Planning a conference and want something a bit more personal? In the midst of negotiations and want to find the perfect private hideaway?
See the Arabian Business pick of the best villages up for rent in Europe.
Instead of a five star resort, what about renting out an entire village in central Europe, rebranding the street names after your top executives, etching your logo into the snow and hiring the villagers as entertainment?
With the current wave of austerity engulfing Europe, this is the latest initiative village authorities are using to drum up some much needed cash and the offer has already attracted the interest of some Arab companies.
“We just got a few enquiries from Arabs or from the Gulf,” Karl Schwärzler of Liechtenstein-based firm Xnet, which runs the website rentavillage.com, told Arabian Business.
While Gulf enquiries have not yet resulted in a direct booking, Schwärzler said many large global firms have held events in the dozen or so villages across Europe they have on offer to rent, including Agip, AEG, Hyundai, Siemens and Wyeth Pharma.
Previous events include AEG’s 1920s themed party where their logo was carved into ice sculptures around a ski resort in Austria, the village of Alpbach was rebranded in yellow for Agip’s golden jubilee celebrations and the Swiss village of Engelberg was renamed Regentville for the day in honour of the lighting firm.
The cost of renting out the villages starts from a reasonable $60,000. Up until recently, the firm was offering companies the chance to rent out the entire country of Liechtenstein from $70,000 but Schwärzler said the promotion attracted some ridicule in the UK press so the offer has now been discontinued.
“We stopped renting Liechtenstein, due to unserious media releases on this theme. Therefore I can’t give you further information on that,” he said.
See the Arabian Business pick of the best villages up for rent in Europe.
Follow us on
