I was thinking of renting an acoustic piano - I've really no room for one for teaching as my teaching space is only just big enough for my digital - but I'd still like one for myself and I could fit one in my bedroom (I live in a bungalow). This would be a short term thing as we plan to build a music room in the next year or so. Has anyone expereince of renting? What are the pitfalls? Who did you use and are they any good?

I know of a London firm I would recommend but not sure where you are Alicia.

(I should perhaps say I've not actually rented from them but have had dealings with them in other ways).

I rented from Jaques Samuel for a while and had no problems. All I would say is not to take too much notice of any offer to credit your rental payments towards the cost of a piano if you decide to buy. They will only set the rental payments against the notional price of the piano, which is always considerably more than you would pay if you just walked in and asked for a discount. In other words you would probably get much the same discount even if you hadn't been renting. I suspect this applies to most or all piano retailers.

I rented my piano for a few weeks before I bought it - the reason I bought it so soon, which was much sooner than I wanted, was that under the terms of the rental agreement you had to use the shop's tuner and the tuner in question had personal hygene issues and my music room stank for hours after he'd left and I refused to have him in my house again.

That said the service from the shop that I rented from was exceptional and the terms were very reasonable and the piano is a dream

I have rented a yamaha B2 from a south london based shop for just over a year. Can't say I was unhappy, the piano given to me was brand new, I had an issue with one of the keys on it and they sent out a tuner to fix it straight away. I was paying about £50 a month, but the pitfall (for me anyway) was that you had to pay at least 6 month upfront in one go when I would have preferred to pay monthly (am not good in saving you see).

Bahahaha! That must have been a serious problem if he stank your room out... he wasn't incontinent or something was he

that was the one smell I couldn't pick out - cigarette smoke, I would say much more than average and BO

Charming

It astounds me sometimes how some people can be unaware of their own odours. A bit like it shocks me when people leave the toilets without washing their hands