... common practice to prepay the full fee via wire transfer prior to arrival? I'm renting an apartment for the first time and am feeling a bit apprehensive. The rental company has positive reviews and looks reputable, but I'm still a bit nervous. Thanks in advance for your advice ... more

Prepaying for a vacation apartment via bank transfer is quite common. Inside the EU bank transfer is the cheapest option for both sides. To accept credit cards here is rather expensive for the dealer and for owners of one or just a few vacation apartments not common at all. ... more

... delivery; we also pay for Airberlin tickets from our German bank account. However it isn't normal to be asked to pay full fee for a rental until really near the date in my experience; in some places we've paid part in advance and the the rest on arrival ... more

... Brandenburg Gate is a central rental company and is listed here on TA: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187323-d578678-Reviews-Apartments_am_Brandenburger_Tor-Berlin.html I can also recommend them and their location. Other than that, I recommend that you'd look at the reviews at the "Vacation Rentals" (on the ... more

... some are for short term rentals ("Wohnen auf ... ... a week, one of the vacation rental places ... ... on student flats/short term rentals/etc. If you want to, you can also use an agency - for example http://www.fineandmine.de/ The advantage of course is that they speak English and do ... more

... popular Arkonaplatz/Zionskirchplatz area. Certainly rental income there can be at 7€ per square metre and most flats selling at 2000€ per sq. metre. That area and adjacent Prenzlauer Berg is very popular with young people (students and young professionals) Dan, you do realise that renting is the norm in ... more

... couple of the short-term vacation rental services in Berlin on visits myself and found it's a very well-developed system. But I haven't done the research yet on what percentage these services charge for promoting and/or managing your property, so I'm still not certain on ... more

... cities can be quite high, and you really don't want to drive around strange streets trying to find places in a large city. I personally would ignore the cost of the various options, as having an enjoyable vacation is much more important to me than saving a few euros ... more