I am a long time user of VRBO and HomeAway. We have stayed at some very, very nice properties by using VRBO, and haven't had any problems. It pays to review each listing very carefully, especially the customer reviews and pictures, and to clearly communicate with the property manager. I steer clear of anything that doesn't "feel" good, especially after communicating with the manager, and have only had to skip a couple of properties for that reason. In contrast, my three sons have used AirBNB, with very mixed results (my youngest son had a horrible experience with an AirBNB rental in NY City and he will never use them again.)