Luxury Retreats announced on March 19, 2013 that the company will use a propriety rating system developed to assess the condition of luxury rental villas. Anyone who has rented a vacation villa or apartment and found out the hard way that the rental did not appear as advertised wish that there had been an unbiased system in place to prove that published description fits the rental. Such a rating system could provide a more accurate and truthful description of rental luxury villas. Unlike hotels and resorts, which are rating by a star system (Forbes Five Star System) or a Diamond System (the AAA Diamond System) there wasn’t a similar rating system in place for Luxury Retreats rentals.

Villa Sekkaya, Courtesy of Luxury Retreats

Villa Sekkaya, Courtesy of Luxury Retreats

The Luxury Retreats system is comprised of a 100-item checklist that includes items related to the villas’  exteriors, bed & baths, common areas, additional areas, surrounding areas, and general information related to the 2,000 Luxury Retreats villas that are found in over 50 countries around the world. Anyone who has been concerned about whether or not a rental villa is actually in a good neighborhood or not, will be pleased to know that Luxury Retreats has taken the property’s location into account. The 40 Quality Inspectors hired to check the villas will also take video footage of the properties and  surrounding areas. For rental availability through Luxury Retreats, the villa must pass the inspection, and according to Joe Poulin, Founder and CEO of Luxury Retreats, 90 percent of the villas presented do not pass.

Luxury Retreats’ proprietary checklist is not being released, but Forbes’ Travel Guide announced this year that hotel/resort properties inspected by its secret evaluation team will get a copy of the report from the inspection.  In previous years, the hotel/resort property executive did not receive a copy of the report. They  received a rating, of 1 to 5 stars.

Photo courtesy of Luxury Retreats