I think a lot of people have a misconception about how vacation rental homes work. Sure, most people on vacations will stay in hotels, but there are also significantly more hotel rooms in any given location than there are vacation rental homes. Therefore, it is necessary to realize that you need you need to get your reservations in early if you can.
Most homes are shockingly busy almost year around. At times, it can be near impossible to find a good vacation rental home. This is particularly true during the times of the year that people most frequently travel to your destination. So for example, Disney World’s peak season is during the summer, and therefore, during that time of the year it will be hard to find a place. However, a snow skiing resort would probably be early spring or even winter when most vacation rental homes are hard to come by.
Get your reservation in early. This is the only way to find a good vacation rental home. Otherwise, you will have to take the home that most others did not want to rent. Especially if this is your first experience of going to a home rather than a hotel, I would recommend that you find one you really like.
I should also mention that you will need to be there on time. I have on a few occasions requested that I be put on a waiting list of some kind if a vacation rental home has been reserved. For example, if I am going to go to Disney World for a week I might arrive and stay in a hotel on Sunday, but plan on staying at the vacation rental home the rest of the week. If the previous people at the rental home did not arrive on Sunday, I ask that I be called so that I can rent it for that day. It would be frustrating if you get there late only to find that the place was rented to someone else.