As we put the bits and pieces together for our 2 week Italian adventure, I am starting to experience Euro shock. The renter at a place in Ponte Galeria is asking us if we want to rent the linen for our 3 night stay at 15 EU per person. Is this practice typical, or am I out of touch with the Italian reality.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Linder:
Is this practice typical, or am I out of touch with the Italian reality.

---

Absolutely unusual, AFAIK! Linen and cleaning before your arrival are included in the apartment rent, usually. The renter may ask a further fee for an extra set of linen and a mid-period extra cleaning.

In the past, I remember that there was some difference in the licensing status for rental properties--those owners who didn't provide linens as part of the rental cost paid a lower fee or lower taxes (I don't remember the specifics). The option to rent linens was available in cases where they were not automatically included.

I must admit that I have not come across linen rentals recently...but there may be some holdouts who continue the practice.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jim Zurer:
In the past, I remember that there was some difference in the licensing status for rental properties

---

This is true, but I am pretty sur that it was valid for rentals that rented by the month (not only for three days), and they did not offer the alternative of renting the linen, you had to bring it from home.

I used to see it for week-long rental places, but not in years and years. Never heard of it for a 3-day stay.

>>I am pretty sur that it was valid for rentals that rented by the month<<

You may well be right concerning the majority of cases in this situation, but the specific place that I am familiar with was an apartment on an olive estate outside of Montisi in Tuscany....the apartment rented by the week, there was an option to rent linens and it was the owner who explained the rationale to me.

Also for me is unusually.
Where I work we rent also some mini-apartment in center of venice and the final cleaning and the linen are included in the offer.
We ask a further fee for an extra set of linen and and a daily cleaning.
Kiss from Venice
Cristiana

Definitely quite unusual for a short stay but not so odd for a long one!
Some years ago,in an agriturismo in Sicily they charged us an extra fee for the linens...

As for the price, I think € 15.00 is a reasonable fee for a complete set (linens and towels).

Corinna

I have run into this many times for short term vacation rentals! I think it is a hold-over for how they used to do things - other Europeans would travel with their own linens. I have seen this in listings in the last few years.

We paid at Torre del Benaco for our linens. I wonder if we had to pay extra for the cigarette hole in the linen?

My take on the linen rental concept is that some/a lot of Italians (women) don't trust the cleanliness of anything not washed in their own macchine. So, if traveling, they bring their own bed linens and towels. They also don't use strange bathrooms unless desperate. Not until they have cleaned them themselves...

15 Euros per person seems high, though...

quote:

---

Originally posted by NancyLytle:
My take on the linen rental concept is that some/a lot of Italians (women) don't trust the cleanliness of anything not washed in their own macchine.

---

You forget about dishes and pots. When I was a child my grandmom used to rent apartments for a month or two in some place in the Appennini (usually south of Parma). She brought all the kitchen stuff from home, even when the houses were perfectly equipped. Now think of a family of three people going on holiday with dishes, cooking pots and pans, glasses, cutlery... Plus linen. It is for that reason that I always pack light ^___^ Yet I admit cleaning up the toilet in some places. But I bet anyone this side of a yeti would have cleaned the toilet in those places...