Hi everyone! 😊
I'm moving to Seville, Spain, soon for a 3-month Erasmus internship and I'm currently looking for a place to stay. I'm going there on my own, so I'm planning to rent a room.
Honestly, the more I look into it, the more confused I get about which websites to trust because everyone seems to have such different experiences.
I first looked at HousingAnywhere and Spotahome, since they apparently hold your first payment until you confirm that everything is okay with the place. That sounded pretty safe to me at first, but then I started reading all these negative reviews, especially about problems with landlords and getting deposits back. From what I've seen, Uniplaces seems to work pretty much the same way.
I've also noticed that on these websites, some rooms are listed by private landlords, while others are managed by rental agencies that have loads of properties around the city. Are these agencies actually more reliable than private landlords, or are they even worse? I've seen that they often charge a bunch of extra fees, which isn't great, but honestly, I wouldn't mind paying a bit more if it meant finding a decent place and not having to worry about getting scammed or dealing with a shady landlord.
I've also been looking at Idealista, but I've read quite a few stories about scams there too. On the plus side, at least there aren't as many extra fees as with the other websites. Unfortunately, I can't really go and view the places in person before moving, and I don't know anyone currently living in Seville who could check them out for me either.
So yeah, at this point I'm pretty lost and have no idea which option is actually the safest. 😅
Has anyone here recently looked for a room in Seville or used any of these websites? I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences you could share! And if anyone knows a good rental agency, a trustworthy landlord, or just a better way to find a room based on their own experience, that would be super helpful!