Mary-Phyllis Nogueira segued a thirst for adventure into Private Homes for Private Vacations villa management company.
She and her husband, Ron, fell in love with St. John on a 1963 vacation, bought a house on a handshake and in 1974 made the move permanent.
That’s the short version, but since Nogueira is a wonderful storyteller the longer version is filled with delightful anecdotes that tell the tale of how St. John’s now vast vacation villa rental business grew.
The Nogueiras first rented a house at Gallows Point, then a small cottage colony located where Gallows Point Resort currently sits. After deciding to buy property, they initially looked at Chocolate Hole, now a vacation villa hotspot. It was too busy, so they next explored Calabash Boom.
“Too many goats,” Nogueira said.
On their way back to Cruz Bay they spotted a handmade sign by the side of Centerline Road above Coral Bay. Gerry Metcalf had an under-construction house for sale, so the Nogueiras put half down and got a promise from Metcalf that he’d fly up to their home in Massachusetts to collect the rest when the house was done.
After spending Christmas and summers on St. John for several years, Ron Nogueira took a sabbatical from his job as a guidance counselor. The sabbatical became permanent and the two, along with the five children they had at the time, never looked back.
“All of our friends thought we were nuts,” Nogueira said.
They added another daughter to the family after they moved to St. John, and Nogueira delivered her last child at home under the guidance of Dr. Salvatore Tobacco.
Faced with the need to make a living, Ron Nogueira took a job pumping gas and making car repairs. Nogueira soon began managing vacation villas for Sis Frank. Eventually she opened Private Homes for Private Vacations.
It was a family affair then, and it’s still a family affair. Daughter Mary-Eileen Haim, 52, moved back to St. John about 10 years ago to become a partner in the business.
“She wanted to slow down,” Haim said of her mother.
Haim’s husband, David, is Private Home’s electrician. Son John Nogueira does the pools and son Joe Nogueira is the contractor. And Ron Nogueira still does a lot of the maintenance.
With Haim helping run the business, the Nogueiras now spend even more of their time traveling than they did when their children were all still at home. Camping trips across the United States, canoe trips down big rivers and trips to Europe were the norm for this intrepid family.
Things have changed since Mary-Phyllis Nogueira, 72, got into the business back in the 1970s. In those early days, people came for a couple of weeks or a month. Now, she said people visit for three days and think they’ve had a vacation.
Private Homes has 11 homes, but Nogueira and Haim are picky about whose homes they’ll manage. And since they don’t represent any “McMansions,” as some of the newer, more elaborate homes are called, the guests are usually down to earth and expecting a casual vacation.
Nogueira does have some funny stories to tell, however. One guest called to tell her the boiler had blow up.
“It was an earthquake,” she said.
And when guests misbehave, her daughter said Nogueira puts on her “mother voice” and sets them straight.
The vacation villa business has exploded. Nogueira and Haim estimated there are 500 plus villas for rent on St. John. Additionally, many people rent apartments and villas privately, further adding to the islands accommodations mix.
And the Internet has changed how they do business. In the early days, prospective guests wrote to Nogueira and she responded by mail. Today, bookings are done in a jiff.
However, unlike other villa management companies, Nogueira and Haim still have an office at home and they personally meet and greet all their guests instead of hiring others.
Both Nogueira and Haim enjoy the flexibility the vacation villa business provides even though it’s a 24/7 job.
“We can go to the beach,” Nogueira said.
Private Homes can be reached by calling 776-6876 or visiting www.privatehomesvi.com.
