Managing a Guesthouse in Panama

Jarrell is an amazing muralist, which has led to many great opportunities while traveling abroad. While painting a mural in a hostel in Panama, many people stopped by to view his work in progress. Once he finished everyone was very impressed and all of the workers would drag anyone that would come back into the kitchen to show off the new artwork, which lead to a chance encounter.

Sonia had recently retired to the island of Bastimentos in Bocas Del Toro, Panama and was looking to open a guesthouse. A friend told her to come see our artwork because he thought we could help her with her business. We met her at the grand opening of a restaurant and discussed everything she needed to effectively run her business. Sonia needed people to manage her guesthouse, build a website and add her property to booking websites to drive traffic. After building my own website I felt very confident in my ability to build one for her and we were more than capable of managing a guesthouse.

The following day we went to see the property that overlooks the Caribbean Sea and agreed to take her up on her offer. In exchange for accommodation we would manage her guesthouse and website on our own. It took me three days to build a website using a WordPress template from Cssigniter, a website that offers access to over 50 themes for a low yearly membership fee. Two weeks later, the guesthouse was on Tripadvisor.com, Hostelworld.com and Airbnb.com. Within three weeks we had our first guests and were officially managing a guesthouse. We stayed there for two months and were tempted to never leave. Then we found extremely cheap tickets to Europe and decided we wanted to see more of the region before our departure. This is one of the many opportunities you can stumble upon as a traveler with a flexible schedule. Leverage this unique advantage along with your talents and skills to become an asset for people and they will compensate you.

xoxo