When Patrick Cameron and his wife head to a Colorado ski resort, they book a house or condo directly from its owner through a vacation home rental website. It's cheaper than a hotel -- and they can take their dog.

Julie Besser of Massachusetts and her husband rent vacation homes when they travel with their grown children. She likes the space, privacy and ability to cook meals.

Jayme Anthony of Maine found bargain accommodations for the Florida trip she and her husband, their two teens and an adult friend are making next month for a wedding: a three- bedroom house in Pompano Beach for $100 a night.

They've got company. Increasingly, travelers are opting for vacation rentals -- especially when they're traveling with family or friends. Last year, Americans spent twice as much on vacation rentals as on tour packages -- and almost twice as much as they spent on cruises, says Douglas Quinby, who studied the trend for PhocusWright, a travel research firm.

VALUE, FLEXIBILITY

The big attraction, says Bob Barnes, vice president of Zonder, a growing vacation rental website, is price. ''Vacation rentals are a tremendous value over hotel rooms.'' Instead of flying away for vacation, he notes, ``People are staying closer to home and renting a cabin or beach house.''

A vacation home also eliminates the need for a group to meet in crowded, pricey locations like hotel bars and restaurants, notes Julian Castelli, CEO of VacationRoost, another website.

Case in point: When Cameron, 35, who lives in Boulder, Colo., went skiing in Steamboat Springs with his wife's family, the entire five-day rental cost just $150 per couple.

''It's such a no-brainer option,'' he says. `You can find rentals anywhere.''

Cameron, 35, uses VRBO.com (short for ''vacation rental by owner,'' which puts travelers directly in touch with a home's owner. ``Why do I need a middle man in this equation? We're all very comfortable buying on the Internet.''

Renting a house at the beach or mountains is nothing new, but in decades past, it meant phone calls to the chamber of commerce in the desired destination to locate a local rental agent months in advance -- and likely booking a house without seeing photos first. Renting abroad often involved large country houses good for a gang but too large for a couple, or agents who specialized in luxury accommodations beyond the bank account of many travelers.

A RENTERS' MARKET

Choices have grown dramatically, say experts, due partly to the real estate boom earlier this decade in which many people bought second homes. Today's uncertain economy has pushed many owners to rent their vacation getaways, often using websites that didn't exist even a few years ago.

Add units from timeshares and fractional ownership resorts that also rent to travelers, and the prices come down while the options add up: more than 200,000 offerings on Miami-based Rentalo.com, 125,000 on Homeaway.com, 115,000 on VRBO.com, 100,000 on VacationRoost.com, 35,000 on Zonder.com.

And while many of those rentals are condos on a golf course, cottages on a beach or farmhouses in the Italian countryside that require security deposits, advance payment and a seven-night stay, others are urban retreats that require only three or four nights or apartments in timeshare resorts that let vacationers book for a single night and cancel just days in advance -- just as they would in a hotel.

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