Location, location, location. Not only when it comes to purchasing real estate – but also when it comes to choosing your next holiday destination – location is an important (or the most important?) factor. Anyone who does not want to spend their scarce holiday days among other Dutch, Belgians and English people in a city that never sleeps…

“Do you ever miss the Netherlands?” I’m walking our guests to their room, while they ask me this question. I don’t have to think for long. “No, I feel completely at home here.” I think the way I say it is quite decisive, because the guests start laughing. “You sound just like Iris.” “From B&B Vol Liefde (a Dutch television show)?” I ask. They nod and I smile. I love Spain.

Everyone knows Booking.Com. Anyone who starts a Bed & Breakfast can hardly ignore the platform. Because a large number of our current guests still use this booking site, we have to deal with the high commission costs. But at least it will get us known by a large public. Some of whom will become regulars. And when they become a regular, they usually will no…

As I feed one sheet after another to the laminator, I run my eyes over the words. Our new ‘swimming pool manual’, which has been compiled by an officially recognized company, consists of no less than twenty-six pages. In addition to the specifications of our swimming pool and the pump, the manual for its maintenance and various provisions that must be taken…

There doesn’t seem to me to be a greater contrast than that between August and September at the moment. While we were still packed in August, people seem to be slowing down in the first weeks of September. Many restaurants are closed and I hear from various suppliers that this also applies to a large number of other companies. No problem.

A year ago, all three of us obtained our Manipulador de Alimentos certificate online (the Spanish version of the so-called Food Hygiene certificate). One of the many requirements that a Bed & Breakfast owner in Spain must meet and (in retrospect) one of the few things that we clearly had in mind well before opening. Because although I once ran the entire Valencian decree…

It is the first time in a long time that we are cooking for our guests again. It’s Tuesday and all restaurants in both Benialí and Benissivà remain closed for dinner. While our guests used to be able to go to L’Aplec on Tuesday evening, Luisa has now closed her restaurant doors. Just like her, El Jabalí (already) and La Placeta (from this weekend on) are also going…

Ten months ago we received our first guests. The English Mike and Angie, who did not want to drive home after a party, and our aunts Alexa and Annette, who traveled from Tournai (Belgium), via the ‘Camino El Cid’ (Burgos-Valencia), to their nieces in Spain on bicycle. Although we had a few very quiet winter months shortly after opening, the number of…

When I finally fall into my chair in the office after a long day of work and open the laptop again, I see that the computer would like to be updated. I can’t suppress a deep sigh. “I will do that first thing in September,” I think to myself. While I enter the details of the guests, who arrived an hour ago, into the system, I quickly stuff the three remaining pieces of cinnamon…

Temperatures fluctuate between thirty and forty degrees during the day and twenty and twenty-five degrees during the night. The sparrows, so to speak, are falling from the roof. And the pigeons – which refused to respect my sister’s no-fly zone all spring – are nowhere to be seen. While the guests seek refuge in the air-conditioned rooms or the cool pool water…