiday and it has taken years of experience to understand how the system in Italy exactly works.