THE PROJECT: La Escondida
Yvette Venables and her husband Terry (of England football fame), bought La Escondida as a run-down hostel some 17 years ago and whilst it spenta a long time on the ‘back-burner’, they always planned to do something with it. Now, finally, it has opened as a fully renovated hotel. MICHAEL NORTHCOTT caught up with these newly baptised hoteliers to find out more about the project and their motivations
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PROJECT BRIEF: Refurbish Spanish hostel into hotel
BUDGET: [Not publicised]
PROJECT MANAGER: Yvette Venables
LOCATION: Alicante, Spain
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YVETTE VENABLES
Can you start with a bit of background about the project?
We’ve had the building for about 17 years now. When we took it over, it was a little hostel with 18 very small rooms, owned by the mayor of one of the towns. We were originally looking for a property on the beach and somebody told us the mayor had put the property on sale and asked if would be interested – we originally said no because we did not want something which was inland. Still we were convinced to go and look at it, and upon seeing it we thought it was such a beautiful spot, we bought it.
It was originally built in 1881 as a hunting lodge because there are a lot of deer and wild boar in the area. The indoor pool was built in 1993, though that was nothing to do with us. Terry was trying to get some planning permisssion to build some other things in the area around it, but this was quite a difficult process.
In the meantime, Terry was then starting to get other jobs, so it wasn’t really open during this time. Terry then got the England job, and even after that he went to Australia because he was managing the Soceroos for two years. The hotel kept on being put on the back burner.
Around about this time we did a huge renovation project in Chelsea, in Cheney Walk, an old six-storey house. We spent some years donig that, and once Terry was finished with England and we had already finished with the Cheney Walk project, which was around 6,500 sq ft, we decided then to come and work on this property with some experience in renovating.
What sort of timeframe has this been completed in?
We started doing this renovation about two and a half years ago, about 2012-ish we started to work on it properly, and it opened 6-7 months ago.
What was the brief for this project?
It was 18 rooms originally, and once we started looking at the rooms properly, we thought best to knock two into one with a good chunk of the rooms to create suites, and put new bathrooms in each one. We’re turned it from 18 rooms to 10 rooms in the main building. It was a massive project inside to knock all the walls through and do all the bathrooms.
Was it a case of strip it back to the walls and start again?
Yes, literally back to the walls. We were discovering original stone features behind a lot of the old walls, so in a lot of the completed rooms there is now original stonework exposed. We had all the furniture made in England by a company callred Brown’s. It was quite hard to buy things like furniture and ornaments in Spain for this – it’s OK for a one-off, but if you want 12 of something it gets more complicated. The beds, the furnishings, the fabrics, curtains were all made in the UK too.
The build process took the full two years, then?
It took about two years yes. We built a huge outdoor pool as well, because there wasn’t one before. We’ve also got two cabins in what we call ‘the woods’, five minute waslk from the hotel. They’ve got beautiful views over the valley and are secluded with their own gardens.
You’re a husband-and-wife team, who takles responsibility for what?
It was a team effort, but to be honest it was basically me that dealt with most of it. Terry was obviously there all the time, but I think some people are just a bit clearer in their vision of how things can look than others. I think if I can picture something, I can actually see it.
Where did you draw your inspiration from?
We wanted to aim for the boutique market, because we’re small, and we wanted it to be a ‘sophisticated rustic’ look, if there is such a thing! We didn’t want it to look pretentious, we wanted people to come in and feel completely relaxed and at home as soon as they come through the door. So everything is done in a bit of a ‘countrified’ but smart way. We’ve been fortunate enough to travel everywhere in the world and stay in the best hotels over the years, so we drew from that knowledge becasue we knew what we want from a hotel stay, so we have tried to incorporate that into the hotel here.
Was the hotel operating as a business throughout the 17 years?
No, we did have someone in here [looking after it], and he would sometimes ring and say that some bikers wanted to stay a couple of nights. We had a licence and we might say OK to it, but it wasn’t ‘open’ as such.
What made you look at opening a hotel?
Well, the property was here, and it was one of those things where you think, what shall we do with it? It wasn’t a layout that could be used as a private home – it was more conducive to a hotel. So we thought, it is an ideal location and retreat.
What type of guests have you had in these early days?
The majority of people staying in the rooms are English. There are some Spaniards staying and also some eating too. Because we are rural, we wanted it to be a spanish hotel. So all of our staff speak Valenciana, Spanish and English.
Do they know the name Venables?
We do do some research about how people found out about the hotel before coming to stay here, and some articles were in the Times, the Daily Mail, and we have had a lot of business from that coverage.
What were the hurdles if any?
There were not any major hurdles. We have had a big team of builders here who have been very good and we never actually had anything major go wrong. As you know when you’re starting a project, you have an idea in your head but then as you strip back, you realise that there is a nice exposed piece of stone or something, so the plan changes as you go. But no problems, no.
Are you enjoying it?
It has changed our lfiestlye completely – it is all-consuming, and it is a way of life. It literally takes you over from morning till night, a full time job. Even when we go back to England for a few weeks, or even go on holiday, it never stops. Being the manager, the girls here have never worked in hotels before, so it’s a case of them asking me how to deal with certain things. I told them to ask me absoltuely everything, because I don’t want them to make mistakes.
How big is the team?
The internal team is 15, and the builders side is five. We did have 15 builders at one time, but once we opened the hotel, we cut back on the builders and kept the main crew in. At the moment, we’ve got two huge pegolas being contructed next to the outdoor pool. We’ve got a tennis court, they’ve been renovating that, or finishing off the cabins.
Do you think you’ll stick at it for a few years, or get a general manager?
The way it is going at the moment and the speed at which the girls are picking everything up, I don’t think we’ve got a need for a manager at the moment. I don’t mind doing it – I like the
work. If you look on TripAdvisor, all the comments are about the staff and how good they are.
TERRY VENABLES
I’d seen this land about 16 or 17 years ago, and I thought crikey this place is so stunning, the scenery, the peace and quiet, and you think to yourself, this has got to be something. I came to Spain to do some sport stuff and we looked at doing it around then, but then the crisis came and that put paid to that, so we just parked it for a bit and said hopefully that will come back at some point. We had some properties on the land, which we had renovated, and were looking for something on the beach, but then we saw this beautiful house a little way inland.
We can do weddings and events and so on, but we’re not really in too much of a hurry to do that, as we have a lot on our hands with the hotel. We’ve re-done the indoor pool, and built an outdoor one.
Becoming a hotelier is hardly a retirement plan – how do you feel now that you are running a hotel?
We’ve always had this plan, my wife and I, that we wanted to do something together. We thought it would be a good move, and things are going pretty well I must say. At the moment, it’s OK, but there’s plenty of problems along the way with a business like this. It is a part of the country that I know well, because my mother-in-law has a house around this region as well.
Is there anything from your days managing the England team which you have found useful in managing a hotel?
No, not really. I’m a people person, I like to talk to people, and people like to be spoken to and the like to come up to the hotel and see what it’s like. At the moment, the weather always seems to be pretty good, and it is an easy place to work. Obviously it is a tough business, and we’re not naive enough to imagine there won’t be any problems along the way, but we’re enjoying it – so far so good.
How long do you think you’ll do this job for?
I feel as fit as I have ever done (without tempting fate), because I’m here, there and everywhere, up and down, and I swim three times a week. We know it’s not going to be simple, we know it’s long days and hard work, but I’m fit enough for it, and actually I feel fitter than when I was managing England! Sometimes I think to myself should I do it again [managing football]? It is tempting…