It may as inevitable as the Salton Sea stench – you check into the hotel, scope out a great spot by the pool, and then here comes the unruly child, or worse, the obnoxious goofball adult.

But it didn’t need to be this way. You could have just rented your own place, and often for not much more than a hotel room.

“You know when you’re at a hotel pool and say, ‘I wish I could move, but every chair taken and I’ve got to listen that woman’s voice,’ or whatever, and it’s always like, oh gosh,” said Lisa Riding, general manager for Acme House Co., a vacation rental firm representing more than 50 private homes in the Palm Springs area that are available to outside renters on a short-term basis.

Vacation rentals are increasingly becoming an option for travelers to the Desert, if only because there are so many available here, thanks the large numbers of second homes, and the ease of online booking, say those in the business.

“It’s really about going together,’ said Rob Kincaid, president of Vacation Palm Springs, another local vacation rental firm representing some 200 homes across the Coachella Valley. “People want to spend time in an environment where they can cook together and enjoy each other’s company. It’s often a shared social experience. It’s often some type of family get together.”

Read more about the growing vacation rentals trend in Saturday’s Escape section in The Desert Sun.