First guests and first snow in sunny Spain
Our life here has not revolved entirely around the
animals. It was our plan from the very beginning to
convert two of our outbuildings into self catering
accommodation to rent out for holidays. Of course,
things take time and with the work involved in housing
the horses and building paddocks and the pool, our
renovation plans took a bit of a back seat for a while.
We finally started work on the conversions in the autumn
of 2002, with the intention of being open for business
by summer 2003. We had a deadline of mid June, as the
daughter of one of our friends from England, was taking
her exams and planning her first holiday with friends to
celebrate the end of school. Four sixteen year old girls
might not be everyone’s idea of ideal first guests, but
at least they wouldn’t be too fussy if things weren’t
quite finished! (and our boys and their Spanish friends
were more than happy about it!)
Over the years, through necessity, I had learned how to
build and prided myself on being a pretty competent
renderer. This was such a bonus, as Clive and I could
work together at weekends, then when Clive went back to
work on Monday I could be left to carry on.
I have to admit that I enjoyed every minute of it and it
was completely addictive. It was quite normal for us to
work every night until dark, when we would make a quick
meal and collapse exhausted.
The buildings we were converting were very old and we
were determined to keep all the rustic charm. It was a
really rewarding project and we were so pleased with the
end result – a quaint little two bedroom cottage.
We made it in time for the girls by the skin of our
teeth, and having them as our first guests meant that we
could sort out any teething problems before the ‘real’
guests arrived.
Advertising had been a big worry. To start with you have
to make a decision on when to advertise, not knowing for
sure if you are going to be ready, but needing to
advertise in time to catch the summer trade. Thank
goodness it worked out o.k.!
We were so happy that we had finally achieved our dream,
but it quickly turned into a nightmare when our first
official guests arrived the following week. Suddenly it
was real, we had strangers staying next door and our
home didn’t seem our home anymore. Had we made a huge
mistake?
We welcomed the lovely Irish family and showed them
around, then retreated into our courtyard and hid! We
were like prisoners in our own home, feeling that if we
went outside we would be on display and also invade our
guests’ privacy. What had we done?
Thankfully, we quickly got used to it, and have been
very lucky to always have lovely people staying with us.
It is quite normal for us to have a glass of wine with
them on their patio in the evening, and a lot of guests
have become good friends over the years, with many
repeat bookings.
Families with children are in their element with all the
animals, though one Polish family had us worried to
begin with! Their two children were lovely, the eight
year old girl being horse mad and loving all animals. I
was slightly concerned, however, to be told that the
five year old boy was terrified of animals, and that
they had specifically chosen us to try to cure him of
his phobia, by saturation! Thankfully it worked and by
the time he went home he was happily stroking the dogs!
It has been interesting to find that though we expected
to have all English guests, we actually get people from
all over the world. We also get all age groups, from
young couples, to families, to older couples looking for
a peaceful holiday away from it all.
It is certainly never boring. Now in our third year we
are enjoying bookings of more than 30 weeks a year.
More recently we have tried to target people looking for
riding holidays too, as a way of paying the horses keep!
It is more difficult to advertise for a specific market
though, but we are starting to get more riders now, and
this summer we had a few families staying who wanted to
ride every day.
One year we had two lovely Norwegian teenagers for a
riding weekend. Their families were staying locally and
as the girls were keen riders they came to stay with us
in our home, to live as part of the family and ride and
swim. We all had a lovely time, the boys particularly
enjoying the swimming and sunbathing bit! The girls
returned the following year for a whole week.
This is now something we are keen to offer but again it
is quite difficult to reach the right market when
advertising.
We do of course have a small income from offering riding
to local people and holiday makers, and a large
proportion of our guest cottage guests do ‘have a go’ at
least once during their holiday, even if they are not
riders.
We are very lucky to have easy, off road access to
endless tracks through spectacular mountain scenery – an
absolute paradise for riding. Though we do give lessons,
we try whenever possible to teach as we ride in the
countryside, so that everyone can benefit from the
scenery. We cater for all levels of riders, and it is
surprising how many men get roped into having a go by
their ‘horsey’ partners. We have discovered quite a few
budding riders this way, usually to their complete
surprise they find that they actually enjoy it! Hercules
is a great help, he really looks after his rider and
seems to know just what is required of him.
As we all know, the winters here can be a bit of a shock.
Over the years we have learnt how to manage, and can now
keep our own house quite cosy. It is always hard work
though, for us to ensure that our guests are warm when
it gets really cold. We do spoil them by providing
electric blankets, but it can come as a bit of a shock
to holiday makers expecting hot sunny Spain all year
Having said that, we are incredibly lucky when the sun
does shine aren’t we, with lovely hot sunny days in the
depth of winter. We decided last year that we were
frustrated with our guests being able to sunbathe in
lovely hot temperatures from September to June, but not
being able to use the pool. We made the decision to buy
a pool heater and it has been a real bonus. We do
struggle a little bit to keep the pool at 28 degrees
when it is really cold, but most of the time it works
really well. We couldn’t have chosen a worse winter to
have it installed though! – December to February 04/05
must have been the coldest on record! When we started
heating the pool that December, little did we know what
was in store – trying to heat a pool in temperatures of
minus 10 is not easy!
It was hard enough for the house to cope – thank
goodness that we didn’t have guests staying the day the
pipes froze!
It was a nightmare for the horses as well, with their
water trough being frozen every day.
How amazing the snow was though! We couldn’t believe it
when it started snowing and actually settled quite deep
on the ground. The horses were fascinated – it must have
been the first snow they have ever seen. It was lovely
to see them with snow on their backs – a sure sign that
they were warm and not losing any body heat through
their coats!
To be continued……………
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