Villa, condo, casita, beach house, timeshare rental, vacation home rental, they go by many names, but they all mean a space to rent for your family. What better way to enhance your vacation than by having a place of your own to enjoy it in? Check out a vacation villa or rental condo, and see how much money you can save. Just follow my tips on how to rent a villa, where to go, and what to think about before booking.

In hard times planning a vacation doesn't sound like a good idea but going on a vacation doesn't have to cost you a lot of money. If you want a smart money-saver, investing in a vacation villa is better than staying at a hotel, especially if you compare beach vacation rentals to oceanfront resorts.

Fellow travelers seem to enjoy it: "89% of vacation rental guests indicated that they will rent again within three years" said PhoCusWright. And according to Homeaway Inc, by choosing a vacation rental instead of hotel, travelers can spend an average of 50% less per square foot on their accommodations.

Why Would You Want to Rent a Vacation Home?

According to the YPartnership/Yankelovich, Inc. 2009 Leisure Travel Monitor, 2.45 million family reunion travelers who took an overnight trip of at least 75 miles from home said they stayed in a vacation rental they rented or owned during the past year.

When polled again for the Ypartnership/Harrison Group 2010 Portrait of American Travelers, leisure travelers gave these reasons why they chose a vacation home rental.

1. Value for the price: More than nine in 10 travelers rate value as the main reason they’ll select vacation rentals on trips. They often provide significant cost savings vs other lodging options.

2. Privacy: Most travelers also enjoy a sense of privacy and comfort, with 89% having named this as a primary motivator.

3. Full kitchen facilities: Nearly 90% of travelers choose vacation rentals for access to fully equipped kitchens, which offer the freedom to prepare meals, store snacks/leftovers, or visit local markets for fresh, regional ingredients.

4. More space overall: Vacation rentals often provide from 1,000 square feet to more than 4,000 square feet of space. 86% of travelers agree this is a key reason to rent.

5. Amenities: This is a top consideration for 85% of travelers. Amenities and facilities such as bath toiletries, fresh linens -- even game rooms, private swimming pools, fireplaces, in-home movie theatres -- may be provided by professional property managers.

6. Extra bedrooms: Fully seven in 10 travelers find multiple bedrooms to be a top vacation rental motivator.

7. Family “togethering:” 68% say they’ll choose vacation rentals for the experience of quality time together underneath one roof. For many, it’s this atmosphere that sets vacation rentals apart.

Money No Object? Easy to Find Vacation Home Rentals

If you never thought about renting a villa for a reunion, or really aren't sure how, it's not as hard as you might think. With the help of Mike Thiel of luxury rental company Hideaways International, here are some tips on how to rent a villa that will fit the needs of you and your very posh family.

The first thing you want to think about is where you want to go? Of course this will tie into how much money you have to spend. Remember, research is your friend.

Places with a tropical climate probably will be more expensive than others. For example, at the full service villa rental agency Wimco, a spacious oceanside, four-bedroom villa at St. Barts can cost as much as $40,000 a week in the winter high season.

Being very selective costs too. Beautiful Places is a very high end, full service company that finds villas, private homes and furnished getaways for special clients who want select accommodations. Need a helicopter landing permit with your weekend house? Want trained ponies in the yard when the children arrive? Are you so recognizable that you'd prefer a chef come to your Napa Valley retreat instead of dining out? Beautiful Places' staff pride themselves on accommodating any request, and their repeat business is a testament to their ability to do so. The company's family owners have twins and especially enjoy getting other families happily settled into a vacation home, so will provide a fully stocked fridge or a meal on arrival to suit guests' needs. At present, Beautiful Places has 150 select rentals in Napa and Sonoma Counties, California; Italy; France; Mexico and Nantucket, and is expanding into the Hamptons for summer 2011.

Switching Continents: Top Value Vacation Homes Overseas

If you decide to go international, check out Hideaways International for their great international travel deals (their villa offerings are pictured here). They list weekly deals at various locations in Thailand, South Africa, and France.  Get out our dictionary and check out some of Homeaway Inc's foreign vacation rental websites, such as Holiday-Rentals.co.uk and Ownersdirect.co.uk in the United Kingdom; FeWo-direkt.de in Germany, and Abritel.fr in France.

Or, if you know what you're looking for, search the internet for a specific type of rental. For example, you can rent a cottage in the British Countryside with the Royal Oak Foundation, the American affiliate of the National Trust of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Become a member at their site and get to stay at an authentic British cottage, many of which, according to their spokesperson, "had previous lives as former sporting grandstands, water towers, and lighthouse cottages." The price can begin anywhere from $352 for one week during their low season.

Many of the international sites mentioned above will list beach vacation rentals on beautiful tropical islands. Another perk of foreign travel is that international trips can also be very educational for you and your children, as you experience the culture around you.

Renting Budget Condos in the States Works, Too

If you want to stay local, states that have many attractions for kids, like Florida or California, are a good choice. With Florida-based 4rentbythebeach.com, you can search for affordable condos that are close to the beach and lots of other attractions. Or if you want something close to Disney World, stay at Disney's Boardwalk Villas where each villa has air conditioning, a kitchen, and access to a child's pool, hot tub, game room, and child care service. These Disney villas are available at Wyndham-Vacations.

Discover Vacation Homes is a smaller company that offers only professionally managed vacation rentals; their inventory is currently clustered in the Orlando, Florida area. Homeaway Inc. also operates a large number of websites that feature more than 300,000 vacation rental options in the U.S. and around the world, including some of the largest U.S. sites: Vacation Rental By Owner and VacationRentals.com.

Vacation Home Rentals: Tips, Resources & Warnings

Your vacation destination depends on many factors, but wherever you go, picking the right family vacation rental is very important. You want to make sure that you have enough bedrooms for everyone to sleep in (for brief stays, a one-bedroom with a sofabed can sleep 4), the living and dining area is nice and spacious, it has all the amenities you need (full kitchen, washer, dryer, etc.), and the region has things for your family to do while you're there.

Other additional features you might want to see offered by the chosen rental company are cleaning services, childcare, and pet care, if pets are allowed.

Among the many other companies taking advantage of the Internet to market vacation home, condo and villa rentals is the Family Travel Forum booking engine, where a girl in the office recently found a one-bedroom waterfront apartment in Antibes, France for US$129 per night when neighboring hotels were 250€ per room!

ResortQuest has more than 50,000 rentals units -- all managed by professional real estate companies that provide assistance to renters -- in over 100 resort locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe. ResortQuest and its partners offer many seasonal specials and perks such as "weather guarantees" that allow families to switch our their mountain resort rental -- if there's no snow for skiing -- to a tropical rental the same week, for no extra charge. (Of course, this doesn't take into account your investment in airfare.)

A site that works with both individual home owners and real estate managers is Zonder, which has tools to help you sort the available properties by number of beds, distance from town, price etc. Their Zonder Guarantee that "the property exists and the calendar is accurate; the property is accurately represented with respect to the sleeping capacity, the location, and the general quality of the property; and the price you see is the final price you pay – no hidden charges!" takes some of the worry out of web bookings. Remember that pool heat, phone and similar charges are generally separately billed. If you don't get what was promised, go back to their live agents for assistance.

For more rental deals on both local and international villas, visit Endless Vacation Rentals. Check out "Last Minute Vacations," where they post deals for people looking for a quick getaway. Endless Vacation Rentals, a Wyndham company, is the world's largest vacation exchange network, and among the world's largest global marketers of vacation rental properties.

The Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) is another resource for travelers to find and book them.

Keep in mind, there are always other options available and always remember, research is your friend.