There's probably no better way of pinching your vacation pennies than sleeping on a friend's sofa or camping out. But you don't have to rough it to afford your next getaway.

More travelers are bunking down in nontraditional accommodations, including timeshares, condos and vacation rentals.

The trend seems to be accelerating. The vacation rental industry grew by 17 percent last year, according to the Vacation Rental Management Association. Timeshares sales climbed 6 percent during the same period, says an Ernst & Young study.

By comparison, the hotel industry posted a 7 percent increase in profits in 2007, but is only expected to eke out a 3 percent rise in profits for this year, according to PKF Hospitality Research.

How do you swap out a hotel room for a condo or rental without paying too much or staying on the wrong side of the railroad tracks? After receiving scores of inquiries from readers, I decided to check out some of these lodging alternatives. I also spoke with many travelers who had swapped their hotel key card for a real key.

Here are five tips for making the most of a hotel alternative:

THE BEST DEALS ARE ONLINE: The Internet is by far the most efficient way to find the right rental. That's not only been my experience (more on that in a second) but that of other travelers, too.

Chuck Cole, a college professor from Thetford, Vt., uses a site called Vacation Rentals By Owner (www.vrbo.com/) to find vacation homes. ''We rented a lovely home in Kauai for a week, and a small house with a wonderful stone-lined Jacuzzi right near the boundary of Joshua Tree National Park, for three nights,'' he says. ``In places where hotels are very costly, or where you need more than one room, you can save a great deal by doing it this way.''

That's true, but be careful of the information you find on these sites. VRBO has an unusual disclaimer (www.vrbo.com/global/disclaim.htm) that's worth reviewing, that basically says it's not responsible for most of the information on the site. And some of the vacation rental services only allow comments to be posted that the property owner approves. In other words, you may never find out about the vacation home's shortcomings on the site.

LOOK FOR A SITE WITH STANDARDS: Vacation rentals aren't cookie-cutter properties that are standardized according to some corporate dictum. But you can hedge your bets. For example, I just rented a duplex in San Diego through a site called Zonder.com (www.zonder.com/). It had a sleek gourmet kitchen, a plasma TV and a rooftop barbecue with a stunning view of Mission Beach. Zonder's properties are professionally managed, which allows you to avoid some of the problems you might encounter through an open rental site, such as the home not existing at all.

That's what happened to Sue Barnett, an editor from San Francisco, when she tried to rent an apartment in New York through Craigslist recently. ''The apartment numbers did not exist, and the phone number we had was no longer accepting incoming calls,'' she remembers.

REMEMBER, IT'S SOMEBODY ELSE'S HOUSE: Condos and vacation rentals aren't sterile hotel buildings with daily maid service. They're real homes owned by real people. The charming cabin in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., that I recently reserved through HomeAway (www.homeaway.com/) certainly belonged to someone -- a fact I was reminded of when I was asked to sign a multi-page rental agreement and sent a checklist of things to do when I arrived and departed.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@