n the doghouse because you weren't organized enough to line up that beach house for July? Secretly relieved that you didn't, given how much it was going to cost? Here's a way to salvage your reputation with your family and friends without spending a fortune: Rent a vacation home during the off-season. You'll have the beach, forest or mountains to yourself and come out looking like a hero.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out the relative value of renting a vacation home rather than paying for a motel. Your money buys more space and, often, a more attractive, quiet and private environment than the quasi-commercial zones where all but the most expensive resorts are found.

You also can save big on meals, cleaning clothes, renting movies and all the other items vacationers consume on holidays, said Michael Sarka, Executive Director of the Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) in Santa Cruz, Calif.

"Do you want to go to the coffee shop for the $11.95 toast and eggs over easy or do you want to buy it for a fraction of the cost and make it yourself?", Sarka asked.

Take a family vacation in Lake Tahoe, for example. For the Labor Day weekend and the week after, you could have rented a three-bedroom, fully-equipped house in the woods near South Lake Tahoe, Calif., from Lake Tahoe Accommodations for $1,421. By contrast, two run-of-the-mill rooms at the Holiday Inn Express, a "lite" version of Holiday Inn in South Lake Tahoe, would have cost you $1,612. That's a savings of 13.4 percent for more appealing and private accommodations.

Vacation rentals are even better bargains in the off-season. For most beach rentals, that means after Labor Day and before Memorial Day. In ski areas, it means before November and after April, although places like Aspen, Colo., have lots of visitors in the summer months as well. Discounts vary widely among the VRMA's 250 members, which, on average, manage about 400 units each, Sarka said.

My highly unscientific sampling of property management companies suggests that you can save at least 20 percent to 30 percent in the off-season.

A three-bedroom house 600 feet from the beach in Duck, N.C., costs $900 per week from June 15 to Aug. 23, but only $650 from May 10 to June 14 and Aug. 23 to Sept 13. From Sept. 13 to May 9, the price drops even further to $475.

Way up north in the area around Camden, Maine, a house that rents for $1,000 a week during the summer goes for about $800 after Labor Day, said Jenni Seidel, manager of Camden Accommodations. A two-bedroom cottage that costs $600 to $700 a week in the summer might be rented for the entire winter for that amount, she said.

Bargains don't stop at the U.S. borders, according to Sue Norrington-Davis, program manager of The Individual Traveler's Company Ltd. in West Sussex, England.

For example, a two-week stay at a middle-tier house or townhouse in Spain with two bedrooms, one or two bathrooms and no pool during the summer rents for $2,339, but drops to $1,686 in spring and autumn. In winter, the same house is priced at only $1,370 - less than $100 per night. In France, a similar house rents for $3,325 in the summer, $2,422 in the spring and $1,862 in the winter. The company rents more than 1,500 homes in England, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal.

Still, a bargain rate won't seem so great if your vacation home turns out to be a dump.

A room in the Budapest Hilton isn't likely to be much different from a room at the Hilton in Indianapolis, but rental houses and condominiums vary greatly in terms of their condition, amenities and location, so it's important to do your homework, Norrington-Davis said. When your fellow travelers check out the view from the living room and praise your name, the effort will be worth it.