Question of the Day - 18 August 2008

Yes, there are.

Renting a vacation home directly from the owner can help you cut costs, gain more space or privacy, and live like a local. Plenty of vacation homes in the Las Vegas area are available for rent and -- thanks to the Internet, are easy to find.

A number of Web sites feature vacaction home rentals by owner: www.homeaway.com/Vacation-rentals/Nevada-vacation-rentals.htm, for example, lists 140 house rentals after sorting for four-plus bathrooms and 54 listings when you sort for Sleeps 13 or More.

One vacation home listed is located on two acres and features 9,000 square feet. The main house has eight bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms; the casita has two bedrooms and one bathroom. There's a game room with a pool table and poker table and the back yard has a trampoline, huge pool with slide, and gazebo. It costs $1,500 per night or $7,750 per week; a week split ten ways comes to $110 per night per party.

You can't do much better than that, unless you rent a 6,500-square-foot house with eight bedrooms (including five kings) and seven bathrooms, plus a formal dining room, game room, and swimming pool, which goes for $700-$800 per night and $4,500 a week -- $65 a night per party.

Vacation Rental By Owner (www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/nevada/las-vegas) is similar, and has a sorting function by bedroom that lists the most first. It has a 26-bedroom 32-bath "mini-castle" in Silverado Ranch, a half-mile from Las Vegas Blvd., that sleeps 60 starting at $4,800 per night. But there are also one 11-bedroom, two 10-bedroom, two nine-bedroom, and three eight-bedroom houses for rent for as little as $750 per night.

Vacation Rentals (www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/Las-Vegas-Nevada.html) has similar listings, including a 7,000-square-foot five-building six-bedroom eight-bath complex, with a pool, tennis and basketball courts, putting green, and a private movie theater. It goes for $5,500 for the week.

These are all excellent deals for the amenities and prices, especially for a group your size that all wants to stay together. These Web sites have most of the information you'll need to select a few, then it's one click to contact the owner of the property to begin the rental negotiations. An LVA staffer went this route and rented a small one-bedroom apartment in the Marais section of Paris for a couple of weeks a couple of years ago and felt like he got the best deal in Paris while he was there.

Just to add to the QOD on vacation rentals. They're definitely the way to go if you want a more relaxed or luxurious vacation. Another site that has a lot of listings, although I haven't checked for LV (we stay at our timeshare), is www.10kvacationrentals.com. Some things to be aware of, though, as is the case with any transaction online, you need to make sure that you're dealing with a legitimate person and that you have valid phone numbers. Be sure to check references and search for the person or house on google to see what comes up, as some of the listings can be scams. It isn't as common in the US, but for international travel it can be a little risky. I had one friend book a large church group through a listing for a week in London, and it wasn't even a valid address when they showed up after a long trip over from Seattle. This easily could have been avoided with a little research. Some sites do validate rentals, but others don't, so see what their policy is regarding false listings and/or guarantees. I have rented this way for years, and have never had any issues, as I always do the research. Another note, some places can look good online, but are sometimes in a state of disrepair or not very clean, so try to study the pictures as closely as possible, and if the rate is really low compared to most others or still available for that overbooked week where everything else is gone, you probably don't want to book it for the week your mother-in-law is coming with you (unless you want a divorce!).