We are interested in renting a nice villa for a multi-generational 70th birthday celebration. We are pretty location agnostic—Lake Como, Garda, Loire Valley, Provence, Portofino, etc. But we want somewhere nice and it’s a bit daunting to search. Anyone have any broker or agent or website they can recommend? Or even individual villas?
Thanks!
Given the geographic breath of your search, Vrbo may be the first place to look. Vrbo stands for Villa rental by owner, so you are dealing directly with the property owner. There are many companies that specialise in specific regions so also worthwhile searching for those companies on a location by location basis.
Thanks. We’ve used VRBO many times, but I have also found that specialty brokers or property managers can be more useful in helping compare properties and find the right one. For instance, in Colorado, folks like Invited Home and Exceptional Stays can make it easier to find the right spot, as opposed to just searching on Airbnb/VRBO. I figure there must be someone like that in Europe.
I would use booking.com. It works very well in Europe!
Set the search criteria’s for number of persons and all that, as well as minimum guest score. Then it goes quite fast to scan over using the map or price in the list.
Brokers can definitely be useful, but if you don’t have specific criteria, they are likely to be handcuffed. “Somewhere nice” isn’t going to get them very far.
We liked using https://www.onlyprovence.com/ when we’ve done house rentals in that area.
I mean, I do have some real criteria in terms of number of people, types of locations we like, types we don’t like, dates, price, etc. – we just have a lot of flexibility on location and a fair bit on dates. Is there anyone you’ve used that you’ve liked?
I’d start with Airbnb. You will see the same properties on other platforms usually.
Mr and Mrs Smith is another idea.
Sent a PM
We booked a multi-generational trip for a villa on Lake Trasimeno on the border of Tuscany/Umbria. Ages 78-19 - great location and lots to do. We found it on VRBO. It’s not listed there anymore but there are others that may meet your needs. Good luck! Our family had an amazing trip!
This is the villa we rented but off of VRBO Luxury Villa Rentals Worldwide
If you’re interested in Paris, and a luxe Building completely redone by a top Parisian designer with a living room & chef’s kitchen on each floor (I think 3 BRS per floor), which can be privatized by the floor or the entire building (4 or 5 floors I think), with a 2 star chef providing breakfast (& can supply private chefs for your kitchen, if you’d like), and a bilingual, very experienced/sophisticated house manager who I believe can do/arrange pretty much anything you’d like (transfers, cars, resos, bookings, tix, directions, neighborhood orientation/walks/special activities, etc.), in a great/posh neighborhood, shoot me a PM. (Not on AirBnB, etc.; & no affiliation.)