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Wheel of Craigslist: Good or Bad Source of Vacation Rentals?

Where: 763 Pennsylvania Avenue [map], Miami, FL, United States, 33139

The original condo-tel in SoBe?

When hotel hunting for our next vaca, we often forget to troll Craigslist--for vacation rentals that is, not missed connections. Perhaps the reason we don't often think of it is because it's such a crapshoot. For instance, we have friends who scored an awesome place in Chelsea for a weekend in New York off the site, but our own attempts to find a vacation rental in Spain netted nothing but scams.

Similarly, The New York Times' Budget Traveler Matt Gross, tasked with finding cheap lodging in Miami for a weekend, took to Craigslist, netting similar mixed results. The listing, which touted "HoT SOBE condo for rent inside a NICE hotel!!" showed a bright studio and sundeck with a Jacuzzi in the Royal Hotel. Gross bargained with the owner to "nix the cleaning fee, throw in a parking permit and let the place go for a tax-free $125 a night." Amazing for Miami Beach in-season. However:

"When we arrived on a late Friday afternoon....I wished I'd bargained harder. The Royal was three stories of fading Deco wrapped in scaffolding, and the lobby smelled like street-vendor incense. The studio was better, sunny and decorated with paintings in vibrant blues and oranges, but had its own quirks: the floor lamps could only be turned off by unplugging them, and the hot water in the shower was, well, not."

Given the mixed results of Gross' and our own experiences, we have to wonder if The List of Craig is even worth logging onto for anything else other than the comic missed connections. So tell us hotel mavens: Have you ever had luck with a finding a great vacation rental off the site? Put your stories in comments below.