Travel Weekly’s Johanna Jainchill was in the Caribbean last week, staying in two vacation-rental villas and visiting several others. Her first dispatch follows.
Americans like brands. This is true with clothing, cars and even with travel.
That is one of the main reasons we as Americans very infrequently rent vacation homes.
According to a PhoCusWright report, only one in 10 of us have. Much of that is because of the wild-card factor — we have an innate distrust toward the unknown and unbranded.
For similar reasons, U.S. travel agents have been slow to get into the vacation-rental game. It’s a highly fragmented market, and the properties often have no professional management or oversight. The last thing a good travel consultant wants to do is sell their client a product they can’t vouch for.
But that is changing. The explosion in online companies that aggregate vacation rentals and allow consumers to see pictures and read reviews of properties has made the market more consumer-friendly. And there are many companies that not only broker these rentals, but know the properties and can vouch for them.
And they also pay handsome commissions on what is usually a high-price item.
I headed to the Caribbean to stay in a couple of villas, arranged by Villas of Distinction and Villas and Apartments Abroad, to see what renting a villa is really all about, and gauge just how wild the wild card can be.
What I found is that with the connections these companies have on the ground, and with their own staff touring a good number of these properties, they know what your clients will experience at these homes.
And what you get at a vacation rental varies as much as different hotel brands.
The first villa I stayed in, called Exclusivity, is exactly what its name implies.
Situated on Anguilla’s westernmost point, Captain’s Bay, the villa is perched above the sea, steps away from a sparkling stretch of almost-private beach (no beach is private in Anguilla, but the effort to get here would deter most beachcombers).
Exclusivity is the definition of privacy. As Sylvia Jones, the owner of Villas and Apartments Abroad explained to me before I went, if there is a car coming up the road here, it’s going to Exclusivity.
The expansive, five-bedroom home comes fully staffed with housekeepers, a chef who serves three meals a day and an on-site concierge who attends to all your needs when you have them, and is otherwise invisible. This can be said of most of the staff here.
As soon as you think of going to beach, they are setting up beach chairs, an umbrella and a cooler there for you. Before you know you’re hungry, the chef is serving a snack of coconut-crusted shrimp and sesame chicken skewers, or offering cold cocktails by the pool.
If you feel like experiencing the island, the on-site concierge will not only recommend places for you to go but personally chauffer you there.
Offering a different experience, the Day-O Villa is located in a gated community of independently owned villas on St. Martin’s French side.
This three-bedroom home — with an open-air kitchen, dining and living area, and a large pool surrounded by lush tropical gardens — has a gazebo overlooking the pool on one side and the ocean on the other. A gate swings open to the soft sand of Plum Bay Beach.
At Day-O, besides a housekeeper and groundskeeper who live on the grounds, you are on your own. Villas of Distinction throws in a free rental car with each villa rental on St. Martin, giving you the ability to stock up on provisions for the house and visit the restaurants that St. Martin is famous for.
If you want a dinner prepared on-site, the local management company will arrange it for you. The price depends on the meal. A chef comes to the house, prepares and serves the meal, and cleans up afterward.
The experience at Day-O is a more traditional home-rental experience where you feel that you own a home for the week. You mix your own drinks, make your own meals and snacks, and experience the privacy that comes with renting a private house.
But what you have at Day-O that is not available through many homes that rent directly from owners is the staff of Pierres Caraibes, the villa management company that works with Villas of Distinction in St. Martin.
When I arrived at the villa, a staff member from Pierres Caraibes was there to greet me, and another phoned shortly afterward to see if I needed anything. I had both of their telephone numbers if anything came up.
For these reasons, it is important to work with professionals to match the right villa to the right client, as Lisa Desbiens, reservations manager at Pierres Caraibes, explains below.