There are plenty of things to love about staying in a hotel, most of which have to do with unlimited clean towels, but for our last few vacations we've skipped the hotel route and instead rented houses from private owners who've listed them on Web sites like vrbo.com and ineedavacation.com. Renting a real house from a real person comes with a very different set of pleasures. For me, the biggest, guiltiest one is the opportunity to nose around and see if I can figure out something about the...