The recession appears to be petering off, for the luxury villa industry at least, and there has never been a better time to head south, according to 2011 travel predictions made by Luxury Retreats, a world leader in high-end vacation rentals.
Luxury Retreats (http://www.luxuryretreats.com) has previewed trends in the villa rental industry since it started gathering statistics at the beginning of the last decade, and views 2011 as a bellwether year for an overall upswing in travel. “Not only have we seen the luxury villa market bounce back from the deepest valleys of the recession, but the last few months have marked a resurgence in rentals that we expect to continue through 2011,” said Ben Tuff, Luxury Retreats’ Director of Marketing, who noted that the months of November and December, 2010, were some of the best on record for the company.
“Travelers demonstrated their confidence in the state of the economy with larger-than-ever reservation sizes at the end of this year,” Tuff continued.
Contributing to growth in 2011 will undoubtedly be the villa renter’s obsession with the south – the Bahamas, Florida, and Costa Rica, especially, have been on radar for awhile, but haven’t seen such an explosion in visits as is likely in the next twelve months.
A ten-bedroom rainforest estate in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, starting at USD $1,750 per night, and a colorful three-bedroom villa right on the beach on Eleuthera Island, Bahamas, are expected to rent very well.
More traditional villa rental destinations such as Florida will break onto the scene in new ways in 2011, as more and more homeowners choose to open their doors for rentals, perhaps as the villa industry becomes better understood.
“Renting a villa is no longer something mysterious, and we love that it means access to a better selection of properties for our guests in 2011,” said Tuff.
