Sparky,
Is your ticket refundable?????
This endevour takes plenty of $$$$$. Do you or are you ready for that???
If so, this is my 2 cents. How well do you trust this girl? If so, let her book it.Find out from girl what is rate for apt and compare it to what you can get in internet. There are several to choose from. I am happy with ukrainefare.com but there are many. Make sure your taxi to and from airport are booked ahead. It sounds to me that the agency will be cashing in on your trip...apt, translator,taxi and most important girl, if she is genuine. Have a backup plan..another girl in city or phone #'s of other agencies( that can be expensive). I may be in Sumy around that time, lots of beautiful girls there, not far from Kharkov. I do have to say, 2 girls I was corresponding with from Kharkov ended up being scammers, one was a subject of a thread couple months ago. Good luck anyway!!!
Be careful, visit some anti-scammer sites on the internet and check for her name, e-mail address and the marriage agency she belongs to.
Do google search for her name, google search for her e-mail address, google search her physical parameters such as type in this e.g "Elena 175cm Kharkov" and see what returns from the search field.
If its scammer and known it will probably show up in google but it is by no means 100% gaurantee accurate but its a quick and no cost way of doing your own investigation.
Use google to cross reference some things she says in her letters such as e.g "I like to eat fruit salad" or "I like to rest on nature" etc. key sentences which may reveal similar letters and reveal a scammer.
Compare her letters with letters on anti-scammer sites from known scammers, many good anti-scammer sites are free to view with letters and photos of known scammers.
Much come be done in pre-investigation of her from your home computer.
Get the IP address of her e-mails and go to www.centralops.net and type in an e-mail search or ip for free trace where her e-mail come from or download free software "Visualroute 8" and punch in her ip address from her e-mails ( it is set of 4 numbers, can be up to 3 numbers in each set, separated by a decimal point e.g 192.68.240.192 is an ip address ) to trace where her letters come from to ensure they are coming from Kharkhov, Ukraine..if they are not, its a bad sign and could be a scammer.
INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE BEFORE YOU BOOK TICKETS AND TRAVEL.
For her to arrange the accomodation for you..its smells fishy!
Sparky check out Kharkovrent.com I used them many times. $100 deposit sent by Western Union will reserve your apartment. better that you book your own apartment. It will keep you independent of you your girl in case things dont work out between you and your her.