Score a Great Vacation Rental Today

Are you tired of staycations? Yearn for a fun Labor Day weekend somewhere, but feeling price conscious? Are you kicking yourself that you left it to the last minute?

Don't fear. It's not too late to find the perfect and affordable vacation home or condo.

Orbitz put out its list of Top 10 Labor Day Weekend Destinations, with Las Vegas and New York in the lead. The travel site says hotel rates are at historic lows, with the average daily rate in New York just $106. (Of course, you have to add nearly 30 percent in taxes and fees.)

We almost never stay in hotels on vacation anymore. Why knock around in one room with a bed and, if you're lucky, a couple of chairs, when you can have, at the least, a studio apartment for the same price?

I also like staying in private apartments or cottages because it makes me feel more connected to the place I'm visiting. Instead of a tourist ghetto, I'm living in a neighborhood. I can try out different lifestyles. For example, in Vancouver, we stayed in a glossy new high-rise apartment building with panoramic views of the city and the bay that was a psychic world away from our crunchy Berkeley home.

I did my first vacation apartment rental in New York City in 2000. At that time, I had to buy the New Yorker and look through its 100-word classified listings, call the person and then mail a check. The hassle was worth it, especially when I came down with a cold. It was lovely being able to make tea and soup, and cuddle up on the couch.

The internet marketplace

Times have, of course, changed, and the internet lets you browse listings, see photos, and request information in the middle of the night. If you're going to a major destination like Orlando or Lake Tahoe in California, an online search will pull up loads and loads of listings. Some of them may be spammy, and, the more popular the destination is, the more you have to troll through.

Patricia Orsini offers some excellent tips for evaluating a vacation rental. She suggests you pay by credit card or PayPal, so that you'll be protected from fraud. And use online mapping tools to check out the location.

"While the location might be Popular Destination, USA, you don't want the vacation house to be located right next to a busy highway," said Nikolett Bacso, co-founder of VacationHouse Destinations. Using MapQuest can give you an overhead view of the neighborhood, and see where the home is situated in regards to town, beach, attractions, and the dreaded highway.

Where the deals are

A few years ago, I got hip to the short-term rentals category on craigslist. I used it to book that Vancouver stay; in that case, we had a roommate. The guy who owned the condo lived in the second bedroom, renting out the master bedroom via craigslist.

This has turned into a business for a lot of folks. I also shared a Chicago townhouse with its owner and a couple. In both these cases, the owner behaved like the host of an inn, being helpful, friendly when called upon to be, and very unobtrusive. Certainly, a roommate share isn't for everyone. There are also all kinds of rentals where you won't be bumping into your host.

The problem with craigslist is, well, that it's craigslist. No one is policing the listings, so you really have to be diligent about communicating and digging out information. Two years ago, we rented what was listed as a one-bedroom in the Village in New York, expecting to have Mike's mother join us for a few days. We met the owner uptown, handed him a check and got the keys. But when we arrived, it was a studio, and not a big one.

When we  complained, he told us, "It's one bedroom." Um. At that point, it was easier to stick it out than waste time looking for something else.

A better rental site

My new favorite online find takes away a lot of the mystery and hassle of online searching for vacation rentals. It's called airbnb, and it's still relatively under the radar, but chock full of rental listings.

My first airbnb experience was a cottage in the historic district of Austin, Texas. Our host picked us up from the airport and told us how to find the best barbecue and coolest juke joint. The airy cottage was charming, and petting our host's dogs (revealed in the reviews) was an added bonus.

Today, on airbnb, I found plenty of interesting and affordable rentals for Lake Tahoe and Orlando. How about a two-story, two-bedroom house in Incline Village for $125 a night? Or would you like a three-bedroom apartment in the Bahama Bay Resort for $95 a night?

Airbnb uses social media tactics to help vacationers evaluate rentals. Like any rental site, you can enter in the city or area, dates and how many people. A Google map and street view are built into the interface, so when you click on a listing you can browse the photo gallery and then evaluate the whole area. It also automatically turns up similar listings nearby.

Hosts can include their photos and bio information, which can help give you a sense of who you'll be dealing with, and they can write rather lengthy descriptions. The whole thing makes it more personal.

Airbnb has a standard interface for entering information about amenities, so you can easily compare different locations, and it lets users rate and comment on places they've stayed. You can email the host with questions or go ahead and book through the site.

I'm already planning a dream vacation to Barcelona, saving likely locations to my favorites on airbnb. 

Have you had a vacation rental nightmare? Or do you know another good site for finding vacation homes? Do share!