When A Villa Is A Value?
Do the math before committing to the rental digs of your dreams

Villas are not priced by number of bedrooms alone.
A villa's cost has little to do with maximum occupancy. Rather, it reflects the facilities, staff size, degree of privacy, and amount of help you can expect from the rental agency's ground staff. High-priced rentals tend to include such tantalizing enhancements as an English-speaking house manager, 24-hour concierge service, a better house book, airport transfers, a stocked refrigerator, bathroom amenities, and the option of paying by credit card.

* Whether a villa is a value depends partly on the makeup of your group.
The weekly rate I paid for Sole di Sesta's four-bedroom main house was $5,408, which included a part-time housekeeper and a part-time cook. If my group had consisted of four adult couples, the cost per bedroom per night would have been $193—a good value. Since the maximum allowed occupancy is eight, however, couples traveling with children, as we were, will have to spend more.

* Add up the extras.
When you rent a private home that the owner lives in part of the year, you will likely be obliged to pay his staff. Additionally, there are expenses you might incur at a French or an Italian villa that you would not incur at a hotel: for instance, charges for air-conditioning, heat, firewood, fresh linens more than once a week, and the privilege of paying by credit card (the last of which can up the price by three to four percent). You must also pay for any damage to the villa or its contents.

* A villa can mean big savings on restaurant bills.
Even if you splurge on your own cook, you can come out way ahead on the food front. At my villa, Delia prepared lunch upon our arrival and five dinners. Each dinner was so huge, however, that we ate leftovers for lunch the next day. The cost of Delia's time (19 hours at about $13 per hour, minus the 15 hours included in the rental rate) and supplies ($293) totaled about $345 for 11 scrumptious meals for six.