What it actually
costs.
Every villa quotes a nightly rate and then adds to it. This page is the whole picture instead — including the two situations where you should book hotel rooms and not us.
The two ways to buy this
You can take the house on its own and run the week yourself. Or you can take a planned trip, where the meals, the transfers and the days out are arranged and billed as one thing. Most groups of ten or more take the second, and the reason is rarely money — it's that one person stops being the unpaid trip organiser.
The house alone runs from €4,900 for three winter nights to €21,500 for a week in August — whole property, exclusive use, never by the room. A planned trip starts around $850 per person for a winter stay with light catering and runs to $2,450 per person for an eight-day multigenerational week with everything in it.
Per person, per night, a planned week here lands in the same territory as a decent Lisbon hotel room — except the room doesn't come with a cook, a long table, or everyone under one roof.
Where the hidden fees usually are — and where ours aren't
On a large house, three lines routinely appear after the headline rate: a cleaning fee, a service charge on anything you order, and local tax. They can add a meaningful percentage to what you thought you were paying. So, plainly:
- No cleaning fee. Not reduced — absent. On a nine-bedroom house that is usually the second-largest line on the invoice.
- No service charge stacked on top of meals or activities.
- Tax is inside the quoted price, not added at the end. Portuguese tourist tax is the one small exception and we tell you the figure before you commit.
- One invoice, from a US company, in dollars. Finance departments have opinions about this and they are usually strong ones.
There is a refundable security deposit, released after departure. That is the only money that appears and then goes away again.
When a hotel is genuinely the better answer
Two situations, and we'd rather say so now than after you've spent an hour on a quote.
If your group is under eight, you are paying for a house you won't fill. And if everyone needs their own bathroom, a house with four bathrooms across nine bedrooms is the wrong shape — hotels win that one outright.
Where a house wins is the thing a hotel cannot sell you at any price: everyone in one building, one long table at the end of the day, and nobody drifting off down a corridor at nine o'clock.
How the money is actually staged
A 72-hour hold costs nothing and takes the dates off the market while you check with your people. A $500 deposit converts it, and counts toward the total. The balance is spread over two or three instalments, with the last one 30 days before you arrive. If your numbers are uncertain, say so when you enquire and we'll write terms that reflect it — in writing, before you commit.
- House only: €4,900–€21,500 by season and length.
- Planned trip: from $850pp to $2,450pp.
- No cleaning fee. No service charge. Tax inside the price.
- Free 72-hour hold → $500 deposit → instalments.
- Under eight people, or everyone needs an ensuite? Book a hotel.