Villa with a pool or hotel? What nobody tells you

For two families or a group of six or more, the villa wins almost every time; for a couple without a car, the hotel does. We rent out a villa in Pollença, so we know which side we are on — which is why this comparison also covers the trips where you would not choose us. They exist.

The sum you actually need to do

Do not compare the price per night: compare the group total with the meals included. Ten people in a hotel means five double rooms, each with its own nightly rate; a villa is one price divided by ten. The kitchen does the rest of the arithmetic: a week of breakfasts and half the dinners, for ten, is a figure you feel in a restaurant — especially with children who eat early and not much.

The fair comparison adds everything up: accommodation, the meals out you would not need with a kitchen, and parking — which at a town hotel can be another line on the bill.

What changes with children

• The hours are yours. The hotel pool opens and closes on its schedule; the villa's is ten metres from the living room and never closes. Naps happen in their own room, not on a shared sunlounger.
• A washing machine and a kitchen. A week with small children and no washing machine explains itself. So does dinner at six without waiting for a table.
• The honest warning: private pools are usually not fenced — ours is not either. A hotel has a lifeguard and opening hours; at a villa, the eyes are yours. With very small children this genuinely matters, and it should be decided knowingly.

Two families: the acid test

A hotel splits the group into rooms and reunites it in public spaces: breakfast with everyone, the pool with everyone. A villa does the opposite: each family gets its own sleeping quarters, and the shared life — living room, kitchen, garden, pool — is private. With parking inside the grounds for everyone's cars, which in Pollença in August is not a small thing. It is what a house sleeping ten is designed for, and we cover the area in detail in things to do with the family.

When the hotel wins

No tricks: some trips are hotel trips. A couple, a one- or two-night getaway, a holiday without a car — a villa runs on having one — or the kind of week where you refuse to cook or tidy anything at all. A cooked breakfast, a spa and a kids' club have no equivalent in a house, and those who want them know it. If that is your trip, the official Balearic tourism site has plenty to choose from.

Quick questions

Is the villa cheaper than the hotel? From six or eight people up, almost always: one price divided across the group, plus the meals the kitchen takes care of. For two people, almost never.

Does a villa have daily cleaning like a hotel? No: the norm is an end-of-stay clean, and it is part of why the total comes out better. If you want daily service, you want a hotel — better to know it beforehand.

What about breakfast? Nobody makes it for you, but there is the Sunday market and the town's bakeries. For many people that shop is part of the holiday; if that is you, you will like the villa.

When should you book each? Specific villas, between November and February, as we explain in the guide to renting a villa in Pollença. Hotels hold out longer. And what is still free this season is published with dates and prices.

If yours is the kind of group a villa solves, check Villa Pontarró's availability — sleeps ten, five bedrooms, four bathrooms — and ask us whatever the listing does not answer. We are the owners and we reply within 24 hours.