[StoneIsland]

First, I just f-ing googled it, and I couldn't find anything that helped. I yahooed it and I went to the U.S. State Department's website. I even went to a few websites that promote tourism to France. So, failing that, I've been forced to turn to you, the bigsoccer community, with a question that probably has an answer so obvious that you will rain ridicule down on my head for not seeing it. But I don't care, so here goes:

I'm going to Paris for 10 days in May. Instead of paying through the nose for a crappy hotel I thought I would instead pay through the nose for a nice apartment (a short-term vacation rental).

What's the problem?

Well, I'm worried about fraud. Paying a steep deposit and then showing up to find myself with nowhere to stay (either because the apartment doesn't exist or because those renting it weren't authorized to do so).

Ever hear of fradulent dealings in the short-term vacation rental market in Paris? If I wanted to check up on a listing, or someone who has made their apartment available, how would you suggest I go about doing it?

By the way, I wrote a nice letter to the U.S. Embassy in Paris. Haven't heard back from them yet.

[guignol]

the first thing i looked up was gîtes de france for paris; that's where we always find our vacation rentals and never a soupçon of a problem. unfortunately they do everywhere but paris.

i did a quick surf of self catering+paris and the top hits looked highly reputable to me. my real concerns were price and availability as may is also a popular vacation period for the french (three-day weekends galore) but there were places available in may for between 300€ and €400 a week.

i also googled fraude+paris with tourisme, location, with vacances, appartement... nothing. really, tourism is a major industry in france, and well supervised. so i don't think you should worry.

my wife and i have gone to paris a few times, we always find a hotel through http://www.guidesdecharme.com/fr/ , generally try to budget at 80-100€ a night and the places have never been crappy... delightful comes to mind! still, for a 10 days a self-catering place will help you save oodles on eating... al fresco will only get you so far!

as far as getting info from the embassy... i'm in the unfortunate position of occasionally needing their "services" ... just calling them on the phone is an experience! first of all, you have to give a credit card number just to talk to someone (15€ a call). for that, they can answer none of your questions and are snooty about it to boot. in fact it's probably the place in paris americans (well, everybody) get the worst treatment!

when i was a big traveller i always used to go to the british embassies for help... they'd say "you're in the wrong place, the US embassy is down the street", and when i answered "yes, but they're always so nasty there", i'd get a big knowing smile and the help i needed.

[Ali_reza]

I don't know much about renting appartements in Paris for vacations, even though i live here. But "Le Guide du Routard" is a very famous and reliable french guide for traveling all around the world, inculding Paris.

Here is the link for Paris : http://www.routard.com/guide/code_dest/paris.htm

In the menu on the right hand side of the same page you have : "Trouver une location" where you apparently can rent all types of houses/appartements.

I agree with Guignol about the hotels in Paris though. If you're ready to pay the price, you can find some great hotels here.