Fierce fighting inside Nab’s biggest villas – The Hollywood Reporter

Every July, the Cycladic island of Mykonos goes to war. The Conquerors speak of sprawling, ultra-luxurious party palaces built to dazzle the world’s rich and famous. Two-bedroom hotel rooms worthless check.

Spanning 33 square miles in the Aegean Sea, Mykonos has one of the densest productions of luxury private villas anywhere in Greece. In summer, its population swells to between 15,000 and 200,000 well-heeled sun-seekers each week. In the past two years, Demi Moore, Elon Musk, Bella Thorne, Nicole Scherzinger, Tommy Hilfiger and A-list stylist Warren Alfie Baker have all visited, but so have the relatively unknown European billionaires, Middle Eastern royalty and the American class – who keep the island’s villa economy afloat. Seekers.

Big names and big money are nothing new to the island. Long before Lindsay Lohan opened her ill-fated Beach House and billionaires such as Scorpios, Grace Kelly, Brigitte Bardot, Jackie and Aristotle Onassis and Sophia Loren graced the beach, the beach was graced with exclusive nightspots. What’s new is a post-pandemic supply and demand problem ripped straight from an Econ 101 textbook.

“We are a small island,” said Konstantinos Koukas, the mayor of Mykonos, noting that the newly renovated airport on the island is fully booked for summer flights. “We don’t have the opportunity to receive millions and millions. My goal is to accept people who spend even a little more money.

Last summer, Mykonos saw record tourism (220,000 in one week in July), and brokers, villa owners and the government are now trying to make the peak summer season bigger.

“Mykonos is like a boutique,” says Elpida Kennedy, the assistant behind the Kennedy Group rental agency, which rents many of the island’s prime properties. “And last year we saw 30 percent more business. Most people start booking in January and February, but now that most people are checking out, they are booking for next summer.

Dramas play out in any marketplace where money is no object.

Last summer, a dispute broke out between two royal tenants at the 12-bedroom Mykonian Fantasy villa in Houlakia on the north coast (which has hosted dozens of celebrities, including Paris Hilton and Naomi Campbell), a source said on condition of anonymity. The NDA. “‘Prince A’ has decided not to leave the villa,” says the source. “He was having so much fun that he told his agent he would extend his stay regardless of the contract.” The property has a lagoon-shaped 5,300 square foot pool, one of the largest in the Mediterranean.

However, a different royal was booked for next week. “The property manager and agent tried to explain that the villa was rented by another client who paid for the stay, but because he has diplomatic immunity, no one could force him out of the villa,” the source said.

When “Prince B” arrives to find the villa still occupied, he feels “insulted” and a group of amateur diplomats rush to create the intimacy. After two days of negotiations, Prince A proposed to Prince B within a week on his yacht — “one of the most famous yachts in the world,” the source says. “They lived happily ever after.”

There are about 400 commercial villas and about 120 private villas on the island. But fewer than 10 are luxury or “royal fit,” Kennedy said, adding that high-end properties can cost up to $200,000 a week, while $20,000 a week is a more typical price.

“But everyone wants to rent the best and most expensive villa on the island,” says Kennedy. I have to go to owners and say, “Look, I can rent you a mega yacht for a week, because I want your property. Santa Maria Mykonos, Mykonos Blue Grecotel and Kalezma Mykonos.

Complicating matters, brokers say that Mykonos operates under a strict “first come, first served” code and that bidding wars are often the norm – meaning that European families who rent the same house year after year are shunting private villas away from nouveau riche Americans or recent celebrities.

London-based Ina Dimitrova, founder of anti-aging treatment brand Health Enhance, is one of them. She has been coming to the island since she was a child, but for the past two years, she has stayed for the summer in the same five-bedroom villa in the ultra-exclusive beach town of Ornos.

“I have some requirements,” Dimitrova said. “There are many villas on Mykonos, but only a few can meet my requirements.”

So what hope does the old billionaire have to score a top villa? Like some things in life, Instagram can come with warm and cultural significance. “These kinds of properties will look at your profile,” says Kennedy. “They decide whether they want you there or not. Not just because you have the money, but you also need the profile.”

A version of this story first appeared in the May 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.