Archive for July, 2010

Luxury Villa Spotlight: VillaHotel Imana in St. Tropez

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Although the new trend in St. Tropez is supposedly “authentic luxury,” the new crop of ultra-contemporary hotels there seem to be out luxury villaof place. But this luxury villa really combines a modern interior with a traditional exterior for total luxury throughout.

Search the web about St. Tropez these days and you’ll come across a lot of coverage about the new boutique hotels that have been appearing there, just in time for the peak summer season. The Muse Hotel has made a lot of news: with its 15 little “villas,” its layout is supposedly a reflection of the trend toward traditional, authentic St. Tropez luxury , much in the way that Bardot discovered it back in the day.

But these new hotels are about as authentic and traditional as the Guggenheim Art Museum.

The manager of the Muse recently was quoted as saying, “We want to build a brand of boutique hotels that offer refinement and culture and puts excellent Asian service into a French cocoon.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but Asian service — regardless of what you may think of it personally — is most certainly not going to give you an authentic St. Tropez experience.

Similar questions can be raised about the other new players in the St. Tropez boutique hotel market: La Réserve Ramatuelle is another contemporary art masterpiece — impressive, no doubt, but about as quintessentially St. Tropez as Disney World.

The fact is, luxury villas are the only real option for experiencing St. Tropez the way it used to be. And what’s for, if you still have a thirst for contemporary decor, you can both.

Set amid the rugged terrain of the countryside, VillaHotel Imana offers an exquisite blend of traditional French elegance with modern décor and amenities. Private, garden-lined terraces invite you spend your days outside on the manicured lawn or pristine, Olympic sized pool, or entertain into the night with an outdoor barbeque and covered lounge.

This luxury villa features large windows and an open floor plan that give you an exceptional view of the gardens, pool, and outdoors around every turn of VillaHotel Imana, while the villa’s traditional exterior design gives way to sleek, minimalist contemporary décor inside. In addition, the living and dining rooms as well as the 4 bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms are all remarkably unified in their furniture and decoration, offering a mix of artistry and comfort. The kitchen and bathrooms all feature contemporary appliances and fixtures that will captivate your senses, while the rest of VillaHotel Imana offers plenty of space and comfort.

And because the VillaHotel Imana features Villazzo’s industry-leading VillaHotel services, you get the perfect combination of five-star hotel services with the comfort and privacy of a traditional luxury villa in St. Tropez.

So, if you’re looking to experience the authentic St. Tropez holiday, be sure to choose a luxury villa like the VillaHotel Imana — it’ll give you the best of both worlds.

Luxury Villa Spotlight: V Villa Julia in Miami Beach

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Luxury villas are a dime a dozen in Miami Beach, and few really stand out among the crowd. But Villazzo’s V Villa Julia’s design, décor,

Luxury Villa V Villa Julia

A view of Villazzo's V Villa Julia - a luxury villa in Miami Beach

and features bring the very best that Miami Beach has to offer to your own vacation experience.

Few luxury villas in Miami Beach capture the sun, sea, and warmth quite like V Villa Julia. Decorated in bright, inviting textures and featuring an open design both inside and out, this luxury villa lets in the light and natural beauty of this 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom bayside property seep into your luxury vacation. Large windows highlight the living and dining areas as well as the kitchen and bedrooms, giving you an enchanting view of the bay, pool, and terrace night and day. Luxurious bedrooms with sitting areas and en suite bathrooms making going to sleep and waking up a pleasure.

Outside, V Villa Julia luxury villa features a multi-level terrace – perfect for outside dining and entertaining – as well as a vanishing edge pool with cascading waterfall, barbeque area, and a bayside dock. And because it’s just 5 minutes from the beach, V Villa Julia has everything you need from a luxury villa to experience the very best of Miami Beach.

Luxury Villa V Villa Julia

The living and dining areas of luxury villa V Villa Julia

In recent years, the contemporary design movement has overtaken Miami Beach, and though this exclusive neighborhood of luxury villas boast modern, sprawling, mansion-sized homes, many of them appear as pastiche recreations of authentic contemporary Miami properties. Julia, however, features a layout that is seldom seen in recent luxury villas in Miami Beach: it connects the interior with the exterior by way of its capacious windows and tasteful decor.

Around every corner, you’ll find a minimalist yet inviting set of furniture, housewares, and design elements, most of which are done in white or beige. This bright, blank color palette, however, perfectly complements the rich, colorful palette of the outside landscape, which pours into virtually every square foot of this luxury villa by way of its windows. As you can see from the photo to the right, palm trees, blue skies, and the bay serve as the color throughout V Villa Julia.

Article by Michael Nace

Small, Boutique Hotels In St. Tropez Seek To Compete With Luxury Villa Rentals

Monday, July 19th, 2010

The recent opening of the Muse Hotel in St. Tropez illustrates how luxury villa rentals have the set the tone for exclusive vacationing along the French Riviera.

Although the resort town of St. Tropez is world-famous, it still remains a small, quant town that is dominated less by mega hotels and more by exclusive luxury villa rental properties. Perhaps that is why the most recent hotel launch in St. Tropez was not a massive Hilton, Ritz Carlton, or Four Seasons, but rather the botique Muse Hotel.  Located on the Ramtatuelle ‘route de plages’ road, the Muse is minutes from the Place de Lices as well as the famous sunny beaches and azure waters of St. Tropez. However, the Muse isn’t catering to throngs of average vacation goes, but rather the same set of wealthy, famous jet-setters who would otherwise stay in a private luxury villa rental.

With only 15 villa-style rooms and a wealth of luxury features that are designed to appeal to people looking for a luxury villa experience, the small villas at the Muse feature large walk in closets, luxurious, spa-like bathrooms, and the latest in-room technology, including a 42” Loewe plasma screen with over 100 channels, Playstation, an iPad, and and iPhone. Add to this a list of exclusive guest services, such as Bentley shuttles to the beaches, butlers, and other hospitality, and you get a perfect synthesis of hotel and luxury villa rental.

Services like these, however, are not a new idea in St. Tropez vacationing, but rather a reaction to keep up with the burgeoning luxury villa rental industry there.

The fact is, luxury villa rentals in St. Tropez have boasted hotel-like services along with their privacy, luxury, and exclusivity for years. In recent years, luxury villa rental companies such as Villazzo have taken the promise of offering luxury villa rentals with five-star hotel services even further by creating “VillaHotels.” These VillaHotels offer the same level of exceptional services that you’d find in a small boutique hotel, while offering a level of privacy that a hotel simply cannot offer.

Because these luxury villa rentals have become increasingly popular, hotels in St. Tropez have gone out of their way to make their premises and facilities feel as much like a real luxury villa as possible. The result, however, has been met with mixed results: many wealthy and famous visitors to St. Tropez seek larger, private amenities, away from the thousands of gawking vacationers. Hotels — no matter how private and exclusive — simply cannot offer the level of privacy and service that this level of clientele is searching for.

So, as you read more and more about these villa-style boutique hotels opening up in the French Riviera, remember that the true VillaHotel experience can only be gotten by staying in a luxury villa rental that offers comprehensive, 5-star hotel services.

Article by Michael Nace

Luxury Villa Rentals in St. Tropez Exemplify High-class Vacationing

Monday, July 12th, 2010

In perhaps the most exclusive resort destination in the world, luxury villa rentals define the epitome of privacy and luxury for the rich and famous.

Over the years, the glittery French resort town of St. Tropez has become synonymous with sun, beauty, glamour and all the good things in life. The quaint medieval town set on a bay has been drawing the world’s who’s who for decades with its sandy beaches and cloudless skies. Even before becoming known as St. Trop (trop being the French word for “too much”), this village was called the Montparnasse of the Mediterranean, because of its appeal to artists and writers. Illustrious personalities from Paul Signac and Matisse to Colette, Anaïs Nin, and Françoise Sagan, were all drawn to the beauty and isolation of this place. For as popular as St. Tropez is, it is still just as hard to reach. With the exception of the peak summer season, which draws millions of vacationers, St. Tropez remains a quaint, sleepy town for the remainder of the year. And while there are plenty of luxury hotels in and around the center of town, St. Tropez is the kind of place you can best experience by staying in one of the luxury villa rentals that dot the surrounding area—some with all the amenities of a five-star hotel—that offer great access to the beaches and hotspots that make St. Tropez so popular.

St. Tropez has come a long way since it first became known internationally as the place to be. That distinction came thanks to a pouty-lipped Brigitte Bardot who arrived in town to film Roger Vadim’s And God Created Woman–after which nothing was ever the same for St. Tropez again. Suddenly the sleepy fishing village was catapulted to the top of the Côte d’ Azur’s hot list and the rich and famous began descending en masse, especially during the high season months of July and August. The fact that the village was (and still remains) both remote and isolated only served to make it that much more popular and exclusive. Today St. Tropez remains a gorgeous place to vacation in a luxury villa rental with much to keep you entertained.

Beaches

Days in St. Tropez are best enjoyed at one of the area’s exclusive beach clubs, like the famed Nikki Beach, or by the private pool offered in many of the luxury villa rentals in the area. Many of these pools feature “vanishing edge” designs that appear to blend directly into the Mediterranean Sean. Remember —  reservations are mandatory at most of the beach resorts. Many of the area’s best beaches, found along the Baie de Pampelonne, require a drive from the town, but head west from the city center and there are others that can be found within a reasonable walking distance. Other beaches you might want to try: Bouillabaisse Beach, Plage des Graniers, Salins Beach and Caneliers Beach.

Eating and Nightlife
Aside from beaches, shopping (both luxury stores and the open air markets at the Place des Lices), and wandering around the charming city center, a vacation in St. Tropez would not be complete without ample good food and great nights on the town. Try Café de Paris for delicious sushi and sashimi or Caprice des Deux for traditional regional fare. Great dining experiences can also be had at Leï Mouscardins, Château Hôtel de la Messardière, La Bouillabaisse and Café Senequier, which offers great breakfast options.
The nightlife in St. Tropez usually gets started around 11pm and mainly consists of exclusive nightclubs and private parties. From the legendary Les Caves du Roy and the cash-only Voile Rouge Beach Club on Moorea Beach to the hip Brasserie des Arts (open to 3am in the summer) and the Papagayo Club, St. Tropez is a celebration of wealth and celebrity status when it comes to getting your groove on at glamorous nightspots filled with people to watch and ever-flowing champagne.
St. Tropez and its luxury villa rentals offers a chance for a once in a lifetime vacation filled with white sand beaches and endless nights. This is a spot that mixes natural beauty with glamour and excess—the perfect elements for the town’s official sports, the de rigueur activities of people watching, celeb spotting and sun worshipping. But then, surrounded by such beauty, both natural and otherwise, how could one really think of doing anything else?
Image Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Villazzo’s July Newsletter: Luxury Villa Rentals in St. Tropez, Miami, & Beyond

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Villazzo had an amazing season this past winter in Miami – the best that we’ve ever had before. Thank you so much for your continued support! It is our customers’ devotion to the company and your continued business throughout the years that makes Villazzo the leading luxury villa rental provider in the world. Thank you again.

Now it’s time for the summer: Welcome back to Saint-Tropez!
Just as we have done in Miami, we’ve re-invented Villazzo in Saint-Tropez by moving our best people from Miami to Saint-Tropez for the whole summer! For you, it means you will now get the same impeccable “Miami” luxury villa rental service and villa selection in the South of France!

When we arrived in St. Tropez in late May, we talked to all the agencies in town, browsed through hundreds of property presentations, and personally inspected dozens of the most luxurious ones. We’ve now selected the ultimate vacation homes, both for our VillaHotel concept, and – new in 2010! – for our “V” Villa selection. We have done the work for you – you don’t need to slave over questionable property listings at luxury villa rental websites or other agencies any more – we’ve seen all the luxury villas in St. Tropez and picked only the very best, based on our very strict Villazzo standards. We know that for you, only the best will do.
As it’s getting very close to high season, the majority of spectacular luxury villa rentals are already booked – but a selected few remain available for certain travel dates. You’ll find a list of them below. But don’t delay — these amazing luxury villa rentals get booked every day now, so if you haven’t made any arrangements yet, now is the last chance to still get something nice!
VillaHotels — Luxury Villa Rentals in St. Tropez with 5-star hotel service
VillaHotel Sogno di Luce (6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms; views of the Golf of St Tropez)
Specifications: http://www.villazzo.com/villahotels/sttropez/sogno-di-luce/
Rate per night:  €7,100 + tax
Booked: Jul 1 – Aug 15
Remaining availability: Aug 16 – 31
Our comment: One of the most spectacular houses in all of Saint- Tropez. The best possible views over the bay and village; 10 minutes from the center.
VillaHotel Josephine (4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms; views of the Golf of St Tropez)
Specifications: http://www.villazzo.com/villahotels/sttropez/josephine/
Rate per night: €3,800 + tax
Booked: Jul 1 – Aug 15
Remaining availability: Aug 16 – 31
Our comment: Brand new house, great location, all the technical wizardry – excellent value. The founder of Villazzo stayed there himself last year.
VillaHotels La Forge and Jabri are unfortunately already committed for the whole season. Book now for 2011!
“V” Villas — Luxury Villa Rentals in St. Tropez
“V” Villa Whitney (5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms; views of the Golf of St Tropez)
Specifications: Just added, email us for more pictures
Rate per week:  €34,000 / per month: €95,000
Remaining availability: July
Our comment: Designer excellence in a lush setting.
“V” Villa Nikki (5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms)
Specifications: Just added, email us for more pictures
Rate per week: €21,500 / per month €79,000 (reduced from €100.000)
Remaining availability: July/August
Our comment: Fantastic decor, ocean view, walking distance to Nikki Beach! Great price reduction due to last minute cancellation.
“V” Villa Antonia (5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms)
Specifications: http://www.villazzo.com/villahotels/sttropez/antonia/
Rate per week: €19,500 / per month €65,000
Remaining availability: August
Our comment: Very modern, very calm and zen-like setting, right at the entrance of St Tropez.
“V” Villa Imana (4 + 1 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms)
Specifications: Just added, email us for more pictures
Rate per week: €18,900 / per month €62,000
Remaining availability: July 15 – Aug 23
Our comment: Splendid views of the Gassin Golf Course; just finished construction; designed for himself by reputed builder/architect.
“V” Villa Martha (4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms)
Specifications: http://www.villazzo.com/villahotels/sttropez/martha/
Rate per week: €14,000 / per month €48,000
Remaining availability: August
Our comment: Brand new gem in a gated community just off the Saint-Tropez tennis club. 5 minutes to downtown and beaches!
“V” Villas Patricia and Dolce Vita are unfortunately already committed for the whole season. Book now for 2011!
We hope you’ll find our selection useful for making your final summer travel plans.
As you know, the best experience of any villa rental is still Villazzo’s “VillaHotel” program – mansions that come with complete “private hotel” setup and full hotel services. That’s what makes Villazzo the first choice for celebrities and billionaires.
“V” Villas are the less expensive option, with some VillaHotels services available at extra charge.
You can upgrade most “V” Villas to “VillaHotel” level, please ask us for details.

Can You Really Trust Luxury Villa Rental Companies?

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Luxury villa rentals in St. Tropez, Marbella, Miami Beach, and beyond offer the privacy and exclusivity that you cannot get from even the most expensive 5-star hotel. But is the risk of picking a “luxury lemon” worth giving up on a reliable luxury hotel experience?

Wherever there is sand, sun, and sea in the world, you’re bound to find a crop of luxury villa rentals to choose from. Whether it’s St. Tropez, Marbella, Miami Beach, or Ibiza, you can always find a huge selection of amazing rental properties that span traditional to contemporary architecture and that will put you in the middle of the action and nightlife as well as the middle of nowhere. For those who have a already made a few trips to these exclusive vacation havens and have tried out a few different hotels, the prospect of having their own private luxury villa seems like the next logical step in experiencing the ultimate luxury vacation.

However, with luxury villa rentals, there is always an unknown quantity — or, more specifically, an “unknown quality.”

Luxury villa rental companies are notorious for showing only the best aspects of the luxury villas they list. Sure, they might show a bunch of photos of a villa’s pristine pool, charming terrace, and well-appointed master bathroom. But they fail to show how the plasma TV doesn’t work, or how the villa’s wall that faces the seaside is crumbling, or how the bathroom hasn’t been renovated for 25 years.

I recently read an article about “how to choose a luxury villa rental in Tuscany.” The writer told a hilarious yet tragic story about how once he had chosen a majestic Tuscan villa to stay in, thinking that it would be a single-family luxury vacation rental. When he arrived, he was dismayed to find out that the villa, “had been carved up into apartments with thin dividing walls.” He paints a miserable Tuscan vacation in that villa, saying, “One doesn’t go to Italy to be woken by renditions of Take Me Home, Country Road – at 6am, in German.”

Oh, the horror!

This writer’s article, as well as many others who write about the luxury villa rental market, go on to list all of the due diligence required to ensure that what you see is what you get when choosing a luxury villa rental. In order to ensure a high quality villa rental, writers suggest so much comprehensive research and scrutiny over a property that you would be completely exhausted by the end of the search! Some writers suggest finding a contact in the city that you want to stay in and paying them a small sum of money to independently check out the villa rental you are considering. Another writer suggests that you “pack a small tool kit and a cache of batteries in various sizes (for TV remote controllers, torches and the like; never presume a villa’s inventory will be complete).”

Who is going to pack a tool kit for a vacation in a luxury villa rental?

The only way you can truly assure yourself an amazing villa vacation experience that lives up to your expectations is to work with a luxury villa rental company that visits and hand-selects the villas that it offers. If you use this criteria to select luxury villa rental companies to work with, you’ll find that there are very few of them in the world today who can vouch for the properties that they list on their websites.

For example, Wimco Villas, which is one of the largest luxury villa rental companies in the industry, offers this vague explanation in the “About Us” section of their website: “Each [Wimco] staff member is required to visit several of our vacation destinations each year and familiarize themselves with the villas and hotels there so they can serve you better.” How many is “several,” exactly? Which villas listed on their site have been visited and inspected, and which ones have not?

Other luxury villa rental sites, such as Jetsetter, use a small logo on their property pages to show prospective clients which of their properties have been checked and visited by a staff member and which have not. This is a much more transparent way of finding luxury villa rentals that you can trust to live up to what is posted on a website. Of course, it also limits the number of “safe” luxury villa options to choose from.

However, smaller, ultra-exclusive villa rental companies, such as Villazzo, guarantee their entire list of luxury villa rentals. Companies like these hand-select the properties they offer, and usually maintain an office in all of the vacation destinations where they offer luxury villa rentals. This is by far the best way to find the luxury villa of your dreams, since you can be assured that the villa has had a thorough walk-through and is determined to be a property that lives up to the high standards of the company that lists them on their website.

So, the next time you go in search of a luxury villa rental online, remember to look for a company that offers the best guarantee of quality, and the largest selection of luxury villas that have been hand-selected and approved. Stick to this approach and you can be assured that you won’t have to bring a toolbox with you on your next vacation!