Villa Koukouvayia facility rates calendar for programs, celebrations & large-group stays.
“When committing others to anything worth celebrating, your primary influence lies in the environment you create.”― Peter Senge
The first table below lists Villa Koukouvayia’s basic facility rates at various times throughout the year, including possible discounts for rentals of 14 nights or longer. The rates cited include all taxes; and with other charges and optional services described in the following notes will allow you to estimate the cost of your stay.
In the second table, possible occupancies during your stay are listed, so that you can estimate lodging assignment for your group.
(Click on table to zoom in)
(Click on table to zoom in)
Rental policies & FAQs about calculating hosting costs:
Our Goal: Our goal is to be fair and transparent in our policies & charges, and to remove any possibility of surprises once you decide to host your stay with us. The rate table above and the notes following will help you calculate your stay, but you can rest assured that prior to any commitment you make with us, we’ll have worked together to create a final price that echoes your estimates, explains any difference, and leaves you confident of its value.
Currency: Depending on several factors (including your needs) we might work in U.S. dollars or euros, but prices cited above and throughout the website are listed in euro. If you are paying in USD, the offer we craft with you will reflect the IMF exchange rate on the day it is finalized, and then, assuming you accept within seven days, will lock and not change. And we never charge ‘exchange fees’ beyond the IMF standard rate.
Damage Deposits: We hold a damage deposit during your stay, an amount whose life often begins as your first payment (a non-refundable ‘reservation’ deposit that secures your chosen time) but then changes into your fully refundable damage deposit upon your arrival. Because those deposits must reflect typical risks, they can vary for specific groups but are never below €1,000 and rarely higher than €1,500.
We never confuse ‘damage’ with ‘use.’ Yes, we assume you and your group will respect Villa Koukouvayia, but we also expect you to use and enjoy her during your stay. And we’ve been hosting groups long enough to understand that any gathering of happy people—particularly if happy children are part of the mix—will drop a glass or two. And while we don’t like broken glass, we do like it when you’re happy 😊.
In fact, since 2016 we’ve found that the secret to limiting damages lies not in collecting large deposits but in providing guests an experience of great value. By providing that value over the years, people have responded with an abundance of care and respect. In short, when guests feel like Villa Koukouvayia is their home, they treat it as such. And since welcoming our first guests in 2016, we have reduced a returned damage deposit only once, and entirely at the guest’s insistence.
Damage deposits/remainders are always returned within 7 days from departure.
Smoking: We are set among groves & groves of olive trees, all beautiful but all susceptible to tragic fires. Smoking, therefore, is severely restricted, especially during the fire season of summer. Wet ashtray always, and always outside, verandas only, and only on non-windy days.
Arrival & Departure Times: The rates above are per night, assuming an arrival day check-in no earlier than 16:00 and a departure day check-out no later than 10:00. As you can see in the next item, however, we can welcome organizer/s or facilitator/s one day early to ease their arrival and event preparations stress. Furthermore, we only enforce AM departure times to the degree we have other programs/guests arriving on the heels of your departure. And even if that is true, departing guests whose flights are at odds with check-out times can always leave luggage here, allowing them to hit the beach or do something enjoyable while waiting for the airline to ready their flight. As always, our goal is to make not only your stay stress free, but your arrival and departure the same.
Reservations that Bridge across Rate-Seasons: When a stay includes multiple rate-seasons, we calculate each day according to its seasonal rate and simply add the two subtotals. This is also true for how to apply long term discounts.
Mandatory Charges Beyond the Facility’s Base Rate: We hate extra fees (both as hosts and as customers), but there are two supplemental charges we must collect and itemize separately, because including them across the base rates would lead, perversely, to hidden overcharging.
- Prep Day: All larger groups, regardless of the length of their stay, demand a dedicated setup day to prepare the facility for the group’s arrival and its subsequent activities. Incorporating that cost across our base rates would unfairly increase prices for longer stays. To avoid this, we add a single charged day to all large-group stays. While this does reflect an expense, it’s an honest expense, simple and transparent, and it has some advantages: In addition to keeping our base rates low, it serves as what others might charge as a ‘cleaning’ fees, and—because we’ve protected that day’s use from other groups—allows your organizer/s or facilitator/s to arrive early and relax ahead of their upcoming work with participants, to prepare for that work, or both.
- High-Occupancy: While Villa Koukouvayia has the capacity to host groups of 20 to 25, the fact is that typical groups often bring fewer guests. To avoid applying the fair-market value of a 25-person venue to smaller groups, we set our base price assuming 17 guests, and then provide the rarer but larger groups an economical way to take advantage of the villa’s high-occupancy capacity by applying a €10/person/night supplement. And for organizers whose attendance list will progress after the reservation agreement, this supplement can be flexibly paid/due as late as the day of arrival.
Bare Facility or Services & Support? Programs, Celebrations and Reunions rarely thrive without a careful crafting of activities and services that support the stay and—most importantly—ease the organizer’s burden. And so, while you are welcome to book the bare facility, it’s important to remember that doing so limits us (by Greek law, actually) from providing any services beyond providing the facility itself. Our facility care is robust, and would include an arrival meeting and orientation, a daily visit to check on the pool, water the veranda plants, learn of and immediately address any maintenance issues and—at your departure—to meet for the facility inspection and feedback. But by law it would exclude any of the in-stay cleaning, meal and transportation services summarized in the next item below.
If this limited arrangement best fits your plan, you can calculate your reservation costs easily. Just add a single day to the number of nights your participants will attend, and then multiply that count by the nightly rate applicable to the specific dates of your attendance. And if your attendance will be greater than 17 (including organizers, facilitators and other staff), multiply the extra-person count by €10 and the number of nights. Adding those two subtotals will give you a final cost, including all taxes and fees.
- Transportation, including but not limited to vehicle arrangements and acquisition prior to arrivals; airport transfers at arrivals & departures, off-campus activity transportation, transportation for off-campus meals, and miscellaneous locality transportation.
- Food & Beverage Support, including but not limited to catered meals and snack provisions, pantry stocking for internally prepared food provision, and arrangements with restaurants & tavernas for off-campus meals.
- Cleaning & Laundry Support ranging from simple, daily or bi-daily bathroom and towel service to full bedroom services at various frequencies.
- Child Care, including but not limited to ad hoc special events, daily periods, or across entire stay.
- Activity Leadership, including but not limited to hikes, outings, Samaria Gorge traverses, sailing & kayaking, excursion expertise and guidance, and other customized experiences that fit your attendees’ interests and abilities.
Charge Protocols for Optional Services & Support: CDR provides the above services either directly or by arranging select 3rd-party contractors, whom we often know and have used before. You can estimate those costs using the following protocols:
- Ad Hoc Staffing Support: CDR has two on-call staff (Richard & Heidi 😊) and can provide ad hoc staffing support for various activities, including transportation, driving, excursion-leadership, breakfast prep and cleanup, small-scale (bathroom & towel service; pool-patio and veranda tidying) cleaning, and other miscellaneous support tasks. Ad hoc staffing is charged at €15/staff/hour.
- Holistic Staffing Support: CDR can also provide staffing across entire days, which include all the above chores and logistics, but are charged at the less expensive and more inclusive rate of €75/staff/day.
- Meal & Food Support: CDR staff can directly provide morning beverages and a continental breakfast of homemade cereals & fresh local baked goods at a per/person/day cost of €5. For lunch, dinner and other primary meals, CDR can arrange for catering or off-site meals at great local tavernas.
- Third-Party Service Provisions: When CDR cannot directly provide services, our local knowledge and experience can ensure excellent 3rd-party contractors are used, that their use is secured at the lowest prices, and—most importantly—that their deployment effectively eases your stress and adds to your attendees’ experience. CDR will charge 3rd-party arrangements according to a simple system of cost + 15%, with amounts typically due within 30 days of our expenditure, or on the day of your departure, whichever is earlier.
- A Note on Third-Party Arrangements: Greeks and particularly Cretans are unfailingly good-hearted and honest, but they’re also clever and opportunistic. As a result, there’s a culture of 3rd -party arrangements where the middle-man gets paid a bit extra by the contractor for bringing him/her the business. We don’t ascribe to that system, at all. Having lived in the area for so long and employed them frequently, we know and are friends with many contractors, but we’ll always recommend and/or hire them on your behalf, negotiate with them on your behalf, and reflect on presented receipts your savings. Our earnings will not exceed the 15% established above.
A Note on Catered Meals: Beyond the lovely continental breakfasts mentioned above (which we provide directly), brace yourself for the relatively high expense of ‘catered’ meals. First, most professional/good cooks have steadier gigs at restaurants, and so it’s hard (and in the warm seasons almost impossible) to find someone both good and available. And if we find a professional, he/she will likely bring (and naturally charge for) a second person to serve & clean. And if we contract with a restaurant, they’ll charge more unless they can send the prepared food itself, because it is obviously cheaper for them to prepare food at their staffed & equipped facility and then simply deliver it. Of course, that method has its own issues, and costs the ‘ambience/effect’ of a truly ‘home’ cooked meal—one of the primary reasons large groups want catering to be onsite.
Obviously, this costing decision is up to you, but it’s important to understand the dynamics at play as you decide.
And the good news is that bringing your group offsite to nearby tavernas for any or most of your meals reverses those dynamics. The food is good (no, actually, it’s great), the prices (including beverages, beers and house wines) are cheap (about €20/person/meal), and the and joyous hospitality of our Cretan family tavernas presents one of the most popular experiences a visitor to our island can enjoy—not to mention removing the home cleanup 😊.
As you work through these issues, we’ll be there to provide further advice and nuanced solutions to help you decide what’s best for your particular group.
Payment Plans: While a simple single payment offers advantages to us (and sometimes to you) we understand that the significant expense of any large-group stay can demand that payments occur progressively rather than all at once. Generally, we work with clients within the following guidelines:
- Securing the Reservation: Upon receipt of the agreed upon damage deposit in our account, your time will be secured and blocked from other interested parties (even those who might offer to pay fully in a single payment.) Typically, this deposit is due within a week of our having discussed your needs and given you an offer establishing all charges.
- First Payment: A payment of at least 50% of remaining charges is due no later than 120 days prior to arrival, or 7 days after the offer, whichever is later.
- Second Payment: Assuming charges remain after the payments above, a second payment of at least 50% of remaining charges (maximum 25% of the original total) is due no later than 90 days prior to arrival, or 7 days after the offer, whichever is later.
- Third/Final Payment: Assuming charges remain after the payments above, a third/final payment of all remaining charges (maximum 25% of the orginal total) is due no later than 60 days prior to arrival, or 7 days after the offer, whichever is later.
Refund Policies:
- Should We Cancel: Although this has never happened, should some sort of emergency on our end force us to cancel, we will at your option either reschedule your stay or fully return all received funds—most likely immediately, and certainly no later than 14 days.
- Should You Cancel: We have no desire to profit from anyone’s misfortune, and we assume that whenever a cancellation occurs it is made in good faith. Unfortunately, however, as soon as you reserve your time, we will set aside that time, remove it from our calendars, turn away others inquiring of that time, and will lose others who see the time’s not available and don’t bother to inquire. And so, while we will always work to refund cancelled stays and never charge a fee for this service, we can only do so to the degree we are able re-book your time. Naturally, the chances to successfully rebook your time decrease the later we know of the cancellation, so it is critical that you inform us fully and quickly if a cancellation must occur.
- Covid Cancellations: We’ll cover you for covid craziness and other world-wide disasters not in your control, and refund all payments if unable to attend due to Covid-19 related force majeures. (Note, force majeures include prohibitions like border & travel restrictions, not inconveniences like rescheduled flights, etc.)
Ready to inquire about renting at Villa Koukouvayia? Click here to see the villa’s current availability.
To send a large-group booking request for either a program, celebration or reunion, click here.
+30 (698) 486-9490 
+1 (207) 513 0133