by Ted Sherman

Created on: November 09, 2009

There are many factors involved in finding a vacation home rented by owners. For anyone considering such a vacation, a step-by-step plan can help clear up any questions or obstacles:

1. Time: How long will you need the rented home? Is it for a weekend or an entire summer? Once you contact the owner, you'll need to discuss occupancy time, as well as other factors involved in renting the home.

2. Budget: How much are you willing to spend? Of course, your budget depends on the destination. You must also consider the cost of transportation and other expenses involved in getting to the vacation home, costs while you're there and return.

3. Location, location: Choose the area of the world where you'd like to find that vacation home rental. There are great number of varieties, as well as great differences in prices. Are you looking for a small log cabin in the woods or a condo in the heart of London? What are the close-by facilities. Is there a beach, ski slopes or mountain trails? Entertainment? Good restaurants? What other amenities make the rental home attractive?

4. Find the one you want: Once you've decided on your budget, location of the rental home and expenses involved, you'll need to check all sources from various advertising media. The most convenient is the internet. A quick check of the Google website shows there are more than 34 million listings under vacation homes offered by owners! Where do you start to look?

One of the most comprehensive sites is Vacation Rentals By Owner, or VRBO (vrbo.com). VRBO features constantly-updated lists of tens of thousands of vacation rentals throughout the world. They include big city apartments, beach houses, ski lodges, family mansions, castles, farmhouses and many other types of rental properties. Daily charges range from the very economical to the astronomically high.

4. Online ads: Major daily newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, USAToday contain classified ads placed by owners who want to rent out their homes or apartments to vacationers. Many other big city newspapers throughout the world offer the same services.

5. Travel agencies: Many online and hometown travel agencies offer clients services of finding vacation home rentals for fees, or as part of travel packages involving transportation. The advantage of using a hometown travel agency is that you may have a friendly relationship with people who know your likes and dislikes about travel destinations.

6. Other sources: Many college and university alumni publications accept classified ads for vacation home rentals by owners. Additionally, some professional associations, unions, student advisory offices, church groups and others may provide the service to members.

7. Swaps: Vacationers may want to find exchange deals, possibly to negotiate even money swaps, where they can offer swapping deals with their homes. For example, an ideal exchange could happen if a Manhattan condo owner wants to spend two winter holiday weeks on a warm Hawaiian beach. A lucky connection would be with a Honolulu homeowner who wants to experience the holidays in snowy New York City. Transportation may be the only cost for each of those lucky owners. Most online travel sites, travel agencies and newspapers feature ads and promotions that could make such exchanges possible.

There are many ways to find vacation homes rented by owners. It could be very interesting experiences investigating such deals. Maybe even more interesting and potentially profitable would be to search out someone in the world who's willing to make that perfect home swap with you.

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