Sunday, 07 January - my cousin Jennifer, her husband Rob and a couple of their friends dropped by this afternoon. They all live in NY but are here in Malaga on holiday. When I saw them at Christmas, they promised to come up and have a look a the hotel. So here they were today. They had a tour of the hotel and then a walk around the village and then back here for some tapas on the terrace. When all was done, they headed off to Ronda and then back down to the coast. That was a nice surprise as I did not know when they would be here.
Again, the weather today has been glorious, sunny, warm and very comfortable. Hope this will last for the next 10 weeks.
Iris did not show for work yesterday as we expected. She went to Belgium with her family for Christmas and we thought she was going to be back yesterday but no word. Guess we'll see if she turns up for work next weekend. Actually, things have been so quiet, better not to have to pay an extra employee when we are not making so much.
This week promises to be quite boring... actually I think it will be this way until after our holiday. We had a family stop by yesterday to look the hotel over in planning a family Saturday night for dinner and stay. They would book the whole hotel in the first or second week of February, a Saturday night.
I have some marketing work I need to get on to. While I was in London on my layover coming back from NY after Christmas, I was checking out some guide books in an airport bookshop on the Costa del Sol and Andalusia to see what they said about this area. Needless to say, there was very little about the Genal Valley or the Serrania de Ronda... there was something in a couple of them but not enough. All of them provide a write in address if a reader knows of an error or omission or a simple update. So I have to write a blurb about this Valley including the other hotels and restaurants and send it in to be considered. That should be done sooner rather than later because I'm guessing the publication date of an update is imminent. I also need to get a few more letters of solicitation out to that list of artists provided to me by Maggie.
I sent a few before Christmas but have received only one response which was not promising. There are a lot more potential artists to write to about workshops and if I want to get the reservation book full, I need to get cracking on that.
I took the Christmas decorations down in the bar this morning and will have Francisco get rid of the lights and tree on the terrace tomorrow. I've taken a couple more bookings for March in the last few days as well. Need more though. And I want to update the website too. Always something to keep one busy when you have a hotel and are building a business.
