2024, IT WAS A GREAT YEAR!
It’s been a while since we’ve let you hear from us, but certainly not without reason! Wow, what a fantastic season we have had in our beautiful Posada in Ojén. Lots of new faces and ‘old acquaintances’ who wanted to spend a few days or a week at the ‘Posada’ again. We enjoyed it again. Hardly imaginable for others: long days in the hotel, although tiring, are still experienced as non-work. It’s all far too much fun. All our guests went out again full of enthusiasm to discover beautiful places, take nice walks but above all enjoy the beautiful spots and terraces of our picturesque Ojén.
Season ’24
From the moment we reopened in February until November, we had full house, with a short breather here and there of a day or two. It was so incredibly nice to be busy with everything in and around the hotel. We were again able to welcome guests from all over Europe, from Australia to Canada, Scandinavia to South Africa and everything in between.
Marbella is also a popular coastal resort for holidays at home, so we were also able to welcome many Spaniards during the summer months. Everyone comes to southern Spain, of course, partly for the wonderful temperatures, and Costa del Sol certainly lived up to its name. With a record summer in terms of temperatures, with the mercury not dropping below 35 degrees in the months of July, August and even September it still hovered around 30 degrees daily. Consequently, good use was made of our lovely refreshing swimming pool, perfect for cooling off after a hot day.
Travellers Choice Award
We have been there since 2019 but after 1 year, of course, we got the Corona, a major setback. After all the tough years, we are now doing very well, we were able to keep our team intact for the second year. And you notice that, this gives a lot of peace and satisfaction in a full and incredibly busy season, because sometimes it was really hard work. We would never have managed this without our hard-working staff. We have had a great team together for some time now and in 2025 everyone will be there again. Partly thanks to them, we have been known for years with a 9.3 at Booking.com and for the 2nd year we have even been selected by Tripadvisor as ´Best of the Best´ at the Travellers Choice Awards worldwide, which means we are among the best of the top 1% hotels worldwide. Of course, as a whole team, we are super proud of this!
Our Team
Our regular ladies Saida, Aicha and Claudia were again working at full speed in the blood heat, making sure our rooms were fresh day after day. And then there are Ana, Elske and Maria Carmen, who wrapped up the guests with their Spanish charm, picked everyone up with the buggy from the car park, showed them around Andalusia and, in quiet periods, baked the most delicious cakes and prepared the homemade marmalade. Hospitality and hospitality is our number one priority.
And for the 2nd year there was Fran, Mata for intimates, our regular from Ojén. Always helping with breakfast and dinner with his beautiful raspy voice but he is mainly used with his maintenance skills and his painting abilities, so the hotel stays ´Ojén´ white all year round.
And finally, our daughter Roosmarijn who helped with breakfast and dinner, still proud to see our daughter with the guests, asking in various languages how you want your egg fried. These days she also tries to take administration from us, this will be a great prospect as she wants to do Hotel School in the Netherlands. The twins are also already eager and have already helped our team a few times, cooperating very nicely until the final washing and cleaning needs to be done, but that’s part of the job too.
Sometimes Alex puts on his chef’s jacket again and creates the most beautiful creations, our chef with 25 years of restaurant experience. Often a Paella was made LIVE for 30 people with the sounds of Spanish music in the background, other days there were the Spanish tapas evenings, where the tapas were served slightly differently and very culinary, this year this will happen again, with enough enthusiasm, exclusively for hotel guests and the residents of our holiday homes.
Nowadays accompanied by the finest wines from Benito, our local wine supplier, with fine wines at finally a nice price again.
Fiesta
Almost every weekend there was a festivity. From Ojeando (pop festival) to a Gay pride and from a chess tournament to Halloween, the Spanish know how to party. 2024 the year Spain became European football champion, watching the final in the square with all the guests, big party, but we also just celebrate Chestnut Day here. Semana Santa (literally: Holy Week) is the name used in Spanish-speaking countries for Holy Week. This year in the week of 17 April, the week before Easter, which is lavishly marked. Lots of processions, some in Ojén, slightly more and bigger in Marbella and huge numbers (even at night) in Malaga and Seville. And then there is the annual Feria in October, which takes place here in all its glory every year. Six days of partying from noon until late (or early, 7am…) in the night/morning. We decided to close the hotel during these days, as we do want to give our guests some sleep, as well as ourselves.
