The Thrill of a Villa
Renting a private house in Europe lets you live like the natives, at a reasonable price.
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, May 2004
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Karen Porter lived like a Tuscan instead of a tourist when she vacationed in Italy for a week last September. Porter, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and six of her friends stayed in a restored stone farmhouse with a fireplace, a swimming pool and terrace views of cypress trees. The five-bedroom house is 20 minutes from the wine shops of Chianti and 40 minutes from the pottery shops of Siena. After buying fruit, salami and wild-boar sausage at a local farmer's market, Porter and her friends ate the local fare alfresco on the patio. "It was fantastic," she says of her Italian vacation. The farmhouse cost about $5,000 for the week, but that worked out to $105 a night for Porter and each of her friends.
As U.S. tourists increasingly prospect for authentic glimpses of other cultures, private houses abroad are becoming particularly attractive. Rentals can trump comparably appointed hotels because they offer a more intimate peek at local life. The most popular destinations are flats in London, villas in rural Italy, chateau in France and beach houses in the Caribbean.
Prices vary from farmhouses that start at $400 a week to multiroom estates priced at $11,000 a week and up. Amenities add to the bill. (The costliest perk is a pool, which can raise the bill by about 30%.) Of course, seasonal demand affects price, too: The rent can double in high season, which is July and August in Italy and France and winter in the Caribbean.
Not too late
There's still time to book for this summer -- if you are looking for a small place. Barclay International Group (www.barclayweb.com), Overseas Connection (www.villasoftheworld.com) and Internet Villas (www.internetvillas.com) will rent European properties at the last minute.
If you need to book a bigger place, or if you plan to vacation during the high season, consider reserving far in advance. Cecilia Delury of Carmichael, Cal., booked her summer 2003 reservations over a year ahead to celebrate her birthday at a five-bedroom country house outside the town of Castelnaudary in southern France. Her three-week rental cost $12,500, and family and friends visited throughout her stay, numbering 17 people at one point. She rented from Just France (www.justfrance.com).
You can review brokers' rental properties online, or request printed listings. Consider asking for a floor plan with dimensions, which will clarify amenities. You'll want to know, for example, whether a bathroom can be accessed without walking through another guest's bedroom.
Extras to consider
Brokers usually require a deposit of 25% to 50% of the total to hold your reservation. The rest is typically paid two to three months before your arrival. When reviewing prices, ask if the quoted rent includes taxes, which can reach 18%. Heating, electricity and telephone may also be billed separately. Options, such as catering and stocked kitchens, can add 10% to 30% to the tab.
Overseas rentals may require sacrificing the finer amenities found in some hotels but make up for it with extra room and charm. A bathroom, for example, may be a room with a tub, but no shower. And swimming pools at houses in southern France and central Italy are typically small and built for lounging, not for Olympic workouts. Be sure to get the details before booking.
Consider buying travel insurance, which will compensate you if you cancel a trip because of an illness or other mishap. Those in Porter's group bought trip-cancellation policies to cover their share of the house rental, airfare and car-rental costs. One friend cashed in her policy when she fell ill and had to stay home.
Several insurance companies sell policies for up to 7% of the cost of your trip, with prices depending on your age and the coverage offered. For example, a trip-cancellation policy that covers up to $2,500 of forfeited expenses recently cost $124 from Travel Guard, the largest travel insurer (www.travelguard.com).
--Reporter: Elizabeth Kountze