Advice needed re: cycling training villa business
barrybridges
Posts: 420
Hello,
I don't often post on here and if I do it's normally to ask advice on how to get a relatively unfit 4th cat like myself over hills without having a coronary, but this time I wonder if I could pick people's brains on a business idea I'm working on?
I'm not sure if it's allowed on bikeradar, but hopefully you won't mind.
My in-laws live in Cyprus in a lovely new villa that sits in a large community of ex-pats - it's an 'exclusive' 5-star resort complex, a bit like La Manga, that attracts lots of holidaymakers and people with - how shall we say this? - quite a lot of spare cash.
A lot of the villa-owners rent their properties out to holidaymakers throughout the year and employ a property management company to oversee this, but the way the economy is, they get very few rentals each year - in any 52 week period, they'd be lucky to get 5 weeks of rentals.
Part of the problem is that the marketing for this resort is pretty bad, at best, but also because a lot of the marketing is directed at quite wealthy holidaymakers who want to come out, get a tan and splash about in a pool.
Now, as a road cyclist, I really feel that Cyprus would be an excellent place to train - and what's more - cycling in Cyprus is better in the shoulder/off seasons when it's not so hot.
So, this is what I'm thinking of doing - and I'd really appreciate your thoughts/comments:
I'm not intending to run a training camp at all (there's too much competition), but instead, I have a large syndicate of villa-owners for whom I'm going to start marketing their properties for rentals by sports teams, starting with cycling clubs.
The idea is that if you're a member of your local club - many of whom arrange training camps/holidays - I would work with clubs to encourage them to come out to Cyprus for training.
What you'd get:
5 star villa, complete with swimming pool, garden, en-suite bathrooms etc
Access to larger communal swimming pools
Free transfer from airport to villa
Free supply of turbo trainers for all the occupants
Free supply of HRM for all the occupants
Free use of internet and laptop with training software
Free maps/guides to the local area and training routes
Complete bike workshop (toolkit, bike stand etc)
Other training resources: DVDs, swiss balls, exercise mats etc
Shopping delivered in advance
The idea being that rather than paying over the odds for one of these Graham Baxter type tours, clubs would be more interested in organising their training themselves and managing their own affairs - I would just be organising the accommodation and resources and letting them get on with it.
Flights over here are relatively cheap and I would help clients book them - even in the height of the summer school holidays, you can get here for £200 return. The cost for a 5 person villa as above would be £1000 in the height of the school summer holidays, so you would be looking at £400 for flights+accommodation in Cyprus's top 5 star resort for a week, which is much cheaper than many of the other training camps out there! Off-peak (January is still warm!) the costs work out around £100 for flights and £500 for the villa, so £200 for the week.
Cyprus itself is a great training destination; warm year-round climate, hardly any rain, well-surfaced roads and a choice of training environments; if you want flat then you can pelt along the coast, or head into the mountains if you're a climber. What's more, the Cypriots don't seem to have embraced the car like we have, so most of their roads are deserted.
And when you're not cycling, you can chill out by the infinity pool with gorgeous views towards the sunset, or head into either Paphos or Ayia Napa to sample some of the nightlife...!
I appreciate this is quite a long post, but I've had this idea for a while and I'm now keen to dip my toe in the water and see if there is any interest, but first I wanted to collect thoughts on here. I'm out here now taking photos and working on a website, so once that's complete I'd love to show you the place - it's really very beautiful and I'm planning to come out here in November for a week's training whilst its raining in the UK!
Like I said, I'm not touting for business at all in this post - just trying to see whether other people think this idea has any mileage or not. I'm happy to answer any questions.
In the meantime, I'm hoping that I haven't lost too much fitness since I've been out here otherwise I'm going to get spat out the back at Dunsfold when I return...!
Thank you!
I don't often post on here and if I do it's normally to ask advice on how to get a relatively unfit 4th cat like myself over hills without having a coronary, but this time I wonder if I could pick people's brains on a business idea I'm working on?
I'm not sure if it's allowed on bikeradar, but hopefully you won't mind.
My in-laws live in Cyprus in a lovely new villa that sits in a large community of ex-pats - it's an 'exclusive' 5-star resort complex, a bit like La Manga, that attracts lots of holidaymakers and people with - how shall we say this? - quite a lot of spare cash.
A lot of the villa-owners rent their properties out to holidaymakers throughout the year and employ a property management company to oversee this, but the way the economy is, they get very few rentals each year - in any 52 week period, they'd be lucky to get 5 weeks of rentals.
Part of the problem is that the marketing for this resort is pretty bad, at best, but also because a lot of the marketing is directed at quite wealthy holidaymakers who want to come out, get a tan and splash about in a pool.
Now, as a road cyclist, I really feel that Cyprus would be an excellent place to train - and what's more - cycling in Cyprus is better in the shoulder/off seasons when it's not so hot.
So, this is what I'm thinking of doing - and I'd really appreciate your thoughts/comments:
I'm not intending to run a training camp at all (there's too much competition), but instead, I have a large syndicate of villa-owners for whom I'm going to start marketing their properties for rentals by sports teams, starting with cycling clubs.
The idea is that if you're a member of your local club - many of whom arrange training camps/holidays - I would work with clubs to encourage them to come out to Cyprus for training.
What you'd get:
5 star villa, complete with swimming pool, garden, en-suite bathrooms etc
Access to larger communal swimming pools
Free transfer from airport to villa
Free supply of turbo trainers for all the occupants
Free supply of HRM for all the occupants
Free use of internet and laptop with training software
Free maps/guides to the local area and training routes
Complete bike workshop (toolkit, bike stand etc)
Other training resources: DVDs, swiss balls, exercise mats etc
Shopping delivered in advance
The idea being that rather than paying over the odds for one of these Graham Baxter type tours, clubs would be more interested in organising their training themselves and managing their own affairs - I would just be organising the accommodation and resources and letting them get on with it.
Flights over here are relatively cheap and I would help clients book them - even in the height of the summer school holidays, you can get here for £200 return. The cost for a 5 person villa as above would be £1000 in the height of the school summer holidays, so you would be looking at £400 for flights+accommodation in Cyprus's top 5 star resort for a week, which is much cheaper than many of the other training camps out there! Off-peak (January is still warm!) the costs work out around £100 for flights and £500 for the villa, so £200 for the week.
Cyprus itself is a great training destination; warm year-round climate, hardly any rain, well-surfaced roads and a choice of training environments; if you want flat then you can pelt along the coast, or head into the mountains if you're a climber. What's more, the Cypriots don't seem to have embraced the car like we have, so most of their roads are deserted.
And when you're not cycling, you can chill out by the infinity pool with gorgeous views towards the sunset, or head into either Paphos or Ayia Napa to sample some of the nightlife...!
I appreciate this is quite a long post, but I've had this idea for a while and I'm now keen to dip my toe in the water and see if there is any interest, but first I wanted to collect thoughts on here. I'm out here now taking photos and working on a website, so once that's complete I'd love to show you the place - it's really very beautiful and I'm planning to come out here in November for a week's training whilst its raining in the UK!
Like I said, I'm not touting for business at all in this post - just trying to see whether other people think this idea has any mileage or not. I'm happy to answer any questions.
In the meantime, I'm hoping that I haven't lost too much fitness since I've been out here otherwise I'm going to get spat out the back at Dunsfold when I return...!
Thank you!
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Comments
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As a triathlete my first question would be about the pools and/or open water swimming opportunities. What length are the pools, are there lanes and are they heated (not too much a prob if not as we mostly have wetsuits)
Don't bother with turbo trainers. That sort of suggests the cycling is crap. We can turbo train in the UK winter
Having said all that I have never heard of Cyprus as a road biking location. Mallorca, Lanzarote, southern Spain, but never heard mention of Cyprus. You may need to work on that one.
Finally, and maybe I am a bit unBritish, being in an expat community of the La Manga type fills me with dread. A small cottage somewhere warm near the sea for swimming is much more my sort of thing
all the best of luck!
my trip round Corsica: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/corsica0 -
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15 minute's drive from Paphos airport (you can see the runway in the far distance) but 30 mins drive from Paphos central.
Not really an ex-pat community there, to be honest - but a very international one. It's Cyprus's top resort: http://www.aphroditehills.com/Group.aspx
Resort has a 50m pool, plus health spa, retreat inc masseurs. Tennis courts, golf course etc, private beach. You really won't need heated pools in summer, but in winter they are a bit on the chilly side unless you have a wetsuit (still not cold though).
I really do think it's a great cycling destination, hence the idea in the first place: I can't believe more tour companies haven't cottoned onto it.0 -
sounds nice - mtb'ing in cyprus Ive heard of for a while - google and cycling provides lots of links. Not heard much about the road biking - would think you need to be sure the proposed profiles are good/maybe provide gps files for visitors to download/make up some 100-250km routes with and without hills/comment and ensure the perceived safety risks are clarified (roads/drivers) etc etc. Usual stuff.
Best not to invest too heavily until you get a going concern up and moving but a slick (but cheap) web site/marketing campaign needed i fear - lots of people trying to separate the roadie and club from his or her $. Maybe an invite to some sell out reporter at cycling plus or something an idea so you get a free article!. The info you provide before any sale shouldnt give away all your hard earned knowledge - just enough to make it so people want to come but not enough they just download your routes and go to the B&B down the road. Get the adverts out to France/Italy/NL/scandinavia etc too (translated)...more roadies and may find it easier to take the foreign $ than that of the tight fisted brits
May also consider MTB teams etc ... 0 -
I think it's a good idea if Cyprus is as good as you say it is.
Coming from th business side of things, what I would do would be to estimate your likely profits in a year and see if the thought of doing the hard work is quite literally worth the effort. How many hours are you likely to work per week, etc, vs your actual Expenditure.
One of the reasons I am here in Tenerife is I saw a window of opportunity, like yourself. It's great to jump on your gut feeling, but there must be some underlying reason why it hasn't been traditionally seen as a training base? Is it too far to fly for example? Time zone difference too great? Language barrier? You get the picture... sometimes I think Mallorca gets all the cycle tourists... :roll:
Here's my immediate thoughts to what you posted:
5 star villa, complete with swimming pool, garden, en-suite bathrooms etc - great.
Access to larger communal swimming pools - even better!
Free transfer from airport to villa -excellent!
Free supply of turbo trainers for all the occupants -what Jay Clock said
Free supply of HRM for all the occupants - everyone already owns one don't they?
Free use of internet and laptop with training software -I'd expect that anyway... someone in the club will have a notebook surely...
Free maps/guides to the local area and training routes -maps only usually cost £2-10.
Complete bike workshop (toolkit, bike stand etc) -this bonus wouldn't necessarily convince me to come and try Cyprus.
Other training resources: DVDs, swiss balls, exercise mats etc -good idea.
Shopping delivered in advance -not all that much help, how do you know what we will eat?
EDIT: Also, we are in the biggest financial crisis of the last 50 years. Right when I should be seeing some strong growth in the 3rd year, we are seeing contraction (April, anyway). Really not a great time to be in the tourist trade...
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Thanks for all your input - lots of interesting comments.
Cyprus is one of the warmer meditteranean islands being situated so far south, but time-wise the flight can be anywhere between 3:50 and 4:20hrs from the UK, so not bad at all. The reason I like it here is that it doesn't have the 'Brits abroad' culture that some parts of Spain have - of course, it does exist - but not so much in this resort.
Language = Greek, but everyone speaks English. Whats more, being a former outpost of the empire (so to speak), they drive on the left and the road signs are identical to the UK (as in, same colours, fonts, icons etc). It's easy to get around and navigate.
The perspective I'm coming at from is an interesting one. I just happen to be a club cyclist and I listen to my in-law's parents going on about how their neighbours are struggling to rent their apartments in this recession - which is probably not surprising: what family can afford £1000 for a week's villa rental, PLUS flights?! But if you split the costs between five people, then £400 for a week's training in the peak season is very cheap, especially considering how luxurious the accommodation is.
As others have pointed out, I'm not making any real investment in it yet - from a business perspective, I'm just going to act as the broker between cycling/sports teams and villa owners, then take a commission off the deal. The existing property management company that most owners engage take 30%, but I'd still be very profitable taking between 10 - 25%. Or, looking at it another way, equipped with a website, twitter, facebook, paid search campaign on google and a few well-placed ads in Cycling Weekly, plus a few polite and nice letters sent to the social-secs of all BC registered cycling clubs, I would market the villas to the teams and then ensure they have all they need over here and let them get on with things themselves.
Just so you don't think I'm barking mad, there are of course a few downsides to the plan which I think can be summarised here:
Cyprus is too hot in summer months (July/August) - unless you're happy cycling in 35 degrees heat
The Euro makes eating out expensive (around the same as the UK, maybe a bit more)
Limited flight choices in Winter (easyjet/BA)0 -
Just be aware that the big investment in any new business is really your own TIME, it's not so much about the money (but they do suck it right out of you as well).
I have got a myspace account too but it doesn't really do me any good & I've pretty much abandonded the idea of marketing through that. I have also been there and done that w.r.t adverts; my advice is to get a good website up and running packed with info about cycling there & what exactly you're planning on offering. It's all in the details. Then you direct people to the website.
Just a reminder: many other forms of free marketing are seen as SPAMMING. And traditional advertising is quite costly.
Sorry if these comments appear to be negative.0 -
Hi Synchonicity,
Not negative at all. I come from a web marketing background and am the MD of my own business, so have a decent amount of cash to push into this if necessary. Like you say, the secret to success here is a good website, so that's what I'm focussing on.
Thanks!0 -
Hi,
Having read your post and seeing what you are trying to achieve I would be interested in meeting you. I live in Kouklia and operate a mountain Bike Guiding company.
www.mountainbikecyprus.com
We are based right next door to Aphrodite Hills. We have for some time been contemplating offering a Road bike service and training camps, as we currently have a few road bikes for hire.
We generally concern ourselves with mountain Biking, but really anything to do with bikes and we are there!!
As to the triathlon Camps, this is the place, Gerriskipo have a 50m Training pool, specifically for training.
The roads are very quiet for cycling and there are plenty of running routes.
The resort pool is not ideal for training so this would be a lesser option. There is also another Olympic training pool in Coral Bay.
Cyprus is a great destination for Cycling, the CTO are pushing this with a massive campaign to encourage riders to the island.
So if you are interested contact me via the site.
We will be happy to help.
Al.
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