Across the Land: Going big while away from home

PHUKET: Recently we were invited to view a brand new luxury eight-bedroom villa solely for holiday rentals. I was thinking to myself before the viewing, now who would want to rent such a big villa and what purpose would it serve. Isn’t a villa with eight bedrooms just a little decadent? Well apparently I was mistaken and that villa is now heavily booked until next year. Mind you, the villa has some interesting facilities and services, much more than a normal holiday villa.

The villa is modern in design and over 3,000 square meters in total and set over four levels. It has one master bedroom with seven guest bedrooms, all en-suite with sea views from every room. There is also a glass elevator for guests from the garage right to the top level of the home. For all those who must stay connected to the internet at all times, they would be glad to know that there is high speed fiber optic Wi-Fi throughout the villa, including indoor and outdoor areas. On top of that, there’s a dedicated office with a 24″ Mac computer available for the guests to use.

For entertainment, there is a Sonos/Bose sound system in the dining, living, sala, pool and rooftop areas. The dining area has a table for 16 for a sit down dinner with a chef to cook the meals. There’s a 65″ LED television with a large sala sofa bed in the spacious living area, and if that’s not enough for the TV/movie/game buffs, there is a dedicated home theater room with THX sound system and nine electronically controlled seats with a hard drive of hundreds of blue ray movies as well as a PlayStation 4, complete with games.

For the outdoor kind, there is a 42-meter fresh water infinity swimming pool with a built-in Jacuzzi with six beds in the water and another 16 around the swimming pool. There is also an adjacent children’s pool for the kids with an additional plunge pool on the roof top with a Jacuzzi. On the roof top is also a large open bar and garden with BBQ facilities and a great area for a party. If you are not impressed yet, there’s also a golf driving range, golf putting green, a pool/billiard table, professional bowling alley, table tennis, a professional fitness center fitted with a treadmill, recumbent bike, elliptical trainer and so on.

The villa is staffed by a professional villa manager, chef, chauffeur, waitress, technician, night security guard and three live-in maids to cater to your every whim.

Funnily enough, after the viewing we started to receive inquiries and requests for villas with 6-8 bedrooms for a small company getaway, a birthday party for a large group of friends, a think-tank seminar for top management and just a weekend getaway among friends. So… there is demand for the bigger villas and, at the moment, there are only a handful of such properties available, so it wouldn’t surprise us if there will be a few more ‘big’ villas coming onto the holiday rental market soon.

For more information, or to book the above villa, email phuket@engelvoelkers.com