Rent the Right Home Sweet Vacation Home

Summer vacation is coming, meaning it's time to decide what locale to visit and where to stay once you get there. If you're traveling with your family or a group of friends, a rental home can be a cheaper, more flexible option than hotel rooms.

The challenge is finding the right house for your vacation. There are multiple websites to research hotels but not nearly as many for vacation homes. You'll need to do your due diligence, but by asking these five questions of yourself and vacation homeowners, you'll ensure a home sweet home that meets your vacation needs.

Before selecting a house, think about where you want to stay first. If it's a beach town, is it important the house be right on the beach? Are there certain attractions you want to be close to? Do you only want a short drive to the airport, restaurants and child-friendly places? Do you prefer a quiet road or want to be in the center of everything?

"Figuring out where you want to situate yourself will narrow down the list of homes that meet your location requirement," says Alexis de Belloy, a vice president of vacation home rental website HomeAway.com.

All HomeAway properties have maps of their locations, but it's also a good idea to use Google Maps or MapQuest to see how close homes are to vacation venues. You also can call or email the owner to ask questions, says Heather Bayer, editor of CottageBlogger.com and author of "Renting Your Recreational Property for Profit."

"A homeowner can tell you whether the home is in a remote location you desire or down the street from the McDonald's you may need for your kids," Bayer says.

Most houses list the number of bedrooms and bathrooms available, but de Belloy recommends also asking how many people the house sleeps, how big bedrooms and bathrooms are and what amenities are available.

"That's because certain configurations, like pullout couches, small rooms and (old-fashioned) bathtubs instead of shower stalls could make the house unsuitable for your group," de Belloy says.

Some owners will have maximum occupancy numbers to weed out party-hearty groups. "But if a house has a maximum occupancy of five, and one of your six family members is a baby, it's worth negotiating with the owner," says de Belloy.

If a house is described as pet- or child-friendly, ask for the owner's definition of that term because it may be different from yours. "You may want gates at the stairs and childproof cabinets, which the owner may not have installed," de Belloy says. "Or he may want your dog to be outdoors only."

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