In conversation with Mireille Bos-Hentzen

“As a child, I loved my visits to France. It’s hardly surprising given that as a family we visited new destinations almost every year for our 3 weeks summer vacation. The 'classic' story of discovering a new region every year, tasting and enjoying the local French cuisine.

As a result, I undertook an internship in Paris to complete my “hotel school” education which was the obvious thing to do. The chosen location, a hotel near Orly airport, was not anything 'fancy', but it gave me and my friends the chance to enjoy our free time exploring the city, getting to know all the great places, it was fantastic! The real excitement was discovering the non-touristy places of the city which many of the "Parisians" living in the outskirts did not know about, it was really incredible! 

Lunch is “sacred”!

On arrival at the hotel for my internship, I was immediately thrown into the deep end. Initially working on reception with a French colleague, I soon found my feet and was trusted to work unsupervised which was excellent for my language development. I clearly recall that everything stopped for lunch, the French dropped everything for “Déjeuner 'sacré”, very different to home!!

At the end of my internship, I was delighted to be offered a permanent position and immediately jumped at the opportunity to continue my budding career in this great industry, little did I know that I would end up staying for 7 years in Paris! After that great experience working in many different hotels and in various roles, I received an offer to work in Amsterdam.

Champagne versus chocolate!

When back home, I quickly got slipped into the old routines however I still laugh about my first Christmas back when I said to my colleagues: "Oh good, we're going to have a glass of champagne". The response was not what I expected, that being, "Champagne? No, we are having a drink of hot chocolate with a piece of Christmas bread". I think I preferred the French way!!

After a few years back in the Netherlands, I started to get “itchy feet” once again. Luckily a position at a hotel on the Côte d’Azur, with the sun, the sea, a place I had always dreamed of however this time it was returning to “sweet France” with my new husband! Of course, the grass isn't always greener on the other side and there was a lot of hard work however the weekends were free and allowed for plenty of exploring and there’s always a party somewhere!

Prefer to be your own boss anyway!

With the sea literally around the corner, the option of a road trip to the hinterland, or crossing the Italian border for a touch of the Italian Riviera, there’s always a huge choice of things to do in the South of France.

I have been living in Nice for 15 years now and feel a lot richer for this great experience. During the past 9 years, I have opened several new offices for “Booking.com” in the South of France and was ultimately became responsible for the whole of France as their country manager. Despite this success, I still had the desire to be my own boss and decided in 2020 that this should be the year to start a franchise for “Happy Holiday Homes” with a business partner.

‘The best of both worlds’

At Happy Holiday Homes we look at the whole picture for the benefit of our clients. We literally look after everything, from the rental booking of a house, villa, or apartment to welcoming guests, the cleaning, all required maintenance, you name it, nothing is too difficult. The perfect management of your precious vacation home is “our primary responsibility” as I always say.

Finding the right management company can be stressful and time-consuming and we look to take this stress away from owners. Just on the advertising front, for example, we advertise your vacation home on more than thirty international rental sites, with all the details and of course using high-quality professional photos.

It is also key that I use my experience and knowledge of the 'hospitality' market for homeowners to have direct contact and establish great relationships with the clients on their vacation. For me it is 'the best of both worlds', working and living with a vacation feeling, who wouldn't want that?"

More information: https://www.happy.rentals/cotedazur

This article was originally published on https://kijkzuidfrankrijk.com