Renting your own villa in the sun is about as close to holiday heaven as you can get. Think about it: a stone-built farmhouse encircled by olive groves overlooking a perfect little beach, your own private swimming pool to share with family and friends, a barbecue and a terrace where you can eat beneath the stars. Bliss.

Yet there is one snag with booking a villa holiday — you have to rent the property for seven or 14 days and arrive on the day dictated by the owners. Wouldn’t it be marvellous if you could decide exactly when and for how long? Rather than take a whole week, you could whizz off for a long weekend of quiet relaxation. Well, guess what — that’s exactly what you can do this year.

As tour operators find it increasingly hard to sell holidays in the difficult months of April, May, June and October, they are coming up with new ways to entice us to part with our cash. The latest is flexible villa stays — or villa short breaks. You can now fly to France, Spain, Italy or Portugal and spend three nights in a luxury home, chill out with your loved ones, then fly back in time for work on Monday morning. Think of it as a bonsai summer holiday.

It’s a win-win situation for holidaymakers, who can now tailor their trips to fit with the cheapest no-frills flights, using the airline and departure airport of their choice. In some cases, it will also produce tremendous bargains for those prepared to pick up the blocks of unsold days.

Proof of this was seen last summer when one tour operator, Open Holidays (01903 215215, www.openholidays.co.uk), introduced flexible stays at its villas in Mallorca, Minorca, Andalusia, the Algarve and the Costa Blanca. Most people, given a choice of dates, booked three or four nights over a weekend, leaving blocks of two or three nights midweek. The company sold this spare availability on its website as late deals. Some three- bedroom villas sold for as little as £65 a night in July.

Below is a selection of short villa stays available in 2004.

Prices are for the whole property unless stated

The Individual Travellers Company (0870 077 1771, www.indiv-travellers.com) is introducing short breaks at 645 of its 1,400 properties in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, with a minimum stay of three nights and a maximum of five, starting on any day of the week. The offer applies only in low season: until May 21 and from October 1 in France and Italy; and until April 1 and from October 1 in Spain and Portugal.

For instance, three nights at a newly built villa (ref AX393) in Casabermeja, Andalusia, sleeping two adults and three children, costs from £407, including car hire but not flights. The villa has wooden beams, traditional floors and panoramic views to the Sierra Nevada and the Med, and is just half an hour from Malaga airport. There are flights to Malaga from more than 20 UK airports: EasyJet (0870 600 0000, www.easyjet.com) has fares from Bristol, East Midlands, Gatwick, Liverpool and Luton from £41.

Carefree Italy (01293 552277, www.carefree-italy.com) allows renters to pick and choose dates — except in peak season — at villas, castles, apartments and farmhouses in Tuscany, Umbria, Le Marche, Lazio, Veneto, Campania and Sicily. Prices are per night, regardless of the length of stay. You could, for instance, rent Rustico Mazzorbo, a 17th-century villa on a private island in Venice, which comes with its own motorboat. Until May 28, it costs just £112 per night and sleeps four.

In neighbouring Veneto, four could share Tenuta Castel Venezze, a 14th-century villa with its own pool and private grounds, just an hour from Venice. It costs £92 per night between April 3 and May 28. Car hire costs from £25 a day. Current good deals to Venice include Ryanair (0870 600 0000, www.ryanair.com), which flies from Stansted (to Treviso) from about £42; and Easy Jet (to Marco Polo) from Bristol, East Midlands and Stansted from £41.

Open Holidays (as before) is one of the few companies to offer flexible villa stays throughout the summer, although it does charge a small premium. It divides the price for a week by five and multiplies by the number of days taken. In Minorca, for instance, a week’s stay in April at Bini Jasmin, a three-bedroom villa that sleeps six and has a private pool, covered dining terrace and sea views, would cost £325. Take it for three nights and you’ll pay £195. Gatwick flights cost £165pp and a car costs from £26 per day.

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