Now Voyager

I stumbled upon eBay's hotel/travel lodging section last week when searching for luggage and was immediately intrigued and a little weirded out. Once I clicked through, however, I found that it's actually a staggeringly expansive, useful, and easily searchable service with good deals from a plethora of the countries you'd want to visit. It works like most other parts of eBay—there are auctions with or without reserve prices along with Buy it Now options. Also here is something called eBay classifieds, which are exactly what you'd expect: ads that link you to a person's website or phone number so you can buy the item directly from them. Some of the best listings are deep discounts on major resort vacations, but you can also find quieter, more modest trips. My interest was piqued by this private, oceanfront St. Thomas villa (the bidding on six nights starts at $100) and this sunny, one-bedroom apartment in the center of Florence (starts at $25 a night).

Note: Renting a vacation house on eBay might seem a little shady, but as with the rest of the site, there are lots of checks and balances so buyers feel secure. Also, most of these lodging sellers are certified through a company called Square Trade, which is kind of like an eBay Better Business Bureau, and has high customer service standards.

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