Protip if you're looking to travel to a typically well-toured place (eg Vail, Tahoe, Wine Country, etc.) -- The old school vacation rental companies are still

Protip if you're looking to travel to a typically well-toured place (eg Vail, Tahoe, Wine Country, etc.) -- The old school vacation rental companies are still the best game in town. These are often small local businesses with names like "Tahoe Mountain Rentals". They've been doing this for years (decades?), know all the local property owners, have the best inventory, and are usually professionally-run operations that come as close to the actual hotel level of hospitality as possible. They've had to co-list a lot of their properties on AirBNB recently, but you'll often find better rates just searching for the properties and booking directly from the management companies.