With the popularity of destination weddings and other grand celebrations, booking a private luxury villa for a special event is becoming a viable option. After all, who wouldn’t want to get married on an exclusive property where you and your guests are the only ones around to witness the celebration?
And while villas are the popular event venues of choice for these celebrations, there’s also a lot of thought and advanced planning that goes into executing these special villa events. Luckily for many villa guests, they can make advanced arrangements for these events with the help of experts on their villa team.
Related article: 9 Reasons to Choose a Private Luxury Villa for Your Wedding Venue
The Difference Between Gatherings and Events
Before we begin, let’s differentiate first between “gatherings” and “events” as defined by many villa managers. Defining these terms should determine what kind of party you would have in mind at the villa and how much planning is needed to execute it.
Gatherings refer to parties that villa staffers can take care of mostly by themselves, from cutlery to decorations, with no more than three outside providers hired for the gathering. There is a fee collected by villa managers for guests that exceed 20% of the villa’s capacity, and that charge goes toward covering extra staff and equipment.
Events, however, require the hiring of an event planner and three or more providers for tasks that cannot be handled by villa staff alone, such as catering, tables, and entertainment. These grand events require a different set of terms for both payment and usage, which is why only select villas carry the necessary “event” terms and conditions for parties of this scale.
With that said, many villas with event-hosting capacities, such as a handful of the most stylish villas in Phuket and some of the most sought-after rentals in Koh Samui, are popular venues for weddings, anniversaries, corporate product launches, and family reunions.
Related article: Special Events that Can Be Celebrated at Private Luxury Villas
What’s Possible for A Major In-Villa Event
Choosing a villa for a major event (as opposed to a simple gathering) means that you will have a myriad of possibilities on how your event should look, sound, and feel like when it happens. An event villa can be anywhere in your destination; think beachfront parties or cliffside weddings with a sea view. And with the help of your villa’s dedicated Guest Experience specialist, you can bring your vision to life.
Generous Seating and Staging Areas
Let’s say that you’re looking for an appropriate event-ready villa for your destination wedding in Koh Samui. You already have the head count in mind, but can you imagine how many guests will need to be seated during and after the ceremony? If you can imagine what this looks like, you’re one step closer to choosing your villa.
An event-ready villa would usually have a wide area, usually a lawn, garden, and/or a beachfront where you can have not just seating and tables but staging areas for ceremonies, food service, dance floors, and the like. Some event villas may even have the option of extending the staging areas by covering up ponds and swimming pools with stable flooring material.
Catered Gourmet Meals
It’s not enough to just “get a caterer” and call it an event. Your villa’s Guest Experience specialist can make recommendations—and reservations—for the best caterers that can provide food at your villa event, especially services from the finest chefs and restaurants at your destination.
Imagine wowing your guests with a full menu of refined Thai dishes curated by a world-renowned chef in Phuket, or a restaurant-caliber feast fit for royalty on the beachfront of your elegant Bali villa. Your Guest Experience Services specialist can help make those arrangements for the most impressive spread of your dreams.
Related article: 12 Reasons to Celebrate the Festive Season with a Tropical Villa Vacation
Opulent Décor
You’ve seen those aesthetic Pinterest-worthy weddings or birthday parties that look like they’ve been decorated by fairies: elaborate flower arrangements, swathes of sheer fabric, the softest pops of color standing out against nature’s own backdrop. Now imagine all of this and a beautiful villa to compliment the vision, and you’ve got magic in your hands.
While advanced planning and coordination is necessary, the team at your private villa can recommend and work with local event specialists to execute that specific vision. Whether you want to celebrate with timeless flourishes or an explosion of tropical flair, you can be sure that your villa team will get you in touch with nothing less than the best in the business.
Live Entertainment
What’s a villa event without entertainment? There’s nothing quite like having live entertainment at your event, and your villa’s Guest Experience specialist can get you in touch with performers that can add a little extra je ne sais quoi to your party.
Live entertainers for villa events can range from singers who can serenade your guests at cocktail hour to traditional Thai or Balinese dancers that can liven up the festivities. In some instances, the villa team may even be able to get you in touch with professional clowns or fire dancers for that extra dose of excitement.
The Memorable Extras
Sometimes even the best villa events need an additional “something” to make it memorable. Let’s say you want to wrap up your villa beachfront event with a surprise fireworks show at midnight. Once again, this is where your villa’s Guest Experience specialist can get in touch with a local fireworks provider who can pull off the whole feat.
Related article: Exceptional Villa Guest Requests That Define Luxury
What You Can’t Do at A Villa Event
While anything is possible for a villa event, there are certain things that are still not allowed or possible to pull off. The rule of thumb is that anything that has the potential to cause damage to the property if left uncontrolled is not allowed at the villa event.
Smoking, for example, is not allowed unless done outdoors. Likewise, all events are expected to wrap up by a certain time of night, after which all non-villa guests are expected to vacate the premises.
When in doubt, it always helps to have a thorough review of the villa’s terms and conditions for special events, which is a separate document from the villa’s regular T&C for bookings. Not all villas will have the document for the events T&C, but you will need one when you do book a villa that’s considered “event-ready.”
Related article: Standard Terms & Conditions When Renting a Villa in Phuket, Koh Samui and Bali
Plan Your Villa Event With Ease
When you stage your event at a luxury private villa, you will have the advantage of privacy and exclusivity, on top of having a dedicated team of Guest Experience specialists at your fingertips to help make your dreams come true. It doesn’t matter what kind of celebration you may have in mind, as long as you can make it as special as you want it to be.
Consider planning a special villa event on your upcoming trip, and explore the possibilities of having the destination party of your dreams.
Explore your options as a guest with our Villa Rentals Guide.
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Featured Image: Mirrorstone Heating
The Luxury Signature represents and manages reservations of the finest villa rentals in Southeast Asia, specializing in some of the most stunning destinations including the islands of Phuket and Samui in Thailand, and Bali, Indonesia.
