Welcome to another episode of our serious SLG meetups by Super Luxury Group, where we connect with some of the most interesting players in the Luxury market. My name is Alvaro and today we'll be having with us a very special guest. His name is Akiles and he is the co-founder of Villebit, one of the top ranked companies that specializes in Luxury Villerentos' increase. He will be sharing with us the latest trends when Rantina Ville and why it has become the preferred option when travelling.
Akiles, my friend, how are you? Hello, it's very nice to be with you today. Absolutely, pleasure is mine. Where are you now?
I'm in Athens, I'm in the island right now. We are at the central office. Okay, nice, Greece is beautiful this time of the year. It's amazing, we have very nice weather at the time.
It's about 35 Celsius degrees, so it's really really nice. I love it, it's always one of my favorite destinations during the summer, so hopefully I can do a quick escape while still the summer is here. Thank you for joining us. I wanted to make a quick introduction about who you are and about the company.
You specialize on Luxury Villerentos' increase and you are one of the co-founders. So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got there? Okay, first of all, I started the Hospitality Management. We have Villebit from 2013.
It's a tourist company regulated by the Greek National Tourism Organization and it specializes in Luxury Villerentos' increase. We operate in various islands in Meconos, Santorini, Paros, Antiparos, Corfu, Sifnos, Porto, Heli. And of course we have on-site conciercities for the service of our guests. At the moment we have a portfolio of around 600 Luxury Villerentos.
Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, and we go on. That's beautiful, yes. We've known each other already for a bit and the journey has been beautiful.
You definitely keep growing every year and the services that you provide are amazing. So I love that you guys offer different type of services, not just the villa, but let me ask you something because a lot of people with what's going on, they are now shifting a little bit of mentality from staying at hotel to now staying at a villa. So can you explain if that's becoming a new trend? Yes, we see, we actually saw the shift the last years and especially this year, this trend seems to go on more and more because of the COVID also.
But if we see the tour industry throughout the last years, we can see that first of all, we have the big luxury resorts of a thousand rooms or something. Then we saw Sif at the boutique hotels and the last years we saw people going to the villas, to the villa rental. And this is why because people want privacy. Vacation is something really, really important for all of us.
And families want to gather together, friends want to be all together. So they prefer to be on a villa, to book a villa because actually we turn it to a hotel. I mean, we combine all the hotel services at the villa. So this is the most important thing about it.
The concept is very nice. It seems like what you just mentioned, when you are gathering yourself with a group of people, you want to have it in a more private fashion way and still maintain the services that you will be receiving at a hotel. So, I mean, that's why you don't consider yourself as a villa rental company, but you consider yourself a hospitality. Of course, of course.
So the whole point is the experience that you create. It's not the villa. And you will see that even the hotel chains started to go there to the villa rental. They started having their own website portfolio, exactly.
It seems that it's a trend that came to stay. I love it. We've been working together in the past and we definitely see that it's a way of keeping the lifestyle consistent, you know, from somebody being at their own home to then traveling and being still at a home and maintaining that quality of lifestyle. So that's very good.
Now, my question to you would be like, how are you adapting? Because I know that Greece in general was one of the safest places when the summer started, but still a lot of changes in between. So how are you dealing with the customers and to show that they have a pleasant experience? First of all, you know, the good thing is that all our clients, all our guests wanted to come and they felt safe.
The problem was that every day things were changing, mostly with airline companies. So the problem that we had to deal with this year was that many people, even if they wanted to come, they couldn't reach Greece and enter to the European borders. So this was a major problem that we had to face this year. We had one that we worked together.
Yeah, you remember. You remember. But, you know, I think we did really, really good. You know, the government took really good measurements and protocols and everyone here in Greece in the hospital sector followed all the protocols.
So we didn't have, you know, incidents or, you know, we didn't have any clients that were, how the virus or anything. So everything went close. Okay. And with everything being close because it's not just the difficulty with the flight in there, but also, you know, having fresh starts closed at the night.
Because some of the places in Greece, I will say, it's becoming one of the trendiest. It's, you know, a place where people go to enjoy, they go out and with most of the locations being closed. How do you provide those services that you bring to the villa or the future services you also provide? Yeah, like now we'll be the experience.
Okay. First of all, as I mentioned before, we have our concierge teams. So we can provide to our guests anything they might need. Even if we didn't have the COVID issue, okay, if they want a chef, if they want a specific dinner, they want a massage yoga class in the villa, personal trainers.
They want to go with a yacht. We can arrange everything for them. This is, you know, common practice for us. But as you mentioned before about the COVID, actually, the only thing that the incident had in me coners was that last week, they just closed the clubs and the restaurants at 12 o'clock at night until seven o'clock in the morning.
So in daytime, you know, everything was operating as usual. And you know that the fun part in me coners is all day beach bars. So exactly, you know, the guests could enjoy it. So with that, with that being said, it seems like it's right that we come to bring the experience also to the villa, right?
Because people feel more secure and therefore the term dream home experience, right? So I guess this is what we're seeing more often and therefore the shift of people from staying in hotels to move more towards the villas and bring in the experience to the villas. Exactly. And so we're excited because, you know, as we said before, privacy, especially for celebrities, for athletes is very, very important.
I mean, we have some clients coming for a month or more and no one knows that they're in Greece. So it's really, really important to focus on the privacy. Is it okay now? A lot of people, they seem a little bit concerned about whether they should be going to Greece or not.
But when you have the security and the privacy of being at one of the villas that is well, you know, disaffected and well managed by something like you, you know, that has a perfect procedure. So there should be no reason to be afraid of, right? And we'll see that as a bigger trend coming up. So that's great.
Now, actually, a lot of people these days, you know, they have a different concept of what's luxury. So my question to you and I always like to ask this question is what's luxury to you? Luxury are very quality. It's comfort.
It's to offer to people what they are paying for and even more. You know, there are different terms in order to specify luxury, even to non-organize beach, you can offer luxury. So, but for me, luxury is quality. Quality.
That defines it very well and that's exactly what you're offering quality services. It's really, really important for us, honestly. No, that's perfect. That's perfect.
I believe that everybody that is tuning in and watching today and listening, you know, they were curious about how it's becoming that trend of having the villa concept applies further and further. Not just the place to stay, but also a place to have your entire experience by bringing all the services. So I like how you mentioned some of the things that you've done in the past. I mean, us in Miami, we kind of provide the same services and working together, we maintain that kind of quality services, right?
Which one of the reasons that we're doing this SLG meetups is to connect with the different individuals, the big players in the luxury sector that will connect all the services to ensure that the quality services are from the beginning to the end. So it's like a life cycle and I love that you are being part of this SLG meetups and therefore, you know, I hope that we can continue this relationship and also those that are tuning in that could also reach out to you. Of course, we are honored from our cooperation and thank you so much for having us today here. No, and this is great because what you were mentioning when you provide not just the villa, but also the services to make sure that the experiences of quality standard, you need to work with different individuals.
And therefore, it's very important to have procedures in place that everybody's on the same page so that there is no disproportionate with dealing with certain clients. So I think this is a great thing. And you know, Achilles, you've been here. I see Daniel in the group saying that he wishes we will reach out that quality standard at some point.
So definitely an inspiration for many of us. So no, Achilles, since you are here already, do you have any takeaways or anything that you've experienced throughout all your years in this industry that you would like to share, like a takeaway? Honestly, in all of our, we love what we do. If you don't love this job, you can't do it right from the moment of the booking because the villa concept is totally different from a hotel.
Okay, because people will select a specific villa for really specific reasons. And this is why we go back and forth even for a week or two weeks until they understand and we know that the villa is exactly for the specific guest. On the other hand, you know, the most important thing for us is to see a guest when, you know, they check out to say that, thank you so much. We had an unbelievable time.
We had an amazing experience. You know, this is the most important thing for us, honestly. And this is what actually counts. You're building also trust and relationships that last for many years, which is the most beautiful thing about it.
Last year, for example, we had 35% repeated guests. That shows right there the type of quality services that is provided on that level of intimacy that you built with everybody, you know? I believe that this is one of the best thing about this industry is that you get to work really closely with the clients to the point that they're becoming your friends. So those are great back-ups.
Exactly, because you need to understand what exactly the client wants or what the client would like in order to propose. So as soon as they arrive, we have a meeting. We explain everything about the property, about the island that they are, what things they can do. And we try to find, you know, even tiny small things that will create the experience, as we said before.
Perfect, Achilles. No, definitely. Thank you so much for all these points that definitely are important for quality standards when dealing with customers and collaborators in general. So I do appreciate your time.
Now, since you're here, why don't you share with us? Where can they reach out if they have any questions or, you know, if they want to work with you? Where can they find you? First of all, they can go through your partners there.
And what I wanted to mention is that because the villa is unique, it's not a hotel that there are hundreds of rooms, I would suggest, especially this year, that the guests book early enough because of the COVID issue and because many bookings were transferred for 2021, we might have problems of availability. So it's better to make their booking early. There are really flexible cancellation policies. We can, you know, make the cancellation policy based on the needs of each guest, most of the times.
So this is what I would like to suggest, mostly. That's great. And good point that you're mentioning because a lot of people, you know, they usually leave things for last minute and then the good stuff are no longer available. So definitely for everybody to need to reach out to Achilles with Villa Beat is definitely one of the best in the market and will take good care of you.
And yeah, so we can definitely put you in touch with anybody that is interested and I appreciate again your time of being here with us today. Hope to see you soon. I mean, we're not too far out. I just came here to class.
So hey, maybe I take a quick plane to go see you, my friend. It would be great. It would be great. Thank you so much.
Thank you for having today. And I'm always a good disposal. We are 24-7. You can't find us anytime.
Thank you, Achilles. We'll talk soon. Thank you. Take care.
Bye-bye. And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. And remember, embrace it's beautiful success in life.
My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.