Slow Europe

Lisa and Pat Byrne of Italy Perfect

The Byrne family knows Europe and they know vacation rentals. Lisa and Pat Byrne run the vacation rental agency Italy Perfect. Their sister Madelyn Williams and her husband Philippe run two vacation rental agencies - Paris Perfect and London Perfect, living in London and commuting to Paris several times a month. A fourth sister lives in Paris and manages the Paris Perfect apartments. That is four sisters running vacation rental agencies for Europe.

Two more Byrne sisters live in Arizona and have so far stayed away from opening vacation rental agencies.

Pat also runs Kids Europe, information for traveling in Europe with children.

Prior to starting Italy Perfect, Lisa and Pat both had successful careers in the high tech marketing world, juggling work, motherhood and community involvement. Lisa lives in San Francisco with her husband and two teenagers. Pat lives outside of Boston with her husband and has college aged sons.

Italy Perfect offers vacation rentals in Rome, Florence, Venice and Sorrento (Amalfi Coast), plus countryside rentals in Tuscany. For each property the website has a detailed description, photos, prices, availability calendar, guest reviews, location map and weather information. Many properties have extra photos showing the neighborhood and nearby shops.

A Conversation with Lisa and Pat Byrne of Italy Perfect

Pauline: How did four sisters all end up running vacation rental agencies?

Lisa & Pat: The vacation rental business is a second career for all of us. Madelyn, a former banker and the most entrepreneurial of the family, started Paris Perfect vacation rentals in the late 1990’s with a single apartment and now has over forty Paris vacation rentals. She inspired Lisa, who was a public relations consultant, to start Italy Perfect. Lisa then talked her sister Pat, who was a high tech marketing executive, to join in the business. Pat and Lisa both have MBAs from The American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) in Phoenix. Madelyn is a Stanford Business School graduate.

Pauline: Why do all of you have this passion for traveling to Europe?

Lisa & Pat: Our parents loved to travel and packed up all six kids to explore the world whenever the opportunity arose. Our father’s career took us around the world. Italy is the country where we spent the most time growing up and we all think of it as our second home. In addition to traveling throughout Italy while we lived there and in Germany, we fondly remember trips to Spain, Austria, Switzerland, to London (to see the musical “Hair” in the 1960’s!), Hong Kong, Bangkok, North Africa and beyond. Our parents were from tiny American towns so they took every opportunity to explore and see the world. While in Italy we had a Volkswagen microbus, the biggest car you could get at the time for a family of eight, so onlookers thought we were a traveling girls’ school.

Pauline: When did you start ItalyPerfect and why?

Lisa & Pat: I (Lisa) started Italy Perfect five years ago after spending an extended family holiday in Italy. I realized how much I missed Italy and regretted that I didn’t get to go more often. Madelyn’s Paris rental business was flourishing and after brainstorming we saw an opportunity to fill a need for good rental properties in Italy.

While in Italy during the record-breaking heat wave of the summer of 2003, big sister Madelyn and I looked up a Florentine friend who had a rental property and I offered to help him get some bookings since he’d been disappointed with the results to date. With advice from Madelyn, I launched Italy Perfect with one property, Casetta Bonsi in Florence, while keeping my “day job” as a PR consultant. The owner of Casetta Bonsi is now practically a member of our family and we fondly refer to him as our big brother. By late 2007 the business had grown to the point where I was able to cease practicing PR consulting in order to devote full attention to Italy Perfect.

In 2005 I tapped Pat for some marketing consulting ideas and urged her to consider starting a similar business with her contacts in Italy. We both speak Italian, but Pat had also worked in Italy and had spent eight years as a travel agent, so she had unique skills to bring to the mix. Pat started Excellent Europe offering vacation rentals throughout Europe, but then decided to focus exclusively on Italy. We have merged Excellent Europe into Italy Perfect and now run it together. We had been working together anyway so decided it would be best to concentrate on Italy and to run one agency together.

We love being our own bosses and the fact that our “work” takes us to Italy several times a year. Many of the owners we represent are long time family friends, so it’s a reunion when we’re in Italy when we see them and their families.

Pauline: How many people work for Italy Perfect?

Lisa & Pat: It’s primarily Lisa and Pat. We communicate throughout each workday with video chat. Our husbands help with accounting, website, and most importantly, driving and navigating in Italy when they are able to join us on property inspections trips!

To grow without adding employees, we are using independent contractors for specialized functions. A sister-in-law helps with keeping availability calendars up-to-date while Lisa’s and Pat’s sons are computer experts so they give us technical advice and assistance. Lisa’s daughter loves interior design so helps Lisa purchase decorative items for many of the apartments.

How Italy Perfect Find Perfect Vacation Rentals

Pauline: What is different about your vacation rentals from those offered by other agencies?

Lisa & Pat: We carefully chose our properties with the perspective of a foreigner who wants an authentic vacation rental experience in an excellent location but also does not want to give up the comforts of home, such as a comfy sofa, a well equipped kitchen, ample reading lights, quality bedding, and nice decor.

Pauline: How do you select your listings? What do you look for?

Lisa & Pat: We don’t have any trouble finding properties; we have a long list of owner referrals and independent queries from owners. When we learn of a place that we think would work for our target market, we begin a dialogue with the owner to learn enough to decide whether we want to inspect the property.

In fact, the effort of property evaluations is what brought us together in our close business relationship. As a team, we do better job of evaluating properties, are more efficient during the inspection and photography process and can better weigh the pros and cons. And we have a lot of fun and laughs together.

Both of us have the ability to see the potential in properties and we often take a firm hand in persuading owners to upgrade or modify furnishings and décor to suite our clientele. Lisa has a good eye for design and loves working on the décor, photography and exploring neighborhoods to document special neighborhood amenities. Pat has an excellent business sense and negotiates the contracts and pricing strategies.

First and foremost we look for location. If the location is good, we look at the layout, features such as terraces or views, how recently the kitchen and bathrooms have been updated and the willingness of the owner to make improvements and maintain the property. We are averse to apartments with low ceilings, odd layouts, too many steps, a tired appearance and without character or interest.

While we represent some nice country properties, we specialize in Rome, Florence and Venice apartments. We know these cities well, can evaluate locations and neighborhoods quite readily and have a base of knowledge about each city that we share with our clients. We can quickly assess which properties might be appealing and which ones to avoid.

Pauline: Why should an American traveler book with your agency instead of using the “rent from owner” websites or finding a local Italy-based agency?

Lisa & Pat: A comment we often hear from clients when they call us is “It’s so nice to talk with someone who speaks English!” While it is easy to find other agents who speak English we think what they’re telling us is that they appreciate the ease of reaching us (in the U.S.) and our special point of view. We only represent properties we have handpicked, inspected and that we would want to stay in ourselves. We turn down many properties that are presented to us because they don’t meet our standards even after passing our pre-inspection review. Other agencies may ensure the reservation is done properly; we do our best to ensure a quality experience throughout.

We do the legwork to screen out properties that would be a disappointment for our guests, choosing ones that will delight the visitor. We document and carefully photograph each property so that guests have a good idea of what to expect including kitchen utensils, lighting, closet space, mattresses, and the character of the neighborhood; many properties have more than 30 photos. We try to be as forthcoming as possible with any possible shortcomings, such as traffic noise or uncomfortable furniture.

When you shop for your vacation rental from a site that sells the advertising space to the owner, they present their property in the best possible light, omitting negative aspects that might annoy a guest on vacation. We often laugh and say we should start a blog of “Disappointing properties we’ve inspected in Italy” that you won’t find in our offerings. We don’t have a large selection of properties but we like each one for its nice qualities.

Pauline: Do you work with local agencies or directly with the owners?

Lisa & Pat: We work primarily with owners. We have a handful of cooperative relationships with reliable Italian agencies that have properties that are especially good for families.

Pauline: Since you are in the US, how do you handle any problems your clients may have locally?

Lisa & Pat: There is an English speaking greeter or owner contact for each property. Guests meet the owner or greeter at check in and can contact them during their stay should any problems arise.

Pauline: What are your most popular areas?

Lisa & Pat: Rome and Florence are our most popular since these are year-round destinations. We have many clients who book over a year in advance in anticipation of a special occasion such as an anniversary, birthday, honeymoon or graduation. We have happy stories of clients who got engaged while staying at one of our properties, returned for their honeymoon and then came back as a family a few years later with a toddler in tow.

Pauline: Do you have any recommendations for areas that are less popular, but are good destinations?

Lisa & Pat: Within Rome we like the area near the Borghese Gardens as it is a bit less touristy and is close to the gardens, which is nice for walking. Monti is also a great neighborhood to discover. In Florence, if you want to get off the beaten path, we like the Bobolino neighborhood which is on the backside of the majestic Boboli Gardens as it is just at the edge of the historic center but it feels like you’re out in the Tuscan countryside since it is open and green and you can walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo for stunning views of Florence.

Pauline: Do you offer any extra services other than booking vacation rentals?

Lisa & Pat: We can book train tickets for our clients. We can recommend a car rental broker, travel insurance provider, cell phone rental, hotel booking site, private drivers, and resources for booking museum tickets and private tours. We help a bit with some travel planning but for in depth planning we send them to Kathy McCabe at Dream of Italy.

Pauline: Do you encourage people to get all their information from your website or do you like them to phone you?

Lisa & Pat: Our website is a good resource for helpful information but we encourage people to call us and ask questions since there are certain aspects that are best discussed over the phone, for example, mobility issues and which apartments are best for families with children. We can help clients narrow down their choices based on their individual requirements and preferences and will give them a frank assessment of each property.

Vacation Rentals vs. Hotels

Pauline: What do your clients like about vacation rentals compared to hotels?

Lisa & Pat: They like having a living room for down time, a kitchen to cook in and the opportunity experience life like a local by shopping at local bakeries, produce stalls, butchers, delis. Families save money over multiple hotel rooms.

Pauline: Is there anything about staying in vacation rentals in Italy that Americans need to be aware of? What do you receive complaints about?

Lisa & Pat: There are a few things that come to mind: utilities, supplies and noise.

Most guests embrace the differences of staying in a private property in Italy but can be surprised by the cost of utilities in Italy. They are extremely high which is why guests are often responsible for paying for part, or in some cases, all of their electricity and gas usage. This is a way of encouraging guests to conserve and protects owners from exorbitant bills if guests are not mindful of the expense.

Many properties come with a minimum of supplies. We ask owners to provide a few essentials to get guests through the first 24 hours but after that guests are typically responsible for purchasing household supplies such as toilet paper, paper towels, spices, dish soap, laundry detergent, household cleansers.

Third is that city living, whether Rome, Florence or Venice, can be noisy. These are bustling cities so if they aren’t accustomed to city living guests might be surprised to hear their neighbor’s TV, or the sound of a motors scooter going down the street at midnight or the garbage truck in the early morning.

We advise them all of this information in the guest confirmation materials. The guests who are surprised are the ones who don’t read the confirmation materials!

Advice for Traveling in Italy

Pauline: Do Americans traveling to Italy need to speak Italian?

Lisa & Pat: No, they don’t. But even if they only speak a little bit of Italian, the effort to say Buon Giorno or Grazie will be appreciated. Because a large portion of Italy’s economy is based on tourism, many Italians learn English, particularly in the locations that cater to tourists.

Pauline: Any advice for Americans traveling to Italy?

Lisa & Pat: Appreciate the Italians’ pride in their artistic and political heritage. It is a beautiful country and most natives are warm and friendly. They deal with the inefficiencies that are part of their systems with humor and we advise visitors to approach their time in Italy with much the same attitude. They love and enjoy life in a way that has nothing to do with money, whether it is a beautifully prepared but simple meal of pasta or a leisurely stroll through town to see and be seen.

Yes, there are times when we are so frustrated by little things: broken escalators and ticket machines in the subway in Rome, a dearth of clean public restrooms, graffiti, and disregard for curbing their dogs!  As the Italians say pazienza - have patience with the inefficiencies you encounter everywhere in Italy, and learn from Italians’ kindness, joy of life, and their strong sense of family.

The Changing Relationship Between the Dollar and the Euro

Pauline: This has been a difficult year for Americans traveling to Europe because our dollar did not do well against the Euro, airfares increased and gas for our rental cars was expensive. This month the dollar is strong and the price of gas prices has gone done, but now our savings (in the stock market) have dropped in half and many of us hurting financially. Did you see fewer Americans visiting Europe this year?

Lisa & Pat: Overall business has been pretty good for us this year but we did see a dip in business and increased price sensitivity due to the weak dollar. Properties filled up later as people delayed making plans for longer then usual while they weighed and debated costs versus their dreams. We are aware that the weak dollar has made travel to Italy costly but the benefit for guests is that vacation rentals are a better value than hotel stays so we saw an increase in clients who said they were going the vacation rental route for the first time in an effort to stretch their budget.

Pauline: Did your phones start ringing off the hook when the dollar zoomed up, making a trip to Italy suddenly more affordable?

Lisa & Pat: Yes! This has been a big help as people are finally getting a little relief on the exchange rate. And as airfares have come down recently we have seen a rise in inquiries as people take advantage of lower airfares coupled with the stronger exchange rate. In addition, clients using frequent flyer miles to travel tend to book with us nearly a year in advance.

Pauline: Do you think more Americans will travel to Europe next year then did this year?

Lisa & Pat: It is hard to say given the current economic situation. We know that despite the crazy stock market, political environment and mortgage crises, people still love to go to Italy to celebrate once-in-a-lifetime birthdays, engagements, graduations, to study art history, learn Italian, take cooking classes or visit a son or daughter who is doing a study abroad program. And popular books such as “Eat, Pray, Love” and “Under the Tuscan Sun” have inspired quite a few people to travel to Italy. Not only are we in the business of marketing vacation rentals, we love the fact that we help people pursue their dreams.

Pauline: What do you recommend for Americans to do to save money on a trip to Europe?

Lisa & Pat: That’s easy! Avoid hotels and stay in vacation rentals. Try to travel off season if possible. Stay in one place longer rather then try to hit three or four different places in a span of a week or two, as moving from place to place gets costly since the per night rate of a rental is often higher for shorter stays and transportation, whether it is train, car or taxi, adds up. Also you lose at least half-a-day or more of sightseeing or relaxing dealing with the logistics of moving from one location to another.

Pauline: Thanks Lisa and Pat for telling us all about your agency!

Some Favorite Perfect Vacation Rentals

I asked Lisa and Pat for some of their favorite properties.

Good value for two people: Casetta Bonsi (Florence)

Casetta Bonsi, apartment in Florence

Casetta Bonsi is a 1bed/1bath (sleeps 2 - 4) small house on a piazza in the center of Florence near the Ponte Vecchio. The price ranges from 1,010 - 1,405 Euro/week. The house was built in 1890 and remodeled in 2002. There is a terrace with views of the beautiful rooftops.

The house is 800 square feet (spacious for a one-bedroom apartment) and it has my favorite amenity, high speed internet (WiFi). Book by the week or by the night (4 night minimum). This is Italy Perfect’s most popular rental and already many weeks are booked for next year.

Luxury for two people:  Bellina (Rome)

Bellina, apartment in Rome

Bellina is a 1bed/1bath (sleeps 2 - 3) apartment in the historic center of Rome near the Spanish Steps. The price ranges from 1,280 - 1,470 Euro/week. The building dates from the 1700s.

The apartment is 800 square feet (spacious for a one-bedroom apartment). This apartment also has high speed internet (WiFi). Book by the week or by the night (4 night minimum).

Rental for a group:  Landini & Fontana (Rome)

Landini & Fontana, apartments in Rome

Two apartments in the heart of Rome: Landini is 3bed/3bath (sleeps 6) priced at 3,290 Euro/week, Fontana is 2bed/2bath (sleeps 4 - 5) priced at 2,300 Euro/week. Together they rent for 5,590 Euro/week. A group of 10 (5 couples) could rent both apartments for 1,118 Euro/week per couple.

These two apartments are in a palace built in the mid-1500s, near the Campo de’ Fiori in the historic center of Rome. Landini is 1400 square feet with a large terrace; Fontana is 1100 square feet with two terraces. Both have high speed internet (WiFi) and daily maid service.

Together these would be extraordinary Rome accommodations for a group of 10.

Tags: italy, vacation rentals

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Vacation Rental Agency Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.