Villa in Greece or Cyprus - where to start?

[sweetheart]

I haven't ever really booked a foreign villa holiday before so don't really know where to start. Needs to be close to town / beach and suitable for 4 adults and 4 children with a private pool.

We use Owners Direct, Holiday Lettings or Home Away for villas and Skyscanner for flights.

Homeaway. We've just stayed in a villa in Corfu managed by Agnitravel who were good. These were lots of villas around managed by Villa Plus too.

I've been looking at villa holidays but read the reviews of home away and they are shocking which has put me off.

We had a great holiday in Cyprus with Villa Plus - the one we stayed at wouldn't suit you, as it was a little way outside the resort town, but it would tick all your other boxes.

No problems with either the villa or the company.

We always book independently through holiday lettings, owners direct etc. Luckily we have always had great accommodation and no problems ( last year we booked a villa in turkey but decided not to travel due to the political situation and they refunded us our money which they certainly did not have to!!) However pre Christmas we booked with villa plus to Lanzarote, booked own flights as it was cheaper and easier to select a different time and route. It was a good deal at the time and I have noticed that you can really narrow down what you want from your holiday plus you would have the back up of resort staff if you needed. That said villa plus in peak time is more expensive than booking independently and they get booked up way in advance.
Got to love a villa hol!

Is your money protected when paying through owners direct?