How to rent an apartment or a flat in St. Petersburg safely?

About 3-4 years ago short-term rentals of apartments and flats in St.Petersburg wasn’t that widely spread at all. There were no big trustworthy companies dealing with booking apartments. Only landlords themselves and seldom real estate agencies were involved in this field of business until in the beginning of the 20th century, there appeared agencies and companies focusing on short-term rentals and providing good services, while before it was impossible to rent a flat for 100 or more dollars per day without taking any risks and getting into trouble. The flat would turn out to be dirty with bad linen and china, without iron, kettle, hoover and other necessary things. And this may still happen to you today. How to avoid the horrible situation and find “your home away from home”? First of all, you should choose a big company dealing with short-term rentals. If you book a flat by means of Internet, pay special attention to the website content, its design, hosting ( ru, com, net and su znes are far more preferable than spb.ru or narod.ru) and check if there is contact information – this would guarantee the companies’ stable financial position and certain business status. Otherwise you are taking a risk of booking one flat by Internet, but getting an absolutely different apartment upon arrival.