9 Money-Saving Travel Tips

5. Sleep Like a Local

For significant savings—and more square footage for your dollar—consider staying in a privately owned apartment or house on your next trip. An increasing number of second-home owners are turning to vacation-rental companies like the Austin-based HomeAway(homeaway.com) and sites like vrbo.com, which lists more than 100,000 houses worldwide. “We’re seeing a lot more inventory this year, and fewer people traveling, so you’re going to get good value,” says Brian Sharples, cofounder and CEO of HomeAway. We recently found a listing on vrbo.com for a two-bedroom condo at the Outrigger Palms in Wailea, Hawaii, for $260 a night. Meanwhile, the newly launched roomorama.com, a New York–based peer-to-peer rental agency, lists more than 300 apartments in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Toronto. (Users can vet accommodations using feedback from previous visitors.) At press time, a penthouse loft near Union Square with floor-to-ceiling windows was available for $189 a night. House-swapping is also gaining in popularity thanks to the proliferation of sites such as homeexchange.com, intervac.com, and ihen.com, which charge annual membership fees in exchange for access to their extensive databases. The one caveat: you have to live in a desirable location yourself.