Mike Thiel

Mike Thiel, the building owner/manager, is president and founder of Hideaways International, the pioneer in creating a marketplace for international vacation rentals and luxury travel club services. A writer, photographer, editor and publisher, he has spent more than 40 years traveling the globe in search of it best, most unique vacation experiences. Thiel’s extensive wanderings and little known finds are the essence of Hideaways. Discerning travelers seeking unique vacation experiences join Hideaways to access his travel experience, discerning taste, and discoveries around the globe. Hideaways grew out of Thiel’s yearnings for the villa vacation life and far-from-the-masses travel experiences. A natural-born traveler, Thiel has lived and traveled extensively overseas, first as the son of a United States Diplomatic Corps officer, and later as a management consultant for the oil and gas industry. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree from the Sloan School at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the days when only the rich, famous, and well connected were privy to the secrets of private villa vacations in the Caribbean, Europe, and other parts of the world, Thiel envisioned a villa matchmaking service, linking travelers and vacation homeowners. In 1979, Hideaways grew out of his own frustrations trying to find renters for his New England vacation home, as well as trying to find places for his family to rent around the globe. An outspoken advocate of the villa vacation experience, Thiel was dubbed “Mr. Villa Vacation” by travel writer, Arthur Frommer. For a man who has seemingly been everywhere, where would Thiel consider having a vacation home of his own? For the barefoot life, he singles out Ambergris Caye in Belize; North Captiva Island off the Florida Coast; and Harbour Island in the Bahamas. For the Caribbean of yesteryear, he loves Nevis. For the Anglophile in him, he believes a bucolic cottage in Wales or the Cotswolds is perfect. In fact, “Mr. Villa Vacation” himself does not own a vacation home in any of those places. This notion so intrigued the producers of the Travel Channel’s “Great Vacation Homes”-who had called Thiel to tap his vast vacation home knowledge-that they featured Thiel’s New Hampshire tidewater estate in the series. What does Thiel do when he’s not searching out more Hideaways? “I do the things I love to do -hunting, kayaking, lobstering, fishing, cross-country skiing-around my home,” he says. “When I want a week in the Caribbean, Paris, or anywhere else in the world, I do what I suggest Hideaways members do-I stay in one of our Great Escape properties or a private villa.”

• Languages
  English, Spanish, Arabic, French, Portuguese
• Markets
  Boston
• Property Types
  Office, Retail, Healthcare
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• Websites
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• Company Website
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• Education
  University of Notre Dame, B.S.M.E. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Business, S.M. International Business University of Madrid, Certificate in Spanish Language and Culture