Bruno Muchada: Staring with One Surf House in Morocco, then Scaling Surf Hospitality Projects Worldwide
Anyone who’s been into surfing for more than a week has heard of Selina. This global hospitality brand focused on millennial travellers was launched in 2014. At the moment of writing, they have 42 locations all over the world and have raised more than $94 million from VC investors.
Today we had a chat with Bruno Muchada Suarez, the global director of Selina Surf Club, a special division of Selina that caters to surfers and the surf lifestyle. We talked about his beginnings in the world of hospitality, about Selina and his thoughts on the future of surf destinations.
Click here to listen to the Podcast:
Humble beginnings
Started from a single location in Panama, Selina is now spread out across the world. From South America to Europe and the USA, there are now 42 locations, including some European cities such as Porto, Lisbon and London.
Bruno is the global director of the Selina Surf Club and he helps with a range of different tasks, including the marketing strategy, creating the service channels, structures, procedures, all the way to global partnerships.
He started working at Selina after leaving his previous job in Morocco. He sold his share in two houses he had and the same day he finished the sale, a friend called about a position at Selina. Within two days, he had a job again, but he first asked for some time to travel with his family.
Starting a hospitality business in 2019
As Bruno says, a lot of companies make the same mistakes when starting a hospitality business. They don’t have internal procedures and as a result, they lose money. This is why Bruno started a consultancy company, to help out companies such as these.
When it comes to the location of a surf retreat, he says that that the most popular surf spots are, of course, going to be more expensive. On the other hand, you will save a lot of money on marketing. It’s also pretty important to have airports close to the location, as well as a complete infrastructure.
Nowadays, surfers are searching for places where there is nobody in the water. However, if you’re focusing on beginners, perhaps it makes the most sense to organize events in well-known places since beginners are looking for the easiest way to arrive on the spot.
To learn more about Bruno’s early career, which are the best places for surfing with no people around, which other surf organizations he admires, make sure to listen to the full podcast!
You can find Bruno on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
Surfpreneurs podcast is hosted by Peter Fabor, the founder of Surf Office.
Surf Office helps surf houses, hotels and villas boost their group bookings by hosting retreats with tech companies searching for productive team building experiences.
Learn more about how to become a property partner of Surf Office.
