Renting a beachfront condo or a lakeside cabin this summer won't be half the splurge (or half as difficult to book) as it was last year with more would-be vacationers opting to stay home in order to save money.

In fact, some rentals in popular vacation spots like Myrtle Beach, Orlando and the Poconos are going for as much as 60% less than they did last summer, according to vacation rental sites. The popular Whelk Resort San Diego in Escondido, Calif., for example, recently cut rates on its rental villas in half from May through September, bringing the price of a one-bedroom unit at the coastal resort to $135 a night.

Quite simply there are too many vacation homes and not enough vacationers, explains Bob Barnes, CEO of Zonder.com, a vacation rental marketplace. Not only are consumers trimming their travel budgets, but some vacation home owners who didn't rent their properties before are doing so now in order to raise some extra cash. Add to that all of the new resorts built during the housing boom and the market is flooded with excess inventory, he says.

See 5 Vacation Spots Offering Savings

The growing competition for vacationers' dollars has forced property owners to slash prices and even offer add-on perks such as free tickets to local attractions, sailings on catamarans or free rounds of golf to sweeten the deal. Vacation rental prices were down 8.5% nationwide during the fourth quarter of 2008, with some markets plunging an average of 20%, according to Hotels.com, whose specialty lodging division tracks vacation rentals, private homes, villas and bed and breakfasts.

To dig up some of the best deals out there, SmartMoney.com spoke with property managers, real estate agents and executives at web sites that list vacation rentals, asking them for some of their best sales and discounts on vacation home sales.

Here are five spots where summer rental bargains abound:

Summer is shoulder-season for Costa Rica, meaning brief afternoon showers most days. But the bulk of the deals stem from a resort boom that has outstripped tourism demand, says Michael Brown of Mead Brown Costa Rica Vacation Rentals, which manages luxury rental properties. Deals on airfare are good, too -- roughly $350 instead of last year s $600, he says -- thanks to new routes from budget airlines such as Spirit and JetBlue.

Sample deal: Through November, Mead Brown is offering one-bedroom rentals at the Los Sue os Resort and Marina for $175 a night, down from $350 last year. There s also a deal to pay for six nights and get the seventh free. A family booking a weeklong vacation at the resort, which has its own private rainforest preserve and views of the Pacific Ocean, would pay $1,050 -- a savings of 57%.

Photo: Getty Images

Only about 30% of homes in this popular Pennsylvania resort area belong to full-time residents, says Larry Ditty, a realtor and owner of Century 21 Select Group, which operates 14 offices throughout the region. The renters aren t flooding in like they used to, he says. The people who are still coming are the same people who have been coming up for years. Coupled with the large number of lake and mountainside resorts built during the recent boom, availability is the highest it s been in years, says Ryan Bailey, president of vacation-rental site ResortsandLodges.com.

Sample deal: Book the Woodloch Pines Resort s Stars & Stripes Midweek Package from July 6-11, and pay $3,500 for accommodations for a family of four in one of the privately-owned guest homes on the golf course. That s down from prices that reached $7,500 to $8,000 during peak weeks last summer, says Bailey. You ll save up to 56%.

Photo: 800poconos.com

Families looking to visit the theme parks this summer will have more cash to put toward those pricey park admission tickets. Florida is one of the markets where vacation rental prices have plummeted the most over the past year, says Steve Dumaine, vice president of specialty lodging for Hotels.com. Prices are down by almost 20% or more across the board, thanks to a glut of new resort communities and condos.

Sample deal: Beachtree Villas -- just four miles from the Disney parks -- cut its prices by 40% for May through September. That pushes prices for a two-bedroom villa from $158 per night down to $95.

Photo: Getty Images

The number of available rental properties near Rocky Mountain National Park has skyrocketed by 139% over the past year, according to rental site HomeAway.com. That leaves plenty of open properties for travelers who want to enjoy summer hiking, rafting and biking.

Sample deal: Owners of a four-bedroom lodge in Estes Park have knocked $600 off their usual weekly rate of $2,595, bringing the price down to $1,995 a week through September. A 23% savings.

Photo: Getty Images

The island s 12 mile-coastline drew 2.5 million vacationers last year. Yet, despite the area s perennial popularity, there are still plenty of properties available during prime summer months, says Barnes. In past years, most inventory would be gone by now, says Fred Schmitz, owner of Avalon Rentals, a management company for 21 properties on the island. We ve reduced our rates back to 2006 levels because of the economy, he says. So have a lot of others.

Sample deal: Owners of a two-bedroom condo that sleeps eight people in the luxury oceanfront Villamare resort complex are asking $250 a night -- the same rate they requested last year, according to Zonder.com. However, vacationers can snag a 20% discount when they book one to 14 days in advance, or 15% when they book 15 to 30 days in advance.

Photo: Getty Images