I am writing an article for a rental website entitled: Hotels Vs. Villas

I write articles for free village newspapers as a hobby and was recently approached to write an 'interesting' article for a newly launched Spanish rentals website. As above, the article is to be called "Hotels Vs. Villas. Do hotels really have the monopoly?" So, I made a start and included all the obvious stuff about being able to set your own eating itinerary - namely breakfast after midday if you want it, after the heavy night before, private pools with no screaming kids, personal email communication before your holiday to ask questions and get real answers about the local surroundings etc. Wondering if any one can point out some other less obvious benefits that private rental holidays have over hotels?      

This is a QUESTION that I ask all my VISITORS and more often than NOT the answer is VALUE 

HOTELS are only competitive for couples and single STAYS

On the COSTA DEL SOL where we have our PROPERTY we have seen FOUR large hotels WITHIN 5 MILES closing SIMPLY because people are MUCH more careful with their MONEY than in PAST YEARS.

We are HAVING our best year ever on BOOKINGS as we pick up BUSINESS they may have HAD previously

Rod

hi weve stayed in both and one of the advantages we found being in a villa is its just like having all your own home comforts, if the weather is bad and your having a late in the year break you can put the t.v. on or watch a dvd make something really nice to eat and snuggle up for the afternoon till it blows over, weve even took the old ps2 with us when the kids were young and had a familly battle!. we loved the villas as well because we could do anything we wanted, have freinds round for a bbq or a pool party, they are a proper home from home.

These are great responses! I totally agree, i've been given a free 2 week holiday at a private villa in Colmenar if the company likes my article! I will include the aspect of value for family holidays and being able to plug in games consoles to televisions as you can't do this at most hotels! I've also never been able to fire up a BBQ on a hotel balcony before!! From looking at the private villas available to rent it is also very apparent that a 1 week week stay in a private million pound mansion with infinity pool seems achievably priced, so you get to pretend you are a rock star or lottery winner for a week! 

elles 1982 staying in other peoples villas also spurned us on to take the massive leap to buy our own townhouse in san juan de los terreros as we couldnt bear to stay in a hotel again and be so restricted, having tasted the way of life and freedom we enjoyed from a villa.

 I thought I might pop in a negative aspect of villas..............   very often you would have to book the villa 'unseen' ie. just from photos.  These are very often taken in a favourable light and you really can't be sure that it's not located close to a main road and/or construction site.  The water pressure may not be great and the water tanks may not be big enough to cope with large families showering a couple of times a day.  I guess that some of these comments could also be applied to hotels, but at least you would normally have the flexibility to change rooms.  A good way of safeguarding against this is to perhaps book through one of the villa booking companies who you could at least complain to and they will usually find you alternative accommodation.  

Not sure if this helps or hinders  :)

Hi Mizzfixit

I am pretty new to this forum, so firstly hi everyone!

I came across your post whilst I was taking a look around for insightful information for some of my own articles and thought perhaps I could help you out. I run a holiday rental company myself that covers Spain and Portugal and have also written a number of articles on hotels vs villas.

Not able to post links in this forum as I am new, but this one lists 5 benefits to booking a rental over a hotel

blog(dot)bidabooking(dot)com/2010/11/forget-hotel-holiday-5-benefits-of_25.html

Thought perhpas it might help you for ideas.

Hope I'm not to late, but if I am I am sure it was a great piece and would love to read a copy if you are able to post a link!

Good Luck!