News from Summer's Leases

[Bob M]

Hi Everyone,

I used to be a regular contributor to the old Slow Travel forums but lost contact when the ownership changed and have only just discovered Slow Europe thanks to Freda Cameron, who is in my apartment in Avignon right now! Summer's Leases started offering rental villas in Umbria, where we lived, in 1993 and after 10 years or so we widened our portfolio to the the east of Tuscany, where we now live. Last year we met Andrew and Molly of Friends of Tuscany based in the Garfagnana and we discussed a merger to offer a larger geographical area, including Lucca, Barga and the more rugged zones. So now we can offer clients a greater range. "L'unione fa la forza!"

Apologies if this seems like an advertisement! I simply wanted to (re) introduce myself and will contribute when I can answer people's questions on Tuscany and Umbria.

Buon fine settimana!!

Bob Monroe

 

[Pauline]

Hi Bob! I remember visiting with you in Tuscany many years ago, right at the beginning of SlowTrav. Nice to see you here!

 

[Bob M]

hi Pauline. Apparently it was October 2001 and we went to Lillo Tatini in Panicale for lunch - which is still there! Afterwards you came back to see our house between Perugia and Lake Trasimeno as we were living in Umbria at the time. Great to catch up after all these years!

 

[jan]

I remember renting from Summer's Leases for 2 weeks outside of Todi. I think it was in 2005 but not certain. Has the prevalence of Air BNB etc. hurt your business or has it helped by making rentals more acceptable to the general population?

 

[Bob M]

Hi Jan and great to hear from you, was it Alla Collina? GDPR means we can't keep clients' records any more so we've lost a valuable amount of useful information.

That's a very good question. Airbnb is very strong in cities, where it competes with hotels and is the growing market for short stays. We gave up offering apartments in Florence years ago because nobody wanted Saturday to Saturday any more and our system couldn't cope with short stays. In the country however, where the Sat-Sat rule still applies, Airbnb has little influence but Home Away seems to be the new giant. Molly advertises a lot on Home Away and people find our properties there, then book direct with us to save their commission! So I think it's more positive than negative.