A
Resort of Your Own
by Duane Wells
Envisage lolling around with a group
of close friends in a pavilion surrounded by koi ponds
at Mick Jagger's six-bedroom villa on the Caribbean
isle of Mustique or having an impromptu fashion show
underneath a cathedral skylight in the over-the-top
closet of a seven-bedroom, nine-and-a-half bath, 10,000-square-foot
manse in Palm Springs formerly owned by screen legend
Elizabeth Taylor.
Or, imagine leaving the chaos of daily
life behind while winding along a two-lane country road
in Northern California wine country and finding yourself
at Dragonsleaf, an 80-acre vineyard estate complete
with 150-year-old windmill, hiking trails, and a private
lake stocked with trout. Better still, picture celebrating
a special anniversary or birthday with fourteen of your
nearest and dearest at Villa Andrea, a secluded estate
outfitted with a swimming pool, hot tub, indoor/outdoor
spa, tennis court, and a screening room with THX surround
sound, perched high atop 28 acres of vineyards just
outside the charmingly country chic village of Glen
Ellen in Sonoma.
While, on the surface, all of the above
scenarios may appear to be solely the province of celebrities
and savvy socialites, they are in fact anything but.
Each of the aforementioned travel experiences is well
within the reach of many LGBT travelers who, in increasing
numbers, are eschewing cookie-cutter hotels and discovering
the art of creating their own resorts by renting private
homes in gay-friendly destinations around the world.
Once upon a time, the only avenues for
LGBT travelers to experience a sense of complete freedom
on holiday centered around gay-specific cruises, resorts,
hotels, or circuit parties, but nowadays that paradigm
is shifting as a result of the burgeoning vacation rental
market, which now offers a viable alternative for travelers
who crave more intimate, bespoke escapes tailored to
their specific interests and needs. Many are finally
making the connection that renting a private home, villa,
or apartment can be a more satisfying way to experience
a destination while living like a local.
“We have a view that many destinations,
particularly food and wine destinations, are best experienced
from a private home,” says Liza Graves, co-founder,
COO, and Head of Marketing for BeautifulPlaces
(www.beautiful-places.com),
which represents over thirty luxury villas in Sonoma
County and Napa Valley, including Villa Andrea and Dragonsleaf,
as well as others in Provence, Tuscany, and Mexico.
“It gives travelers the ability to live like a
local and really try on the local lifestyle. The amenities
that the private homes in the wine country offer, compared
to hotels, are incredible. No hotel will ever be built
on top of a mountain or in the middle of a vineyard
with the different kinds of architecture, spaciousness,
unbelievable private swimming pools, gourmet kitchens,
and all of those things that are unique and special
and give people a sense of place and connection with
the wine country.”
Graves' sentiment is echoed by Kevin
Abell, the president of A Season Away (www.aseasonaway.com),
which specializes in extended stay luxury villa rentals
in France and Italy that range from a former chapel
that has been converted into a stunning residence in
one of the perched villages of Provence to a Parisian
pied-à-terre once owned by a consort of the king
of France.
Abell describes the A Season Away experience
as being “kind of like a three-legged stool, with
only one leg about the property itself.” As for
the rest of the overall experience the 20-year travel
veteran describes the other two legs of the stool as
being “about having a friend in the country helping
clients live like a local, and creating wonderful, tailor-made
excursions that bring out the best in a region.”
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Beyond the heightened awareness of a
destination they offer from an experiential point of
view, there are also purely economic reasons for choosing
a private villa rental over a hotel. Comparatively,
private home rentals generally offer more value than
a stay at a luxury hotel in the same destination.
Hotels.com, which surveyed 1,600
consumers, found that despite the fact that a vacation
rental's per room nightly rate is often much less than
a traditional hotel, most people assume that vacation
rentals are actually a more expensive option. Supporting
the idea that vacation rentals are a more economical
option is HomeAway.com (www.homeaway.com),
which says its research shows that, on average, vacation
rentals cost 50% to 80% less per square foot than hotels,
even in popular domestic destinations like Orlando and
Phoenix.
In Sonoma for instance, single rooms
at the swank Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa start
at around $259 a night. Meanwhile, just a few miles
down the road, for around $143–$183 per person,
per night (depending upon the season), a group of six
could rent a three bedroom, 3.5 bath house in the rustic
enclave of Kenwood with a saltwater swimming pool, heated
spa, and private courtyard set amid oak woodlands with
views of the San Francisco Bay. Similarly, renting Elizabeth
Taylor's former home in the noted Las Palmas neighborhood
of über gay-friendly Palm Springs costs just $1,000
a night, or $5,500 for a week. With a group of as few
as seven occupying the expansive home's seven bedrooms,
that works out to roughly somewhere between $112–$143
per person per night. “Sometimes people think that
renting a private villa can be a little more expensive
than staying in a hotel,” Graves says. “But
a lot of times people don't add up the total cost
of staying in a luxury resort where they're paying
$25 per person for breakfast and there may be resort
fees and hidden charges when you go to check out. If
a group of eight friends spend $25 [each] for breakfast,
that's a lot of local gourmet food you could buy
for $200.”
So how far-reaching is this exciting
new type of personal resort that is broadly referred
to as a “vacation rental?” Well, like hotels,
inns, and lodges, the term “vacation rental”
encompasses a wide variety of accommodations.
Although the classic perception of a
vacation or villa rental has been of a house or large
apartment where multiple guests stay for either short
or extended periods of time, the term can also run the
gamut from a château rental in the south of France,
a loft in Manhattan, a cozy log cabin on a wooded mountaintop
in Tennessee, an eight-bedroom villa in Capri, a lodge
on a private game resort in Africa, or a private islet
off the coast of Maine.
There's even a fully furnished,
two-bedroom condo off Florida's Key Largo called
the Jules Undersea Lodge, which is one of the most unique
vacation rentals around. Guests don scuba tanks to emerge
in a perfectly dry yet underwater apartment, complete
with hot showers, TV, DVD player, stereo, phone, and
fully stocked kitchen (A “mer-chef” who cooks
you breakfast is optional).
Beyond the cost savings and high-end
bells and whistles, the private villa or vacation rental
experience offers something of greater import to the
LGBT traveler in particular: the ability to connect,
commune, and create special memories with friends and
family in a safe, private environment free of prying
eyes, potentially judgmental stares, or anything of
the like.
“People are really into traveling
in groups of friends or family nowadays, for special
occasions and celebration vacations,” says Rob
Kincaid, who owns the rental agency Vacation Palm
Springs (www.vacationpalmsprings.com)
along with his partner, Palm Springs City Councilman
Rick Hutcheson. “About 70% of our clients want
to spend more time with their family and extended family,
and their vacations are even shorter than before the
financial crisis. The change in the economic climate
means groups of traveling friends and couples are looking
for private yet affordable luxurious environments.”
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