Hotel or Villa What I Consider Before Recommending Either
There are extraordinary hotels and extraordinary private villas. I don’t begin by deciding which one is more luxurious. I begin with how the people travelling want to spend their time.
A villa can be exactly what an itinerary needs. It can also be completely wrong for it.
The property has to work for the people staying there, the destination around them and everything else already in motion.
How much time will be spent at the residence?
This is often one of the first things I consider.
If the plan is slow mornings, long lunches, children in and out of the pool, friends joining for dinner and days where nobody particularly needs to leave, a private residence becomes part of the experience itself.
For a short city stay where most of the day will be spent dining, shopping, exploring or attending events, I may prefer a hotel in precisely the right location.
An incredible villa loses some of its appeal if you spend half the stay trying to get somewhere else.
Who is travelling?
A bedroom count only tells me so much.
For families and multigenerational travel, I want to understand how the house actually works.
Are young children close enough to their parents? Do grandparents need to avoid stairs? Are there teenagers who would appreciate their own area? If several couples are travelling together, are the bedrooms relatively equal or is one couple getting the extraordinary suite while everyone else compromises?
The shared spaces matter too.
One of the great advantages of a villa is being able to bring everyone together without requiring everyone to be together all of the time.
What does the service actually look like?
“Fully staffed” can mean very different things from one client to another.
I can arrange private chefs, wait staff, housekeepers, butler service, nannies, drivers and local concierge support.
For some clients, the ideal stay is highly serviced from morning until night.
For others, luxury means having the house almost entirely to themselves.
Both can be arranged. The important part is knowing which experience the client actually wants.
What level of privacy do you need?
Privacy means different things to different clients.
For some, a hotel offers exactly the right balance. They enjoy the atmosphere, restaurants, pool and the ease of having everything immediately available.
For others, being part of a shared hotel environment is precisely what they would prefer to avoid.
I work with clients who value a high degree of discretion, whether because of their public profile, the nature of the travel or simply because they prefer a greater sense of privacy and quiet.
In those cases, a private residence can change the experience considerably. Arrivals are more discreet. The pool, dining areas and outdoor spaces are entirely your own. Family and friends can come and go without moving through public areas, and the level of interaction with staff can be arranged around the client.
But privacy isn’t automatically created by booking a villa.
I still consider the location, neighbouring properties, staffing arrangements, access to the residence and how exposed the property is when clients arrive and leave.
For some stays, complete privacy is the priority. For others, the client wants privacy at home while still being close enough to step straight back into the destination when they choose.
Where is the villa?
A spectacular address on paper can become a very different proposition once the itinerary begins.
Take St Tropez in high season. A client planning long lunches at Pampelonne, evenings in town and days on the water needs a different location from someone who wants to spend most of the week privately at home.
The same applies everywhere.
How long is the drive to dinner? Where does the yacht depart from? How easy is the airport transfer? Is the beach actually accessible? What will traffic look like at that time of year?
The logistics determine whether I recommend it.
What sits around the stay?
A villa is rarely the entire itinerary.
There are usually flights before it, a hotel afterwards, a yacht day in the middle, restaurant reservations, drivers, guides or experiences to be arranged.
I look at the residence as one part of the wider itinerary.
When I’ll recommend the hotel instead
Having access to more private residences doesn’t mean I’ll automatically recommend one.
Sometimes the hotel is simply more suited.
For shorter stays, a brilliant hotel can offer an immediacy that is hard to beat. The location may put everything at your door. The restaurant, spa, beach club or atmosphere may be part of the reason for being there in the first place.
A couple travelling alone may prefer the energy of a hotel. A client attending a major event may need to be exactly where the action is. Another may want to walk downstairs for dinner rather than have an entire residence operating around them.
There are also itineraries where I’ll recommend both.
A few nights at the right hotel can give you access to the destination at its most social and energetic, followed by a private villa where the pace changes completely.
I don’t see those options as competing with one another. They each have a role.
The DBSL Villa Collection
Expanding my villa relationships gives me a broader portfolio of private residences to draw from when a client’s plans call for one.
The DBSL villa collection sit outside mainstream booking platforms and will continue to evolve as I develop new relationships and find properties I want to recommend to DBSL clients.
There is no fixed catalogue you need to work through.
Tell me who is travelling, where you’re considering and how you want to spend your time.
I’ll start there.
Considering a private villa stay?