Private villa rental concierge, staffed and provisioned

A villa is not a hotel with more bedrooms. A hotel absorbs everything you did not think to ask for: the late arrival, the missing coffee, the second cot. A house does none of that on its own. Somebody has to have thought of it a week earlier, in writing. That is most of the work of a private villa rental concierge, and almost all of it happens before anyone picks up the keys.

Villas quote in three shapes. Dry, which is the house and the utilities and nothing more. Staffed, which adds a standing team, usually a housekeeper, a caretaker, a fixed number of hours a day, sometimes a house manager. Staffed and provisioned, which adds food and drink, usually billed at cost with a handling charge on top. Two houses on the same stretch of coast can advertise a similar weekly rate and sit in different shapes entirely. The first thing we do is read the agreement and tell you which one you are looking at.

What the rate covers, and what it quietly does not

Inside most staffed rates: the property, utilities up to a cap, pool and garden maintenance, housekeeping to a defined number of hours, linen and towels on a set schedule, and often a caretaker living on or near the grounds.

Outside it, more often than not: food and drink, the chef's day rate and the chef's market spend, airport transfers and the driver who does them, car and boat hire, staff hours beyond the daily allowance, late check-out, the damage deposit, local tax and gratuities. Little of that is concealed. It sits in a different part of the agreement, or in no part of it at all, and it arrives as a run of small decisions in your first two days if nobody has made them already.

So we set the week out as one number rather than several. The house, the staff you need on top of the house's own team, the transfers, and a provisioning budget you approve before anyone shops. The owner supplies the house and bills for it, and what is actually available on your dates is confirmed with them each time.

What a private villa rental concierge does before you land

The provisioning brief is the document that separates a house from a hotel. It goes to the house manager days ahead and it is longer than people expect. Arrival window and who is in which car. What is on the table within an hour of the door opening. Allergies, and the things people simply will not eat. Coffee, down to the machine and the grind. Which bedroom to whom, cots and bed configuration. The wine you drink rather than the wine the house buys by default. A fridge shelf for medication. Pool temperature. Whether you want the staff visible or unseen.

Timing is the part people underestimate. A house outside a town shops in one run, sometimes by boat, sometimes an hour or more of driving each way. A brief sent the night before buys a first morning of apologies. A brief sent a week ahead gives the house the run-up it needs. Second stays are easier, because the file carries over and the brief starts from what worked last time.

Private chefs and eating in the house

A resident chef is rare, and where it exists it sits inside the rate. Everywhere else the chef is engaged separately, at a day rate plus market cost, with the menu agreed before arrival rather than negotiated over breakfast. Dietary constraints go to the chef in writing, not to the letting agent, because the agent is not the person shopping.

The kitchen sets the ceiling. Two induction rings and no cold storage will not produce dinner for sixteen, whatever the chef is capable of, so we ask about the kitchen before we book the chef. A table that size usually wants a second pair of hands in the kitchen and somebody to serve and clear, which is a separate line and better known in advance. Most weeks do not need a chef every day. Breakfast standing, two dinners in the house, the rest of the week outside is a common shape, and the nights outside are reservations, which is a conversation we are already having.

What we handle