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A fantastic collection of private-hire holiday houses, small boutique hotels, guesthouses, luxury villas and apartments for vacation rentals – our little exclusive-hire retreats of 'private isolation'. Often the creative's outpost, these rare holiday homes are designed for the aficionados of style who love hotel services from butlers to your own chef – these are your exclusive-hire self-catering rentals and small design hotels of style. When you need that extra space and the whole damn place for yourself, whether you wanna rock like a star, get hitched behind closed doors, host a yoga retreat or just fancy having a ball with your friends Bond style – these are our XXL+ luxury private-hire rental abodes, from rustic guesthouses in Tuscany to the designer architect's pad in the Alps. We've even listed those small hotels that you can take over - so from a crowd to you soloists – this is escapism in style from Scottish estates to a designer lair in Merano.
Excuse me, I'm going incognito.
A Walser lodge and workspace under a coat of shingles: 1609 timber, unseen joinery, four bedrooms and a Werkraum, three kilometres above Lech am Arlberg.
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Historic private-hire castle on the shoreline of Loch Ness restored by British architect Ptolemy Dean, landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith and interiors by Charlotte Freemantle and Will Fisher of antique emporium Jamb.
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A private waterfront house on Symi’s Nimborio Bay, The Selene gathers stone and whitewashed cottages into five stylish suites, taken whole for fourteen guests.
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Once a remote shooting lodge home to the Duke of Sutherland, Kinloch
Lodge now provides a remote and inviting retreat into the vastness of
nature.
Where history meets high design – Doornberg is a colonial masterpiece turned private villa, where Palladian columns, mid-century flair, and tropical gardens frame Galle’s most storied retreat.
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A contemporary private den for discerning design purists, Ʌerli’s allure is a harmonious marriage of tradition meets modernity, continuing and furthering the strong architectural alpine remit of Tyrolean design.
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A whitewashed farmhouse reborn with rustic cool – Pensão Agrícola is Tavira’s slower, softer side: all heirloom nostalgia, citrus groves and vintage edge, with a donkey named Ernesto in tow.
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Crossing Condotti is a style colony of luxury suites, lavish apartments and designer penthouse living created within 18th-century palazzo townhouse, which poignantly resides behind the Piazza di Spagna and namesake, Via Condotti, in the heart of Rome’s historic Tridente district.
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A 1720 Chianti estate of three stone farmhouses, reborn by Austrian architect Nina Mair as a creative sanctuary of craft, olive groves and unhurried Tuscan soul.
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A Highland hideout reworked with ecclesiastical swagger – this bold church conversion near Crieff spins heritage into cinematic cool. For the design-set, the curious and the culturally attuned.
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Lose yourself in a world where heritage collides with bold design. Think roaring fires, statement interiors, and epic views—this isn’t just a stay, it’s an experience that redefines escape.
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A white beacon of heritage, The House of Dahl is where history, luxury, and Arctic wilds collide. Step inside Nusfjord’s most exclusive hideaway—this is Lofoten, redefined.
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Like a watercolour painting of the perfect Gascon guesthouse. Former Henri IV hunting lodge where Swiss hosts blend mid-century design with centuries-old stone architecture.
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Éros Kéros Villas, on the slow-pace Cyclades island of Koufonisia, come drenched in Aegean blue vistas – a sun-kissed boutique retreat of four cubic Cyclades-style merchant houses that lazily gaze onto the island of Keros.
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Fabulous holiday apartments with panoramic views and an interior palette that borrows from the surrounding beauty and captures the purity of nature with a modernist hand.
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A restoration den of raw genius – a weathered Tuscan house close to Montefollonico that has been allowed to expose her weathered elements and complemented with chic salvaged interiors. An imaginative retreat of utter, rustic romance.
An elemental experience awaits at these natural designer dens, private-hire holiday houses for small groups, where cashmere hugs, rock walls shield, and simplicity is elegant.
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Architect crafted timber villas above the Arctic Circle, offering lake views, Nordic minimalism, Sámi heritage, private saunas and serene immersion in untouched Lapland wilderness.
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An unfussy architectural gem that floats above a bed of the greenest and most delicate fauna like a scene from the latest Hobbit epic, this is total immersion in nature from your spectacular viewing pods – here, less is definitely more.
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Two thousand years of vines, empire and river commerce, written into the slate and stone of western Germany. Rhineland-Palatinate does not perform its history. It simply continues it.
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An adults-only hotel-chalet chameleon married to a curatorial melange of mid-century nostalgia and a dialogue of soft luxury perched in altitudinous Adelboden.
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Farmstead aesthetics slip seamlessly into bed with a contemporary cousin at this bucolic commune of guesthouse and creative venue space known collectively as the DENHARTEN.
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A fabulous retro-design, five bedroom holiday home of smooth vintage in Merano, this design vacation-rental is gorgeous, a luxury haven dotted with thoughtful mid-century design pieces, layered with love.
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Unapologetically vivid, this preferred pad of intellect and creativity is awash in Art Nouveau flamboyance tamed with clever 1950s-inspired design interventions. A stylishly cool home of the arts, brushed with boldness.
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Casa Fortunato is where design, history, and soul collide making it a rare private-hire house in Alentejo. Inside, postmodernist pieces beautifully marry with Portuguese heritage, vintage glamour and artistic rebellion.
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In a toned-down material palette of stone, timber, metal and glass, the brutal stone exteriors are hushed by Danish functionality: each piece of furniture carefully considered so as to embellish nothing but the raw landscapes, framed in oak.
Design Bothy & Geordie's Cottage close to the Cairngorms National Park, ideal for a small family or as a Highland refuge, this aged restored cottage is decorated with Scandi influences and Scottish crafts - complete with log stove.
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Tucked away in nature, this design-led hideaway blends style and seclusion. Think sleek interiors, epic views, and slow mornings by the fire. A place you won’t want to leave.
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Hushed, located close to Milan's fashion district, this new townhouse-hotel bolthole is laced with a troupe of design heroes, heritage and curated artworks - a discreet little number for those who want to reside off-the-radar, but in the hum of Milan.
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Set against the forested Beskydy (Beskids) range in the Carpathian Mountains, this 200-year-old designer hideaway fosters modern Czech country living whilst giving heritage a hug, decked in whites, linens and twisted rafters.
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Limewash, straw and timber headline at this patiently restored farmstead, where historic bones meet sharp design thinking and rural grit is distilled into a tight edit of quietly confident holiday apartments.
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Rethought Gasthof Inn with a fabulous Restaurant, an upstairs private Apartment Suite by Monocle, Guest Rooms, and a Kiosk make this a popular pitstop along Zürich’s Gold Coast.
Cuboid, measured and precise, Casa Al Sole is emblematic of the Italian Rationalism architectural style of Italy in the 20s and 30s. Renovated with precision and scrupulous attention to detail, the house is a meticulous restoration of purity and simplicity.
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A Walser house of 1393 above Lech, restored by its architect owners. Six bedrooms taken whole by the week, a Ducrot fireplace, an Ogata sauna.
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Just 80 steps from the sea, this design outpost of style is a fabulous townhouse hotel-guesthouse decked in antiques, designer pieces and curios with just a handful of boutique bedrooms.
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Concrete, glass, rusted steel – architecture meets agriturismo in this ultra-stylish retreat near Lake Garda. Low-slung, counter-sunken, and framed by vines, it’s minimalist luxury with an infinity pool that steals the scene.
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Bijou refuges crafted deep in the countryside or clinging to the wild coastline, these hideaways bring style to their natural location.
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We love finding a patch of really good design production, architecture and style. When executed well, it's like walking into a fantastic novel.
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Peer into the treasure pot of one-off brands, rarity and inherited blueprints - each throwing a punch at blandness as the incubators of curiosity, originality and legacy.
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Join the self-confessed foodies, lovers of great taste and those pioneers of gastro from flavour-hunters to the mavericks who turn humble into heroic.
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Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.