On Turks and Caicos, honeymooners retreat into a secluded villa on Turtle Cove, overlooking clear, turquoise waters. In Chianti, Italy, a villa surrounded by vineyards awaits a wine-tasting club on vacation. And in Vail, Colorado, a family sets foot in a four-bedroom estate near the town’s famous slopes.
These are just a few of the experiences Rental Escapes offers through its extensive portfolio, which includes more than 4,000 properties across the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Rental Escapes — which celebrates 15 years of business on Nov. 1 — goes beyond standard villa rentals; instead, the company prides itself on designing unique itineraries and experiences tailored to guests.
Investing in Travel Advisors
To help advisors create seamless client trips, Rental Escapes has an extensive network of guest experience specialists trained to work hand in hand with agents.
When advisors first connect with the villa rental company, they are assigned to a guest experience specialist. This is not the equivalent of a call center, where advisors must recount trip and client details every time they pick up the phone. Instead, advisors work with one dedicated specialist on every trip.
“When we work with advisors, we build a team around the advisor,” said Willie Fernandez, chief marketing and sales officer for Rental Escapes. “With us, [advisors] always have the same point of contact, and that allows [advisors and specialists] to build relationships. We get to know how [advisors] like to work, how they like to communicate and we get to know their clients.”
Willie Hernandez, chief marketing and sales officer for Rental Escapes, takes pride in strengthening the company's travel advisor relationships.
Credit: 2026 Rental EscapesGuest experience specialists work with advisors to curate the amenities, services and activities luxury clients are looking for. Private jets, yacht charters, golf experiences, spa treatments and private chefs are among Rental Escapes’ top requested services.
On-site local teams and a 24/7 emergency line extend advisor support from the planning stages well into clients’ trips.
Commitment to Growth
In the last five years alone, the company’s guest experience team has tripled, evidence of Rental Escapes’ commitment to supporting the work of advisors.
Fernandez, a travel industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience, was once an advisor himself, as was Vonda Keeler, Rental Escapes’ director of travel advisor partnerships. Together, Fernandez and Keeler are ensuring growth efforts continue to center advisors.
The travel advisor is at the heart of what we do.
“A good percentage of our focus is within the travel advisor channel,” Fernandez said. “The travel advisor is at the heart of what we do; it’s why I spend a lot of my time having conversations with advisors [to] understand what they need in terms of products, marketing and destinations.”
Advisors interested in speaking with Fernandez about villas, Rental Escapes or simply growing their own business are invited to take advantage of Willie Wednesday, a weekly opportunity for advisors to book a 15-minute private call.
New Destinations
This summer, Rental Escapes expanded its portfolio to include villas in London and Mallorca, Spain; both destinations were added following advisor and guest feedback.
Costa Rica is the company’s most desired destination, says Fernandez. Currently, Rental Escapes offers 165 villas in Costa Rica, but booking inquiries are outpacing inventory.
Casa Plata is one of the villas available in Costa Rica, which is seeing increased interest from travelers.
Credit: 2026 Rental EscapesThe company is looking to expand its presence in the country, and Papagayo and Tamarindo are the main regions of focus; demand for Manuel Antonio is also increasing.
“We are constantly adding inventory in Costa Rica because we just can’t have enough of it,” Fernandez said.
New destinations come with new experiences, and in Costa Rica, guest experience specialists are curating activities such as surfing lessons, immersive wildlife experiences with sloths and ziplining through the rainforest.
Like all villas in the Rental Escapes portfolio, new properties are thoroughly vetted. On-site service teams such as drivers, butlers and chefs also undergo a vetting process alongside supplier partners in each destination. It can take six to nine months before a villa is added to the portfolio. And after initial vetting, the process continues; Rental Escapes examines villas on an ongoing basis and phases out properties and services that are no longer up to standard.
Japan, Germany, Dubai, Australia, the Philippines and Mustique in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are some of the top destination requests from advisors — and Rental Escapes is looking into these locales.
New White-Label Website
In addition to new and expanding destinations, Rental Escapes is also focusing its efforts on online tools designed to help advisors sell more efficiently.
The brand launched a white-label website this summer that allows advisors to display Rental Escapes’ inventory under their own personal branding. This new tool proved to be a hit among advisors rather quickly.
“We had a travel advisor who registered for the white label website, and a couple of days later, [he] closed on a $110,000 booking because he had the website,” Fernandez said. “That’s over $10,000 [of] commission that he was able to generate using the [website] technology branded under his agency information.”
That’s over $10,000 [of] commission that he was able to generate using the [website] technology branded under his agency information.
Rental Escapes’ white-label website allow clients to browse the company’s vast villa offerings, and all inquiries are sent directly to their advisor’s inbox. From there, an advisor can reach out to Rental Escapes to begin travel planning.
Traveler Demographics and Behavior
Pre-pandemic, the average booking consisted of multigenerational travelers, says Fernandez.
And while multigenerational groups, typically of 10-12 travelers, are still some of the most common for Rental Escapes, the company sees a wide variety of guests today.
“Post-pandemic, it’s literally everyone,” Fernandez said. “It’s a corporate retreat. It’s a destination wedding. It’s a group of five couples playing pickleball, and they want a pickleball instructor. It’s a young lady who just got divorced and wants to celebrate. It’s a National Geographic photographer.”
Fernandez notes that 90-95% of Rental Escapes travelers are based in the U.S., with remaining clientele based out of Canada and the U.K.
Costa Rica may be increasing in popularity on the platform, but for the last three years, the Dominican Republic has dominated as the No. 1 destination for Rental Escapes. This year, however, Turks and Caicos ranked as the top destination, with the Dominican Republic coming in second.
The Caribbean is Rental Escapes' most popular region.
Credit: 2026 Rental EscapesOverall, the company witnessed a massive shift back to the Caribbean this year. Fernandez attributes this change in traveler behavior to decreased Mexico bookings (due to safety concerns) and fewer overseas travel (due to geopolitical conflicts).
Luxury for All
Rental Escapes is billed as a luxury villa rental company, and Fernandez believes in a “luxury for all” ethos.
“Luxury always means something different to every one of our clients,” he said. “When we’re going in and looking at villas, we keep that in mind. What is luxury to one guest at $500 per night? What is luxury to another guest at $5,000 per night or $50,000 per night?”
Luxury always means something different to every one of our clients.
It’s this line of thinking that ensures the Rental Escapes portfolio offers a broad spectrum of price points — and the company does so without sacrificing quality, Fernandez says.
“[Villas at lower price points] will still be luxury,” he said. “It just may not come with staff, or it may not be on the beach — but it will be vetted. It will be inspected, and it will be to [client] standards.”