Just the beginning indeed!
So what was the beginning? I suppose it was the night I came home from work and Kristen showed me the advert. She had waited a few days before showing me because she knew what would happen if she did. So she showed it me and that's why I'm sat in my office on the paradise island of Zanzibar starting my attempt at making Imani Beach Villa one of the best places to stay. Anywhere.
The advert was on businesses4sale.com and was advertising a small boutique hotel with garden, private beach and 8 rooms.
We had already talked about leaving London. We bought a flat last year and had it completely refurbished - we were told it would be 3/4 weeks. 4 months later we moved back in! We had a nice place but realised we wanted something more in life, we were fed up of our boring routine and working like mad to pay our bills. We had talked about going abroad, me running a business and Kristen doing anthroplogy. The advert was like a sign.
After a bit of excitment and discussion we decided to reply to the ad. We thought that maybe we wouldn't hear anything for weeks, if at all, maybe it had already been sold. The next day I recieved a reply. One of the previous co-owners lived in Venice and gave me his number in the e-mail so I called him straight away.
We were in Venice a week later. After meeting Bruce there we decided we had to go and see the place. 5 weeks later we did. In rainy season Zanzibar doesn't look like the postcards you see, it just looks like rain. Imani obviously needed some love as well - cars parking out the front where there was supposed to be a beach, but was just mud and rocks instead, and many small improvements that needed to be made. But we lost our minds and agreed to take it over! Looking back it was absolutely crazy, we had done hardly any research and seen a lot of the island and the business was obviously struggling and if we had used any common sense we would not have gone through with it. But powered on by a dream and hope in our hearts we decided - f**k it let's do it!! We returned to London with all the papers signed and 6 weeks later I was on a plane back to Zanzibar!!
The advert was on businesses4sale.com and was advertising a small boutique hotel with garden, private beach and 8 rooms.
We had already talked about leaving London. We bought a flat last year and had it completely refurbished - we were told it would be 3/4 weeks. 4 months later we moved back in! We had a nice place but realised we wanted something more in life, we were fed up of our boring routine and working like mad to pay our bills. We had talked about going abroad, me running a business and Kristen doing anthroplogy. The advert was like a sign.
After a bit of excitment and discussion we decided to reply to the ad. We thought that maybe we wouldn't hear anything for weeks, if at all, maybe it had already been sold. The next day I recieved a reply. One of the previous co-owners lived in Venice and gave me his number in the e-mail so I called him straight away.
We were in Venice a week later. After meeting Bruce there we decided we had to go and see the place. 5 weeks later we did. In rainy season Zanzibar doesn't look like the postcards you see, it just looks like rain. Imani obviously needed some love as well - cars parking out the front where there was supposed to be a beach, but was just mud and rocks instead, and many small improvements that needed to be made. But we lost our minds and agreed to take it over! Looking back it was absolutely crazy, we had done hardly any research and seen a lot of the island and the business was obviously struggling and if we had used any common sense we would not have gone through with it. But powered on by a dream and hope in our hearts we decided - f**k it let's do it!! We returned to London with all the papers signed and 6 weeks later I was on a plane back to Zanzibar!!
posted by Imani Beach Villa | 5:13 PM
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