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Renting an apartment in Venice
Try the life of a Venetian on for size with your own flat
www.venere.com
www.booking.com
www.homeaway.com
www.belvilla.org
www.rentalo.com
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More on how apartment rental works in Italy: info, tips, and advice
• Introduction
• What to expect
• Tips
Sometime around day three of an apartment stay in Venice, a transformation occurs. The welcoming '"buon giorno" you've been receiving at the neighborhood cheese shops, butchers, and bakeries grows more enthusiastic, with an obvious trace of recognition.
You find yourself in situations the weekend visitor never experiences—buying wine by the jug at a vineria, picking tomatoes out of crates from a greengrocer's boat moored in a canal. The evening routine you've established includes nibbling on cicchetti (appetizers) with uno spritz (Campari, soda, and white wine) at a cantina, before heading home to cook a delicious feast in your kitchen.
Finding that Venetian apartment
• Web booking engines
• International agencies
• Local agencies
• Direct from owner
• Hotels with apartments
Pointers and pitfalls
• Prices and apartment hunting
• Booking tips
• Paying tips
• Arrival tips
The fabled Italian lifestyle you've always envied is suddenly your own. You're even able to navigate the city without getting lost—though that won't stop you from wandering aimlessly every day, just because.
To try the life of a Venetian on for size, all you have to do is rent an apartment in the city. The problem is that the rental process isn't as simple as hailing a gondolier—though if you do it via an online booking engine (direct links to apartments bookable via some of my favorites are below), it's at least as simple as reserving a hotel.
On separate pages, I've outlined the pros, cons, and resources for the other four basic approaches, from big international agencies to local Venetian ones, renting direct from the owners, and booking an apartment through a hotel.
Rental agencies and booking sites
Venere.com (www.venere.com) - A generalist booking engine is a great choice for nightly or short-term apartments. This major Italian booking service represents all sorts of accommodations, including apartments. The "self-catering" category (70 apartments in Venice) means the sort of rentals where you make your own bed. "Serviced apartments" (8 flats in Venice) are somewhere between an apartment and a hotel: you (usually) get a front desk and maid service (though perhaps not nightly), and includes a mix of hotels with apartment units and residence hotels.
note
I've inserted the Venere.com results for Venice in a frame below, but you may want to open it in a separate window instead, to make things like using your browser's "Back" button easier; if you stay on this page, right click to get a browser functions menu for "back" and such.Booking.com (www.booking.com) - Another key generalist booking engine. Its selection of apartments isn't quite as broad as Venere's (just 11 in Venice), but well worth looking into—what do you care how broad the listings are if among them is just the place you need?
HomeAway (www.homeaway.com) - Probably the biggest (at least when it comes to Italy), with more than 8,500 rentals in Italy alone, of which nearly 300 are in Venice.
Belvilla (www.belvilla.org) - British branch of a Dutch company... but what do you care where they're based? What counts is that Belvilla has a vast catalog—nearly 1,500 properties in Italy, including about a dozen in Venice—and, in my experience, some of the best prices on truly stellar rental homes.
VRBO (www.vrbo.com) - The names stands for "Vacation Rentals By Owners," which is (mostly) exactly what this is: it cuts out the middle man or a rental agency (and the attendant fees) by allowing those with rental homes—nearly 100 in Venice—to advertise them directly to potential vacation renters. I say "mostly" because, as you might imagine, plenty of agencies post their offering here as well, but that's OK. So long as you find the right match for you, does the provenance of the perfect vacation home really matter? I've used this service to find everything from a flat in London to a South Carolina beach house.
Rentalo (www.rentalo.com) - More than 120,000 properties around the world, including 120 in Venice.
Barclay International (www.barclayweb.com) - One of the world's premier rental agencies since 1963. (And yes, "premier" does mean "a bit pricey"). Excellent properties and service, though, throughout the major cities of Western Europe.
Interhome (www.interhome.us) - Thousands upon thousands of apartments and villas across Europe (and, er, Florida).
Villas International (www.villasintl.com) - Long-established agency, with properties in perhaps more countries than any other.
Craigslist.org (www.craigslist.org) - The biggest virtual classifieds section lists short-term rentals all over the world. Be sure to rifle through the craigslists of most major U.S. cities—doesn't matter if you live there or not—because lots of folks post rental ads for their Rome apartment on the Craigslists for New York, Chicago, San Fran, etc.
Related pages
- More tips and advice on renting an apartment in Italy
- Hotels in Venice
- Reid's recommended hotels
- Other alternative accommodations in Venice (B&Bs, apartments, hostels, residence hotels, camping)
- Other lodging options in Italy
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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.
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