Rent negotiations?

Quick question:  has anyone had any luck doing a little haggling about the amount of rent or with any other aspects of renting a house/flat?

Or is this one of those, just not done sort of things?

I don't know how it's done in Scotland, but in England, yes, I have made an offer for lower than the asking price.  They wanted me as a tenant so said yes.  This was about 8 years ago though, and the housing market was different.  I think they were asking £800 and I offered £750 and got it for that.  It's always worth asking, especially if you have other options.  The worst they can do is say no!

We were able to get them to include a vacuum at one place and then at another have all the carpets cleaned and provided dishes. But pricing I have never heard of. Normally flats over here go quite quickly, so unless you are able to find a flat that has been on the renting market for while, they may just say sorry, and wait for another tenant to come along.

Yes. In 2007 we haggled £1000/mo in rent to £925 in rent. The house was a serial rental, and hadn't been taken care of (and hadn't been upgraded in 30 years).

We were house-hunting in London last year, and yes, it's not strange at all to offer less.  In fact, our agents showed us places above our range with the idea that we would offer our actual target price.  We were given serious consideration for one flat at much below the asking price, but pulled out of negotiations when we found another place that was more suitable.  (And that one was priced attractively, so we offered the full rent as we thought it was fine.  We are now up for renewal, and our rent will not be increased.  Not sure what will happen in the third year, though.)