Andalucia country hotel, Spain
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
The hotel was designed to have the least possible impact on the area, and this has been so successful that most of our Spanish visitors cannot believe that it was newly built.
The idea was to create a building which fitted so well into the locality that only the local people would know to tell that it was newly built. We studied many different sources to arrive at the final design which is really a combination of a Cortijo and a cloister, but the two work very well together.
The most of the materials that were used to construct our hotel were locally obtained and the material from part of the mountain that was removed to build the hotel was used to create a flat space for local usage.
All the sewage and other water that we use is passed through an environment preserving system which purifies the water and makes it suitable for watering plants and grass areas.
The swimming pool uses NO chemicals to purify the water but uses an ionization system; this purifies the water, is much healthier for the users and does not waste as much water when cleaning the pool.
We utilize NO environmental polluting materials and ALL rubbish is separated and deposited in the local villages’ environmental containers. We have also campaigned for the provision of rubbish separation containers to be placed in all areas, with some success.
Community
Wherever possible we support the local suppliers of ALL products and services that we use in the hotel, whether this is of a technical nature or edible products. We use the local market, for most of the fresh products that we need but unfortunately it is not possible to buy all food products locally and we must travel to the coast to buy many product. Local bread is not very good, wine is very limited locally, herbs are not very much used by the locals and much of the vegetables that we need are also not obtainable locally. As a small hotel our influence is limited so there is no desire from the local shops to stock items that we need.
We would like to do more as far as recommendation of local restaurants are concerned but there is, unfortunately, only one local restaurant that comes close to providing what our guests are looking for: good food provided in a clean and friendly environment. As we are the only hotel in the area it is not really possible to co-operate with other hotels, and the only other similar hotel has recently closed.
During the building of the hotel we used all local craftsmen, all woodwork was hand made in the workshop of a local carpenter, in fact only local Spanish workers were involved. The Architect and the main building contractor were Spanish.
ALL our guests are informed about how to get the best out of both the Area and its inhabitants!
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