Introducing the Hayes Guide

Following our first interview with Ben Cooper, travel writer and editorial director at Travel Intelligence, we are continuing along the theme of providing insider knowledge and advice from local experts to help you get the most out of your holidays.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking to David and Jessica Hayes, who live and work in Spain’s Costa Blanca.

Simon: Firstly tell me a little bit about yourselves?

David and Jessica: We moved to Spain after returning to the UK from 7 years in the tourism business. Very quickly our lives were going in separate directions, I started working for the ambulance and Jess picked up her original profession in beauty therapy. We both missed the tourism industry life, so we looked all over Europe and decided that Spain and, in particular the South of Alicante region was going to be a good destination from a business and lifestyle point of view. We’ve lived in Spain for four years now.

We found our love for travel by starting as holiday reps for a very popular tour company specialising in Lakes and Mountains and Ski. We lived and worked in Austria, France and finally their flagship resort in Colorado USA. Starting off as young reps over the 7 years we worked our way up to being managers of there largest resorts managing our teams as well as researching and implementing ski guiding days in the winter and walking routes in the summer all of these guided by ourselves and many other events including quizzes, bowling and adrenaline activities.

We worked with a local charity group arranging their days out around the Costa Blanca and nearby Costa Calida. The script that the group gave us was ‘find the real Spain’ and not to take them to where the local competitors were taking their customers, a programme which never changed.

The television show “Living in the Sun” followed our journey trying to set up the travel business here on the Costa Blanca South. The idea was to work with our local charity doing around 12 different days out with them and then sharing those days with other local groups and societies in the area as well as offering a programme for locals via advertising in the local papers.

Having completed the 12 day itinerary over the year we still found ourselves no further with the successful application of our licence that we needed to open the business out to the world!!! We were under the impression that we could just hold a licence for offering coach trips for days out and short holidays only. Thus keeping our overheads down and having our office at home with all our bookings coming via the phone and Internet. However when we came to completing the paperwork we found that we had to be an official Travel Agent with our own office of 30 square meters and selling all the products that they do, eg flight tickets cruises and package holidays. Then to top it off we had to submit a 60,000 euro bond to the governing body to guarantee the business. So to summarise we could not afford this and were not willing to take the gamble on the outlay of the commercial unit etc.

When we moved to Spain we had no income and a mortgage to pay = not a great situation to be in, we needed to earn a living. We had brought a new house in an area which was very new in its development and like us had people moving in everyday into their homes, most of which would be their holiday or second homes. There was a gap in the market for a professional small company to manage these holiday homes for them. With our experience in managing the chalets in Ski resorts we thought we can act on this. So 4 years ago Hayesinspain property management was born 

Simon: What is the Hayes guide and what inspired you to create it?

David and Jessica: As we always strive to up the service levels with new ideas the guide was born. We started out by writing an orientation of the local area in A4 print, stapled together about 40 pages in all about how to get from the houses that we manage to the local attractions. We had a lot of success with it and certainly our owners and their visitors appreciated the guidance. So after a couple of years and the lack of success with the coaches we thought we need a new challenge and the love of exploring wasn’t going away. We embarked on writing a guidebook for the Costa Blanca South and the surrounding areas.

The idea for the Hayes guide was born when we were running our day trips and were constantly asked by holidaymakers where to go and what the area had to offer. It was very much about providing holidaymakers with the opportunity to enjoy everything the local area had to offer based upon expertise from people who actually live there.

Full time residents have found the guide invaluable when family members and friends have come to visit as they just give them the book and then they can choose where they would like to go / what they would like to see.

The guide also serves as a useful tool for holiday homeowners who can use it in their properties to introduce guests to the area. Not only does it feature information on local attractions but it also includes detailed directions, photographs, maps and contact information.

Simon: Excellent stuff. Well I’m sure you can probably recall the revelation last year when a Lonely Planet author admitted to making parts of the guide he was writing up, so it’s excellent that the Hayes guide has been written by people who actually ‘Live’ in the area. What I’m also really interested in is that users can actually submit their own information to the Hayes guide. Can you tell me more about that?

David and Jessica:

Yes, holiday homeowners can actually send in information on attractions in the vicinity and these will be included within the next edition. The Hayes guide will continually evolve whilst representing a useful resource for holidaymakers.

Simon: Do you have any plans for additional travel guides?

David and Jessica:

Yes, we are really keen to expand and help holidaymakers discover the real Spain, and we have a number of ideas to diversify the range of guides. The feedback so far has been excellent, both from the local community and holidaymakers who have used the guide, so it’s really positive.

Simon: What are your thoughts on the relatively recent technological developments, which allow holidaymakers to access, travel related content on their mobile phones (most notably the Apple iPhone)? And do you think this presents a threat to traditional ‘paper’ travel guides?

David: I think there will always be a place for a tangible travel guide that people can pick up and take with them while there are on holiday. I think it’s also worth remembering that not everyone is technology savvy or wants to use such technology aboard.

Jessica: I think having a mobile phone while on holiday is just another reminder of being in the office, and a paper travel guide helps to really ‘escape’ for the notion of work.

Simon: I think I agree with you there, and certainly mobile phone roaming charges can also prohibit use, not to mention the limits on quality information and high-resolution photos, which just cannot be achieve sufficiently on mobile phones. But anyway, I really enjoyed reading the Hayes guide, particularly the driving directions and your maps.

Where can holidaymakers get hold of a copy of the Hayes Guide?

David and Jessica: The guides are available at a number of selected outlets in the Costa Blanca and copies can also be purchased on our website www.hayesguide.com

Simon: Thank you both very much for your time. Next week we'll publish your top five sights for a two week holiday within the Costa Blanca, which I'm sure will give us all another excuse to escape the British summer to Southern Spain!

To book your own memorable break, why not browse the range of Spanish villas and apartments in the Costa Blanca today, and book direct with the owners. Alternatively, share your own favourite places in Costa Blanca South in the comments below.