[View of Villa Teresa, a three-bedroom luxury villa in Italy]

Villa rentals are an increasingly popular vacation choice, but compared to the fairly standard arrangement in hotels (generally designed to fit one family per room), villas offer a wide diversity of sizes that can make deciding on the right one a difficult choice.

The most important consideration, of course, is how many people are going on the trip. Villas differ in the sizes of beds, but it’s generally standard that you will be able to fit two people per bedroom; if you really try, you might be able to squeeze in three for a Queen or King size mattress, but two is a good rough estimate. So, when looking at villas, double the number of bedrooms to get the optimum capacity of the villa. If it’s too small, move on.

Next, consider the style of your vacation. If you have a family of four and somebody is known for snoring, you may want to allow them a chance to have their own room… so a three bedroom villa is probably the best size. If multiple families are traveling, you’ll probably want two or three bedrooms per-family, depending on the number of children. This does sound the same as the number of people going, but it’s important to keep in mind that if you’re traveling in a group, parts of that group will probably want to be closer than others, and you should try to accommodate that as best your budget will allow. Two children from different families may or may not be comfortable sharing a room with each other, after all.

For couples, however, it should be noted that as cozy and romantic as one-bedroom villas are, there aren’t many of them. Many Italian villas, for example, are converted from former homes or were once used as apartments, and they weren’t really designed for just two people to enjoy. You are in luck, though; many Caribbean villas have a pricing scheme based on the number of rooms rented, so you can often get a rental towards the lower end of the price range if you decide you don’t need all of those extra bedrooms. One-bedroom villas are relatively rare compared to others, but the ability to rent less than the entire building is a convenient detail occasionally available that can really help you find the right location for your trip.