Idyll Ltd., started by Hal and Norma Taussig, has been sending travelers to European vacation rental properties, rather than hotels, since 1975 through what it calls Untours (tel. 888/868-6871; www.untours.com). Now, Idyll has added another option, this time for seasoned, independent travelers interested in renting a home, apartment, villa or other property in Europe for vacation at the lowest possible price with The Right Vacation Rental (e-mail: service@therightvacationretnal.com; www.therightvacationrental.com). With this new service, which was launched March 24, the company finds the best value properties in Europe, suitable for travelers who are comfortable with managing their own airfare, transportation, and other details. "Experienced travelers can get the best vacation rental property, hand selected for character, comfort, convenience and value," says Marilee Taussig, director of The Right Vacation Rental.
If you've ever taken one of Idyll's Untours, you know the company already. Right Vacation Rental differs from Untours in a few significant ways. First, Right Vacation Rental connects you with vacation rental properties, whereas Untours is a full-fledged travel service, with airfare and ground transportation included. "Think of Untours as your neighborhood bookstore, and The Right Vacation Rental as Amazon.com. While Untours is a combination of phone, e-mail and in-person ways of doing business, the Right Vacation Rental is entirely web-based," says Taussig.
Then, there's the question of support. On an Untour, you get a two-week vacation rental and you're met at the airport, receive an orientation, and have the services of their support staff in case of questions and problems. With the Right Vacation Rental, those amenities are not provided, but the same attention to detail and careful selection is still kept in mind -- Idyll won't leave you stranded with a surly property manager. "We do have a preference for choosing friendly, hands on-managers and property hosts. You should refer to each individual property to see to what extent you can expect contact and support from your hosts. Some will be very helpful; other properties are well managed and maintained but essentially unhosted," says Taussig. She says they hope to be able to recommend air and ground transportation providers in the near future, but in keeping with the lean approach, travelers of course would handle those arrangements themselves.
Current Right Vacation Rental offers highlight a penthouse in Barcelona for as low as $858 per week, or an entire villa on the Amalfi Coast in Italy that sleeps six from $4,703 per week. Or choose from the Dean's Manor House in Normandy, France, from as low as $337 per week. Right Vacation Rentals also offers properties in some hot spots including Croatia, Barcelona, Slovenia, Crete, Dordogne and Krakow, says Taussig. Between both products, the company covers most of Europe, and for the most part, the two services don't overlap. "At this point, we wanted to serve our customers in the areas not covered by Untours first. Time and demand will tell if we are able to offer both Untours and ¿straight property rental' of the Right Vacation Rental in the same location," says Taussig.
Taussig hopes their new offering will serve a niche that other companies who provide vacation rental properties do not. "Most vacation rental sites are either a ¿yellow pages' model, in which any owner can get in as long as they pay the fee, or ¿hand-picked, hand-holding and high prices.' We wanted to give people confidence in the property they wound end up in, without a high price tag."
Idyll is unusual in other respects, too because all its profits go toward the Idyll Development Foundation (www.idylldevelopmentfoundation.org), which was started in 1992. The foundation offers low-interest loans (normally at the rate of U.S. inflation) to organizations and individuals in the United States and abroad "in order to create jobs, build low-income housing, and support Fair Trade products all through the most environmentally friendly means possible," according to the web site. "In the course of ten years the foundation has lent $5 million," says Taussig. Some examples of loan recipients include TransFair in San Francisco, which is a U.S. certifier of fair trade coffee and other products, and ShoreBank, an apartment rehabilitation program in Chicago that invests in low-income areas of the city. One company, Iron Man Ironworks, was lent $20,000 with a payback of five years at a 2 percent interest. Loan sizes typically range from $6,000-$250,000.
A travel business run by a man who gives away his profits, rides his bike to work, and lives off Social Security is bound to be a little bit offbeat. The company must be doing something right: in 2005, 45 percent of their travelers were repeat customers. And if that isn't enough of an endorsement, a Frommer's editor recently used Idyll for a vacation in Rome and pronounced the tour "far superior" to its competitors.
