Vacation homes get luxury treatment

By Jennifer Conlin International Herald Tribune

Two years ago, my parents announced that they had bought a summer house in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a well-preserved Victorian town in Ontario Province. The plan, they explained, was to rent out the house during the rest of the year to offset the mortgage payments.

I pictured a no-frills cottage where our children would spend their days swimming off the dock and their evenings playing board games on the porch. I could not have been more wrong.

On our initial visit we discovered that our home in London was much more Spartan than my parents' newly renovated Canadian place. The children quickly shunned the lake for the heated swimming pool and padded lounge chairs. Playing Monopoly on the porch was boring compared to the 61-inch plasma screen TV in the Ralph Lauren-decorated family room.

And when our 7-year-old returned from his first lap around the centrally air-conditioned house to report that all five bedrooms had their own bathrooms and television sets with cable service, we looked at my parents - stunned.

"The rental agent told us that clients today expect all these luxuries in a house," my father said, adding that he could now charge about $3,000 a week and quickly recoup their $150,000 investment.

"The old days of renting the charming, quirky little cottage are gone," said Patricia Cookson, director of CV Travel in London, which for the last 33 years has rented out houses all over Europe, including villas in Majorca, Portugal and Greece. "Our clients have lifestyle expectations now."

Saunas, gyms and DVD players are just a few of the usual amenities requested by Ivan Sellers' clients, who are looking for the most luxurious ski chalets in the Alps.

"Boot warmers are now simply standard in my chalets," said Sellers, who founded Indigo Lodges two years ago in Geneva to offer elegant rentals in top ski resorts in Europe.

Sellers said the average weekly cost per person was €1,700 to €2,800, or $2,100 to $3,500, depending on the resort.

"You pay more for a house in Courchevel at level 1850 than you would for the same house in Verbier," he said. "But despite the savings, many of my clients will only go to Courchevel because it is the more fashionable place to ski right now. They want a fantasy vacation in a fantasy house."

Chapters by Abercrombie & Kent, a division of the upscale tour company based near Chicago, now boasts more than 2,000 properties, including châteaux, apartments, townhouses and beach homes from Thailand to Tuscany.

Hugh Davies, the planning manager of Chapters, said it was "not uncommon" for his clients to spend £20,000, or $36,000, a week, on a luxury home in a place like Provence.

"But if they spend that amount, they want a house that has more than just a swimming pool and they want services beyond house cleaning," he said.

According to Davies, it is now quite normal to find rental properties equipped with wine-chilling fridges, outdoor kitchens, espresso machines and high-speed Internet access.

"Many of our villas are not just investments for the owners, but their vacation home as well," Davies said. "So the house will have every convenience, including children's toys and videos, because our owners want those same items when they stay there."

Competition among homeowners for a share of the travel market is another reason that the luxury home business has grown.

"There are lots of British people buying second homes here and then renting them out during the high season," said Cathy Smith. She and her husband are caretakers at La Rivolte, a 19th century villa in Grasse, France, that can sleep as many as 16 guests.

"To win the business you can't just have a beautiful house, you have to also have all the amenities," said Smith, adding that the owner, who lives in London, had plans to install broadband service, to add a gym and place mini-bars in each bedroom.

Lois Shannon and her husband have rented out their second home, a five-bedroom house in Mougins, France, that has a swimming pool and a view of Cannes. But they acknowledge that there were downsides.

"We came here once after a renter left and found the hard drive on our computer completely wiped out by a virus," Shannon said.

"It was an accident I am sure but, still, my husband had to spend half our vacation reloading and reconfiguring the computer."

The couple recently left London to live in Mougins full-time and start a company that will help foreigners buy and manage their second homes in France.

Shannon also warns that some guests can be quite high-maintenance.

"We had one American woman who complained that there were not enough tables in the house for her to set her drink down on during cocktail hour. American clients can be the worst," said Shannon, who is American herself.

My father, in the meantime, is installing a DSL line at the Ontario house.

"All our renters want to work while they are on vacation," he said, noting that I had better reserve some time now as summer is only nine months away.

I quickly asked for the second week of August. The third is already rented.