Planning for Cinque Terre

With our internet down, I have been worrying how to make deposit for the place in Monterosso/Cinque Terre for May. Carla wanted 100 euro deposit and the rest in cash when we arrive. She sent me information for doing a bank transfer. Greg thought there would be a fee for the exchange, which seems likely and not worth it for that amount.

Steffen offered to do the bank transfer from his account in Germany. We could give him the euro. He would call his father in Germany who would handle the transfer. That seemed very kind but awfully cumbersome to us. I said I would see about using the Home Away/Vacation Rental by Owner (VRBO) payment method since I found the rental on that site. Steffen said that Home Away and Airbnb both act as intermediary with the money. The owner does not get anything until you physically arrive and the company takes a percentage.

Home Away web page says to ask the owner to send an invoice via their service. All I need to do is click a link in the email and submit bank card information to Home Away. I asked Carla to do that but she said she would rather  not. She said our reservation is confirmed and I can pay her the full amount when we arrive in May.

I am confident that will work just fine. If I am wrong, I am in big trouble because it would be highly unlikely to find another rental when we arrive there. Claire and Bruce will have been in route for 24-26 hours at that point. I know how it feels to arrive some place completely exhausted and not have a place to lay my head and I am much younger than either of them! I suspect, however, that both Claire and Bruce are more resilient than I am.

Carla emailed that it is fine. We have a reservation; no deposit needed. She will see us in Monterosso.