New company lets you rent a village

Are you a) looking for a different kind of holiday, b) underwhelmed by the lack of grandeur found in hotels and c) obnoxiously rich? Well, we might have something for you.

Rent-A-Village allows affluent holidaymakers the chance to takeover an entire town for just £38,000 ($60,000) a night. The company offers a choice of ten different places, all in Europe.

But what exactly do you get for your money? Well, you can name all the street corners, cafes, restaurants and parks and then hire the local villagers to entertain you. In other words, you can pretty much do whatever you like, no matter how strange it might sound.

It's clearly a niche idea but one that's already been used by companies, including Hyundai and Siemens. Probably to teach them something about how to degrade the underlings.

Strangely, there are 10 villages who offer their services, and, more disturbingly, their people for this, including Mariazell in Austria (pictured above), Braunlage in Germany and Engelberh in Switzerland.

If you fancy controlling some minions for a week then check out the official site here. Be nice though.

(Image: Rex Features)