There are a large number of vacation rentals offered by owners in Cabo San Lucas, from large luxurious villas to single week fractionals to condos. Listing of vacation homes for rent by owner is a world wide growing phenomenon. There are more short term rentals out there than ever.

So how do you find a vacation rental in Cabo San Lucas and Los Cabos?

Best to stick to a recognized rental site, including VRBO, Homeaway (VRBO and Homeaway are owned by the same company), Flipkey (affiliated with Tripadvisor), Airbnb, VacationRentals.com. Tripping.com is a website that lets you search most of the major sites at once. https://www.cabovillas.com/, a well respected site that handles high end Los Cabos properties.

Different sites sort their listings in different ways. Flipkey ranks listings on criteria that include response rates, owner updates, etc. VRBO and Homeaway sort by how much money the owner pays to list, but does offer Homeaway Sort, which also factors in owner responsiveness and the like. VRBO lets you sort by development, such as just searching in the Pedregal.

Why stick to a recognized rental site? Well, simply, you are more likely to get what you pay for. The old saying is generally true: You don’t always get what you pay for—but you almost never get what you don’t pay for. Some of the smaller sites often have out of date listings, as well as less security. Some are really only offering a small number of properties, and listing the others as bait just to get you to respond. Worse, there are phisers out there! Phising is a worldwide scourge taking place in every form of business, including long. term rentals (particularly as to vacant homes listed for sale), hotel listings, vacation rentals—if you can think if it, there are phisers. In this field, Phisers can list properties they do not own. There are not many of them, but the larger sites tend to screen them out pretty well. By way of example, the Pedregal has over 100 rental homes offering rentals all year long, and hears of about perhaps one phising incident a year. That’s a very small number, but it is not zero either. If you are that one that shows up for a home that is not yours to use, you will not be happy. Condos tend to get more phising incidents as it is harder for an owner to find a phising listing in an internet search.

Make sure you read the reviews. Make sure the reviews cover a period of time. At least at the onset, communicate with the owner over the site’s communication system in order to avoid phising. After initial contact, you can switch out and communicate directly.

Tell the owner about yourself in your first contact. You are not renting a hotel room, but a house owned by someone. Most owners do not rent to just anyone and everyone. Expect them to have some questions about you, just as you do about the rental. For example, many owners will not even respond to an email that ends with “edu.” In your first communication tell them how many persons, ages, and the connections (e.g., “we are 4 couples coming for a 50^th birthday”). Do not mislead, as the owner usually knows what is happening in their homes via the manager, cleaning persons, and yes, even the neighbors. You could get locked out!

Owners: Once in a while go to Goggle and type in the name of your house or other information personal to your listing. You might be surprised by what you see. You may find a listing from some agent you have not talked to in years, but is using you home as bait.