Sylvia Delvaille Jones has always worked in the travel industry and Villas & Apartments Abroad was founded early in her career.
Employed by a national airline, Sylvia recognized that there were travelers in search of custom-made vacations with services and experiences that went beyond holidaying at a traditional resort. She knew there were affordable villas and many, especially in the Caribbean, came fully staffed, with private swimming pools or built on a beach and the accommodations were often less expensive than staying in hotels. Sylvia saw the opportunity to service this exclusive niche of travelers and aborted her career with the airlines to introduce a ‘new’ way to holiday. As a consequence Villas & Apartments Abroad was conceived.
At the time Sylvia began working in the villa industry, some 40 years ago, a villa holiday in the minds of most were for the privileged few. This was considered a vacation for big name movie stars, or for the nobility to retreat from the public eye or for families with surnames that read Vanderbilt, Rockefeller and Astor to ‘summer’. With Villas & Apartments Abroad, Sylvia was a pioneer who helped to change that perception and greatly influenced the creation of a new business model, the villa vacation, which was quickly sought after.
With accolades from the media including Town & Country Travel, Travel+Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler and travel trade publications, many of whom have tapped into her rich knowledge for input and ideas, Sylvia is now recognised as a leading expert in providing service to elite travellers and their travel agents.
Sylvia’s clients are as diverse as the collection of spectacular residences in her international portfolio, each with their own individuality and personality. She has deliberately kept Villas & Apartments Aboard a boutique sized agency in order to offer personalised services to all her clients. They include couples, families… some whose children are now adults and have become her clients, multi-generational families, groups of friends together along with captains of industry, millennials from the tech industry, Hollywood screen legends, renowned athletes, music moguls and the list goes on.
Each client, regardless of budget, receives personalised service with attention to every detail. That modus operandi is Sylvia’s standard of excellence and the hallmark of the service that is provided by Villas & Apartments Abroad. Sylvia and her team will work directly with clients, their trusted travel agents or personal assistants to match them with the property and itinerary that meets their dictate.
Sylvia has a long love affair with planning holidays. The art of designing that special vacation comes from her knowledge and experiences and the ‘journey’ she takes with her clients is a combination of many components. Selection of the ideal destination is based on the client’s brief. The physical location of the residence is centred on the client’s interests and the offerings of a particular locale; the makeup of the party; the time of year and the clients’ wishes to travel and these basic rules apply be it a completely laid back holiday doing absolutely nothing, or action packed activities for adventurers with boundless energy.
Besides the residences on the Villas & Apartments Aboard website, her ‘icing on the cake’ are ‘Sylvia’s Secrets’, a portfolio of homes that are owned by bold face names, remain unpublished but are offered individually at the owners discretion and is always an extraordinary experience for that special client.
Sylvia remains inspired by the insight of Leonardo da Vinci, “For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return”.