Web site sees fewer vacation bookings in ,09

Booking rates for vacation rental homes on Cape Cod and the Islands were down 5.7 percent over the 2008 season, according to WeNeedaVacation.com.

The Internet vacation booking site said that a weak first half of the year was offset by a strong May through August period, but bookings on Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket were down 5.7 percent over the same period last year. Specifically, Cape vacation home bookings were down 4.8 percent, the Vineyard was down 6.1 percent, and Nantucket reported a 13.6 percent decline.

However, month-to- month bookings since April outpaced the same months in 2008, according to Elizabeth Weedon, a spokesperson for WeNeedaVacation.com. And prices for Cape rental homes were about the same as last year, she said in a press release.

"Specifically, Cape prices finished up $11 per home and Martha's Vineyard up $20, but prices for Nantucket, soft all last year, finished down $205," Weedon said, adding that the price data was based on a sampling of over 1,900 homes on her company's Web site over the past three years.

The rebound, which Weedon attributed to a strengthening economy starting in March and good weather beginning on the July 4 holiday weekend, was pronounced on the Web site.

Vacation home bookings jumped 30 percent in May, as compared to the same month in 2008, 55 percent in June, 24 percent in July and 25 percent in August, perhaps indicating that tourists waited until the last minute to book their vacations. I