LAUNCH – ROOV | Villas
ROOV | Villas
For twenty years I've been, in one form or another, a professional finder of good places to stay — from lodges in Botswana to villas in the Balearics, from Alpine chalets to nothing in particular except the right room, the right view, the right feeling of arrival.
THE APPROACH.
A few years ago Le Collectionist brought me on to curate their Balearic villa portfolio for holiday rentals. What existed was scattered — properties chosen for the photograph, not the experience. Poorly located, unevenly managed, underperforming. I spent two years rebuilding it into something coherent: a collection of villas that made sense for place and the people renting them.
When the contract ended, so did the alignment. They wanted volume — white-box villas, churn and burn, quantity standing in for quality. I wanted something else. So I kept the relationships that mattered: the owners, the managers, the property teams I'd come to trust over years of actually staying in these places. I kept placing guests well. Eventually the informal became formal. This is that.
Knowing a villa is not about the photograph. It's about the situation — whether a property connects to where it sits, or simply occupies it. Who is on-site, and how they hold the place, because how a villa is cared for tells you exactly how you, the guest, will be cared for.
Whether the systems actually function — in the Balearics, AC and electrical are quietly overwhelmed most Augusts, and no one mentions it until you're the one living it, for the week you have. Whether the rooms hold a household the way people actually move through a day together. Security. Access — Mallorca, in particular, can be an approach, and a beautiful property at the end of a bad drive is still a bad drive. Distance to the sea, to the airport, to decent coffee and bread in the morning. Whether you can run, swim, or cycle from the door. The nearest port, if a boat matters. A helipad, if that's the world you're in.
This is what I know, villa by villa, owner by owner. It's how we place you well for your stay — not into inventory, but into the right villa for who you are and how you want to live, even briefly.
This collection stays close to me. It always will. What comes next: Africa, Italy, France, the Alps, and a few singular villas in between.
—Jen