Time Time Traveller: Interhome’s Paul Riches
Paul Riches, Interhome commercial director UK & Ireland is this week's Time Traveller, sponsored by Harp Wallen
What was your first job in travel?
Overseas representative for Club 18 – 30 holidays, in the magical resort of Benidorm. Along with a number of people still in the industry I started by looking after customers overseas. It was a great introduction to how people behave when they are overseas – especially when most were in their early twenties. It was a lot of fun but hard work at the same time. I managed to progress to an overseas manager and was overseas for a total of seven seasons, working in the Balearic Islands and then the Canaries. Mallorca still remains one of my favourite places.
What was the high point of your career?
Probably when I was first made a manager and given responsibility for a large team of representatives. At an early age, it taught me a lot about myself. Being involved more recently in a start up business was also a high point. To be responsible for generating revenues of over £90m in a five-year period was definitely a high point.
What was the low point?
Having to deal with a situation where a client collapsed and died at his hotel. His friends had carried him out of the hotel and had made it to the street before he then died. The local rules were that a doctor had to pronounce him dead before anyone could move the body. We had 100 clients leaving the hotel and a similar number arriving at the same time. We had to divert the coaches and take the clients through the car park and the rear entrance of the hotel, otherwise they would have arrived on holiday to be greeted by a dead body. It was also difficult to deal with, emotionally.
What's your biggest regret?
I am a positive person and try not to have any. I have always considered starting my own company, which was the attraction of joining a start-up business in 2006, but maybe that will come in the future, as I have recently joined Interhome at a time when the holiday rentals market is really taking off.
What would you be doing now if you weren't in travel?
As some people know, I have starred in a number of am drams, recently playing ‘Sgt Walker’ in Dads Army, playing to sell out audiences of over 150 people per night! It was great fun. I have also played in a number of pantos, staring as a Captain in Treasure Island, a king in Jack and the Beanstalk and my ‘Barrymore moment’ as Widow Twanky in Aladdin! So it would have to be a Hollywood actor for me…
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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