Type Private Headquarters Newport, Rhode Island | Founded 1983 Services Villa rentals | |
Area served Europe, Australia, Asia, North America, South America, and the Caribbean Owner Barclay H. (Tim) Warburton IV | ||
Wimco Villas (stylized as WIMCO Villas), short for West Indies Management Company, is a villa rental agency located in Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1983, before being bought by Barclay H. (Tim) Warburton IV in 1985. It also is the Publisher of the Vendôme Guide.
Contents
History
Founded in 1983, Wimco (short for West Indies Management Company) was initially the marketing and reservations representative of Sibarth Real Estate on St. Barths. Wimco was purchased in 1985 by Barclay H. (Tim) Warburton IV, and the offices were moved from Stamford, CT to Newport Rhode Island. Prior to the Internet, Wimco operated a telephone call center for its clients. Since then, villas are booked by phone via Wimco agents or online at Wimco’s website. The president of the company is Stiles Bennet. In 2010, a new entirely separate company, Wimcosbh (stylized as WIMCOsbh) was established on St. Barths as a base for owners operations and concierge services. Lionel Garaix is the President of WSBH.sas. The company also created a cloud-based reservations management portal, which villa owners use to track reservations history as well as take new ones.
Wimco has long been a leader in the Villa rental space. Its core beliefs center around amazing customer service, accurate representation, and the application of a number of proprietary modern technologies
Overview
The company rents private villas in tropical locations to clients, and provides concierge travel service and house keeping, as well as full service Air Services . In some destinations, it also hosts events for guests, partnering with local restaurants. Costs for renting villas can be from a few thousand dollars per week to something in the high five figures. Places in which the villas are located have included Europe, Caribbean islands, Turks & Caicos, Hawaii, St. Barths, St. Martin, Antigua, Barbados, Mykonos, Cote d'Azur, Provence, St. Tropez, Florence, Capri, Tuscany, Sicily, the Amalfi coast, Morocco, and Ireland. Properties range from home estates to cottages to castles. The company also publishes the Vendôme Guide, with each volume focusing on a different tourist destination, including both text and photographs.