Riu rau d’Arnauda · Marina Alta
About
A name that
was already here
Riu Rau Rentals looks after holiday homes in Jávea and along the Costa Blanca. We didn’t invent the name: we borrowed it from the architecture of this part of the coast.
The name
riu rau
n. · Marina Alta
They went up all over the region during the 18th and 19th centuries, when raisins were what almost everyone here lived on. The grapes were laid out under the arches and left there: sun on one side, air on the other, and someone keeping an eye out for rain.
When raisins stopped paying, many of them fell down or ended up as garages. Others are still standing, and a few still host a market on Sundays.
What a riu rau did was easy to say and hard to keep up: give shelter, let the air through, and keep watch for exactly as long as it takes. We couldn’t think of a better way to explain what we do.
The riu raus of the Marina Alta, one by oneWho we are
We’re not an estate agency.
We’re neighbours with keys.
We’re from Jávea and we live in Jávea. Before looking after other people’s houses we’ve been all three of the people in this story: travellers arriving without knowing a soul, owners with an empty house and too many questions, and neighbours who see what tourism does to a town when nobody’s watching.
Almost everything comes from that: we know what you’re grateful for when you arrive, we know what keeps an owner awake at night, and we know what we don’t want happening here.
We work with few houses on purpose. We’d rather know them all than have a lot of them.
What we believe
Four things
we don’t negotiate
-
01
We don’t work with speculators
We look after houses belonging to families and private owners, not investment portfolios. Jávea has a housing problem and we’re not going to side with the problem.
-
02
We choose who stays
Not every booking works for us. We want people who treat the house as their own and get on with the neighbours next door. Saying no to some bookings is part of the job.
-
03
Tourism the town can carry
We recommend local shops, we work with local suppliers and we explain the place before anyone sets foot in it. People who understand where they are cause less trouble and enjoy it more.
-
04
Winter, against the season
August fills up on its own; November is the hard one. We work the winter sun for northern Europe with long stays and prices that make sense out of season. In January this place is far better than people think.
Riu Rau Rentals in numbers
- Houses we look after
- 19
- Corners of the Costa Blanca
- 11
- Languages we’ll answer you in
- 4
- Middlemen between you and us
- 0
From the Port to the Montgó, from the Arenal to Cala Baladrar, from Jesús Pobre to the Cumbre del Sol. Every house we manage is published on this website: there is no separate list.
What they say
This part isn’t
written by us
Reviews from guests who have stayed in our houses.
What you ask us
The usual questions
Where exactly are you from?
We’re a local company from Jávea and we live here. That’s the difference with a management company running houses from another province: we know the town, we know which shops open in January, and we bump into the neighbours on the streets where our houses are. When something breaks on a Sunday, we’re ten minutes away.
How many houses do you manage, and where are they?
Nineteen, spread across Jávea, Benissa, Benitachell and Dénia. They are all published on this website: there is no separate list and no houses held back for certain people. We keep the number low on purpose, because we’d rather know them all than have a lot of them.
Do you work with investors or funds?
No. We only manage homes belonging to families and private owners. Jávea has a problem with access to housing and we don’t want to be part of it: if a house was bought to speculate with, we don’t take it on. It’s the one line we don’t cross.
I have a house here — what would you do with it?
Full management of the holiday rental: photography, pricing, bookings, every guest’s arrival and departure, cleaning and maintenance. We also do refurbishment and interior design, we handle the sale if you decide to sell, and we run audits and mentoring for owners who just want an opinion on what they already have in place. Fair rates, and no middlemen in between.
What do you mean by responsible tourism?
Tourism the town can sustain all year round. In practice: choosing who stays, recommending local shops and working with local suppliers, explaining the place before anyone sets foot in it, and fighting seasonality with long winter stays instead of packing everything into August.
Can I book directly with you?
Yes, and it's what we prefer. No middlemen and no platform fees: you talk to the same people who look after the house, before, during and after. We answer in Spanish and English.
Where to go next
And who are you?
Neither of the two? Write to us anyway: hola@riuraurentals.com +34 679 95 00 12