Spanish Villa For Your Holiday?

So it's that time of year... in need of those precious few weeks of complete relaxation this year, you have wisely chosen to rent a villa in Sardinia for that much needed sun, sea and sand.

The island of Sardinia will most certainly surpass your wildest dreams with colourful food markets, mile upon mile of perfect white sandy beaches and charming locals. The perfect villa will only enhance your experience of the island, giving you a home-from-home here, whilst the wrong villa could cast a shadow over your whole holiday.

So, what to look for to make sure you get the perfect holiday for you?

Villa rental agencies in Sardinia fall into two categories; those offer just property rentals, and those more geared towards the needs of the modern traveller who offer a full service from the moment you contact them to the moment you return home.

Is the difference really that important? I believe so. Let's look at the two types of agencies in more detail.

Those who only offer rentals generally offer villas owned by third parties. This is quite normal, but this type of agency limit their liability severely... they see their responsabilities as beginning and ending with providing a villa loosely matching their online description for your dates. That is all. Check your terms and conditions of booking carefully. You may find nasty surprises such as "guarantees" that if your villa is completely without water or electricity the company will try and get the problem fixed within two working days! This means that if you check into a villa on Saturday and find yourselves without even the most basic utilities, the company accepts no liability whatsoever as long as they ensure electricity and water are available by Tuesday evening. That's more than half your holiday spent in pretty poor conditions.

These companies are also generally uncontactable on weekends meaning if you do have any problems, you are going to have to wait up to 48 hours for assistance. Villas are generally visited only once a year to check they are still in an acceptable condition for rentals... 12 months is a long time, and villas can quite easily become shabby and fixtures and fittings broken within that time. For this reason, they are also careful to limit their liability by saying that they can't guarantee the accuracy of the description of your villa on their website. Say you are travelling with young children, and for this reason absolutely have to have air-conditioning in your villa for the sweltering heat in August. If you book a villa based on an online description stating it has air-conditioning units and, on arrival, find that these are missing or broken, wouldn't you prefer to know that the company you have booked with will either resolve the problem swiftly or compensate you adequately rather than just pointing to their terms and conditions and saying they aren't liable?

These companies tend to have a much wider choice of accommodation available for rental, but at the cost of personal service and intimate knowledge of their properties. Their emphasis is on getting as many rentals as they can, and then checking them into and out of the properties with the minimum of fuss in order to maximise profit margins. Your requests for advice on what to do and where to go whilst on holiday or complaints about, say, faulty air-conditioning units or poor cleanliness in the villa will be seen as minor irritations for a company who just wants to cash your cheque and forget about you.

The agencies with much better levels of service understand that, no matter what your budget, a summer holiday is an expensive luxury; a hard-earned treat after a year of working hard and saving up. They take the time to build a much more personal relationship with you, and personally oversee every detail of your holiday.

The Sardinia Villa Collection (http://www.thesardiniavillacollection.com) for example has joined forces with Sardinia Holiday Concierge (http://www.sardiniaholidayconcierge.com) to offer a full range of services designed to ensure you get the most out of your holiday. Services they offer include guided food shopping trips to local markets, with a chef arriving at your villa that evening to give you a traditional Sardinian cookery lesson with your purchases. How about reccommendations and bookings for all the best restaurants, someone to hunt down the very best deal on car hire for you, a fully stocked fridge on arrival or a cocktail barman on hand to serve you evening drinks by your private pool?

Starting to see the difference?

The Sardinia Villa Collection also guarantees assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week during your stay. Any problems you may have are resolved as soon as possible (sometimes even in minutes) rather than during office hours only. Their villa portfolio is much smaller than that of some other companies, but they know each property intimately and will really be able to help advise you as to which one truly suits your needs. Having a small, personally selected villa portfolio also means that they have turned down more villas than they take on, discarding poorly furnished, badly run, shabby villas in poor areas in favour of gorgeous interiors, stunning locations and unparalleled service.

Their villas generally cost the same or less as the other companies with limited client service... they see excellent, friendly and personal service as an essential part of any holiday, not as a time-consuming distraction so don't charge any more for offering you the perfect holiday as opposed to what, with the wrong agency, could easily become a holiday nightmare.

Choose your agency with care, make sure you read the Terms and Conditions carefully before booking, and don't be afraid to ask as many questions as you like. A good agency will answer you promptly, with a friendly smile and will make you feel well looked after. If an agency shows irritation at being bombarded with questions, offers no real service and dodges important queries, beware. Your precious weeks of holiday are at stake; do you really want to take a gamble?

About the Author:

I created the Sardinia Holiday Concierge ( http://www.sardiniaholidayconcierge.com ) and the Sardinia Villa Collection (http://www.thesardiniavillacollection.com); so that I could help other people to enjoy the unique beauty of this incredible island