The idea
… of DESconnect came up in 2012 as an alternative to the standard holiday rental market, aimed largely at a mass tourism audience. My first advertisement – a property located in the Penedès region – attracted a huge amount of interest from across Europe and even brought in enquiries from as far afield as the U.S. and Canada. The villa itself, surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, was appealing more for its location than for its category, but guests seems to appreciate above all the authentic nature of the property and the way I answered their questions.
So on arrival, they were more interested in the personal touches of the owners than the villa’s facilities! They also highlighted how difficult it had become to find accommodation of this kind and getting a fast, individual answer.
After this first success, more and more enquiries began to arrive from property owners asking for help in promoting their villas to the international market. But to me, But to me, each house needed to get discovered and deserved individual attention, so it was a long term investment; I didn’t want to build just another holiday rental site with endless listings…
This is, when the project grew and luckily, Andraina joined me 🙂
We had the same approach: We wanted to get to know each and every property first-hand and make our selection. We asked ourselves one key question:
Would we really recommend this place to family and friends?
To be sure of our answer, we decided to have at least one overnight stay in each place. With our strategy clear, we established specific criteria for selecting our holiday rental properties to ensure that each and every home added complies.
As we got to know more and more holiday homes, we were pleasantly surprised to find owners who see their accommodation not just as a business but as a life-long project and had even invested in renewable energy sources and eco-friendly innovation. These were exactly the kind of properties that we aim to promote!
Our mission
Provide great holiday rentals and experiences to slow travellers.
Provide expert property’s knowhow and reservations to their owners.
DESconnect offers more than just holiday rentals or green accommodation.
We see ourselves as an ambassador or a key connection between:
- guests and property and travel providers
- traveller expectations and promoters of sustainable tourism
- cultures from other countries and the locals
- the traditional concept of travel and innovative slow travel ideas.
We believe in discovering a place try as if you were a local, respecting the natural surroundings and with sustainability in mind.
We currently only operate in Barcelona and Catalonia, but have plans to extend our reach into other areas of Spain.
Our Team
Jutta Hübener, founder of DESconnect
My wanderlust was the reason to move 2004 from Cologne-Bonn to Barcelona. Even today, I could not clearly answer the question of whether I’d prefer to live by the sea or in the mountains. I love walking in airy heights, doing bicycle tours and at the same time love to swim in the sea. So Barcelona is the perfect place where everything is possible. Now I feel home here. As a photoholic, I always have my camera handy and take pictures of unusual places. My motto:
Keep calm and travel slow – with your eyes and senses wide open.
Andraina Rockstroh,
I have always enjoyed traveling with my backpack. I have arrived at many different places and have often tried to get into conversation using any available part of my body, very much to the amusement of some villagers in remote parts of the world!
Now I live in Spain and I’m a mother of two children. My way of traveling (and my luggage!) has changed, but not the pleasure of discovering something new. I am now looking for places where we spend our holidays at with my kid’s eyes. I look out for the details, the little things, because I have often experienced that where the children are happy and relaxed, I am as well! My motto:
Travel to unknown places and discover something new in you!
Website development
Albert Sauque, Dimoteca
Translation
- Céline Forestier (French)
- Jennie Magill (English)
- Kàtia Pago (Catalan)
- Paula Juncal (Spanish)
& a special thanks to the property owners for correcting our Spanish and Catalan version of the house descriptions and to all of my friends, helping me with one or another translation. ThanX so much for your support!
Photography
Although most of the pictures are taken by me (Jutta), there are several inputs from property owners, friends & family who provided me with their personal shot. Special thanks to
- Greg Goodwin (Link)
for the Montjuïc portrait session.
Video
Thanks to Pippo for his great work of editing the video intro on the homepage.
Graphic Design and Logo
Claudia Renierkens, renierkens kommunikations-design
Font generated by flaticon.com. Under CC: Freepik and some Icons designed by Luigi Console.
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