Bike2Malaga

Placement organization

Name of organization: Bike2Malaga
Town/city: Málaga
Country: Spanje
Website: http://www.bike2malaga.com

Name of student: Dainy Buijsen

Specialist area: TM
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Cycletours
Organization’s activities: Bike2Malaga is a company specialised in the rental of bikes, bike equipment and themed guided tours. They offer, among other things, guided tours in Málaga and Marbella. These tours take you for example through the historical centres of the cities, the mountains of Málaga and the surroundings of Marbella and Málaga. Together with the offering of guided tours and the rental of bike, Bike2Malaga also offers some extra services. They have vehicles to transport larger groups of people as well as trailers to transport multiple bikes and equipment within the province of Málaga and Andalusia. .

Target group of the organization: People who love/like cycling
Company culture: The company Bike2Malaga is a small and informal company, always existing out of around 6/7 employees. Vladimir is the owner and manager of the company, Anastassia helps him with this and manages the website, Ricardo is the bikes- and road specialist and helps in the shop and than there are about 3 tourguides in Málaga and one in Marbella.
Number of employees: 6
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? I am responsible for giving tours through the cities of Málaga, managing the Social Media and some front-desk tasks.
Brief description of your daily activities: – Giving Dutch tours
– processing Dutch reservations and answering the rest of the Dutch emails
– Social Media

Brief description of your company assignment: –
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: THere is not much supervision in this company. I actually started giving the tours on my own and was never observed while doing this. But they always watch the reviews of the customers closely. In the office I always work together with someone, who can observe me. Every now and than they ask me how everything is going.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, flexible, representable, social
Additional company requirements for this placement? –
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? previous students
How did you go to work every day? foot/bicycle

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: –
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? –
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance? –

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? A bit of extra Spanish couldn’t hurt

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € +/- 300
Accommodation (monthly): € 250
Local transport (monthly): € –
General costs of living (monthly): € 100
Costs of visa: € –
Costs of work permit: € –
What did the company pay for/to you? –

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I had visited Spain before, so I already knew a lot of the culture. I also read some books in preparation of my tours about the history etc. of Andalusia and Spain.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 120026@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Note the company in time when you have to much tours. I had one time more than two weeks in a row without a free day tours and at the end it was really hard to stay enthusiastic. That is not good for the quality of the tours, so let them know in time when you want a free day.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: You can go from Málaga to lots of places by train or bus. For example to Córdoba, Nerja, Torremolinos, Ronda, Benalmadena etc.
I also took a ferry to Morocco for a weekend and visited some cities there.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link