You might be thinking, “how does an independent outdoor holiday company make sure that its guests have a great time?”
My wife Carolyn and I have organised walking holidays on Menorca since 2004. Over the years we have grown and have also run painting and cycling holidays on Menorca, along with expanding onto the neighbouring islands of Mallorca and Ibiza. We were very much aware that, as we grew, we would be competing with bigger and more established competition. We didn’t have the funds to compete with these companies on a head to head basis and would only continue to exist if people enjoyed what we do and would recommend us to their friends. How did we achieve this? The answer ….. personal service, attention to detail and, above all, obsessive planning.
Having worked together in our own advertising agency during the 90’s, we were used to meticulous preparation and working together as a team. To be honest, we’d come to Menorca with a view to early retirement and had never been on a walking holiday before or even been members of a walking club. What we did have, however, was a joint love of the great outdoors, along with a passion for good food and wine. This was the combination that we decided would work as a concept and, to this day, we spend as much time researching local restaurants as we do researching the walks themselves. When we first started Menorca Walking Holidays this process was easy and all we had to do was choose 5 good restaurants at the end of 5 interesting walks. This, coupled with finding good quality accommodation at the right price, gave us a fairly stress free life. As the business grew, however, we had to up our game.
Over 70% of our guests are returners, which is great news. However, Menorca is a small island and we were starting to run out of new walks. In short, it was a case of either expanding what we offered or watch our guests go somewhere else with another company. For this reason, we moved into Mallorca and Ibiza, along with launching cycling and painting holidays on our home island. This meant that we now had 4 or 5 times more research to take care of during our “down time” and were constantly flying between the 3 islands in an effort to find new routes, different restaurants and top quality accommodation. Fortunately, we both speak good Spanish/Catalan and can converse with our suppliers in their own language. We often have a wry smile when, at the end of the walking season, our guests ask us if we are looking forward to our holidays and “putting our feet up” for a few months.
We are, however, aware that we’ve got a job that most people could only dream of and one that suits our obsessive personalities. When we speak to old friends in the advertising business and explain to them that we’ve had a hard day walking by the side of the Med and had to try out a new restaurant, we don’t receive a whole lot of sympathy!
John & Carolyn