November 17th, 2008
Huatulco Villa Rentals vs. Huatulco Resort Vacations: Costs
In part two of the five part series focusing on Huatulco villa rentals vs. Huatulco resort vacations we’re going to take a look at the costs of each travel option.
Huatulco Villas
Renting a private villa is often much more cost effective when compared to resort prices. When you’re looking at vacation packages, it’s essential that you break down the costs and separate the charter flight costs from the resort room fees to find out if you’re actually saving money by going with a packaged vacation option. These combined “accommodation & air travel” packages are usually one of the main selling points of many of the resorts; so it’s important to really examine the costs separately to see if you’re truly getting a good deal on lodging.
The main goal when evaluating the costs of booking a Huatulco villa is to consider what you are really getting for the money you spend. For a one-bedroom condo suite that offers room for 4 people and includes a living and dining space plus a kitchen and private patio - you will only pay about $1000/week. This means it will cost you between $250 - $500/person for the whole week (depending if you have 2 or 4 people staying in the villa).
If you start arranging accommodations for larger groups (12+ people) to travel together you could drastically reduce your costs and get them down to as low as $200/person/week. This a guarantee - you will NEVER find a luxury resort in Huatulco with rates that match this!
Now a lot of people think that it would be more expensive to rent a private villa because vacation resorts often include airfare into their prices. But if you actually separate the costs and look at the cost of airfare you’d be very surprised. In the off-season, the most expensive flights we found were in the $900 range. So if you take a weekly cost of $250/person + $900 flight, you end up with a total cost of $1150/person for a week’s vacation. Not bad at all considering you’ll be staying in a beautiful, authentic Mexican villa. Next, we’ll examine the costs of booking a Huatulco resort to further illustrate how booking a private villa can actually cost you less.
Huatulco Resorts
It’s well known that the majority of luxury resorts in Huatulco are all located in Tangolunda Bay. Using Trip Advisor as our reference, we found that all the credible hotels in the area are available for around $150 - $360/night. If you calculate that rate out over the span of a week, you’re looking at a cost of $1,050 - $2,520/person for a week’s vacation.
If you are trying to do a fair comparison, remember that the prices listed above are the nightly/weekly costs for a single bedroom! Comparing these costs to the cost of renting a private villa, it’s clear that you with a resort you usually end up paying more money for a smaller room. Even worse, these resort rooms often offer less amenities and more crowds compared to renting out an entire private villa for your and your friends and family.
Now, of course it would be misleading if we didn’t account for the fact that resorts are actively involved in offering packaged vacations in Mexico. These packages often create an overall discount for the traveler by amalgamating flight, hotel and food/beverage costs and discounting everything through the packaged rate. Sometimes they may offer lower prices on room fare just to get you to sign up for the entire vacation package, so when comparing costs it’s important that you keep this in mind.
Conclusion
When comparing the costs of renting out a villa vs a resort, we were surprised to find that overall, the prices for renting a resort remain on par or are even higher when compared to renting out a private Huatulco villa. This is especially true for group travelers, who can really save money by renting a private villa. As mentioned in the post, it’s clear that you get more value by renting a private villa since you are spending the same amount of money (if not less) to get an entire villa to yourself and your companions. Whereas with a resort, you won’t be able to get the same luxuries or privacy as you would with renting a villa.
In the next post we’ll examine the prices of air travel as well as how to arrange for transportation from the airport. If you are wondering about what food and drinks will cost you, be sure to check out part four of the series in which we will examine the food and beverage deals at both Huatulco villas and resorts.
