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A fantastic collection of private-hire holiday houses, small boutique hotels & guesthouses and 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.
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 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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The perfect amalgamation of old and new, Benedikta breathes fresh life into Vorarlberg heritage traditions in this smoothly crafted private-hire house originally built in 1836, located in the sleepy village of Vandans clasped by the wildflower-strewn valley of Montafon, west Austria.
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An adults-only newly opened 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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Found in the wilds of Spain's southern Catalonian hinterland in Terres de l' Ebre, seven kilometres from the Mediterranean coast, this original 1870s farmhouse den is a marriage of design simplicity, natural architecture and eco-sensibility.
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Wonderfully humble, this authentic exclusive-hire farmstead hideaway dating back to 1885 comes with the mandatory choc-box appeal of a rural Alpine chalet besieged by the hush rhythms of lush green pastures, ancient forests and hum of the mountain waters.
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Hushed luxury greets this solid stone casa in its cubic form, topped with terracotta tiles, reconfigured for sophisticates that like to tap into Italy’s pervading dolce far niente culture.
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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 Sri Lankan private-hire sanctuary of curated style and art, Doornberg is a testament to made-to-last craftsmanship and the beautiful symmetry of Dutch 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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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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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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Sleep under medieval frescoes, sweep down labyrinthine corridors, lord it up on the lofty ramparts or stroll through the Mediterranean garden, admiring the ivy-clad castle backdrop.
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.
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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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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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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With a handful of rooms, suites and studios to opt for, it is tough to know which one to fall in love with - they each have a distinct identity and are all infectiously gorgeous.
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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.
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.
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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Mesmerhaus, once the sexton’s home, is today a wonderful style chameleon of ornate exteriors and simplistic elegant interiors. The effect is of refined originality, a heritage house reduced to its essence through a calming language of decorative stillness.
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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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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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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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Strikingly modern design and humble heritage are the trademarks of Tempel 74 Apartments in the heart of the Mellau-Damüls ski region, just 500m to the ski lifts. Centuries-old Alpine craftsmanship marries pioneering architecture.
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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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A small designer outpost that is both rustic and sophisticated in its design simplicity – conceived to mirror the surrounding vineyards and Arco Mountains of Trentino, this rural idyll is an architectural bolthole that gives nature a stylish makeover, irresistibly close to Lake Garda.
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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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