From Business Insider · Megan Carnegie · · 3m
From surf lesson to riad owner in Morocco
Nina Ottevanger met her husband Ilyass through a surf lesson in Rabat eleven years ago. They married, restored an abandoned riad, and opened a hotel and surf school together.
In brief
Nina Ottevanger met her husband Ilyass through a surf lesson in Rabat eleven years ago. They married, restored an abandoned riad, and opened a hotel and surf school together. Nina Ottevanger and her husband Ilyass restored a twenty-year-old abandoned riad in Rabat, Morocco, and opened Ilyana Surfhouse, combining…
A private surf lesson changes everything
Nina Ottevanger was traveling in Rabat, Morocco with two friends eleven years ago when she took a private surf lesson from Ilyass. Something clicked between them, and they kept chatting after she left.
Long distance becomes shared life
Nina was studying international tourism and leisure management in the Netherlands. She saw Ilyass every few months during study breaks. In two thousand sixteen, he took a job managing a surf camp and she found a six-month internship nearby.
They dream of a surf business together
Ilyass had worked at his uncle's hostel and surf school in Rabat for years but wanted his own business. Nina had always wanted to run a bed and breakfast. They dreamed up a surf concept but lacked money and experience.
Marriage and a split life between countries
Nina graduated and got a job at a travel agency in The Hague. They married on Kijkduin beach in two thousand twenty-one. Ilyass struggled with cold winters, so they agreed to work summers in The Hague and develop their business in Morocco winters.
Running a surf school from homestays
For three years, they ran Ilyana, a mashup of their names, as a surf school arranging accommodation through local homestays. Ilyass' students from the Netherlands wanted to come to Morocco for lessons and booked without knowing where they would sleep.
Finding and buying an abandoned riad
In two thousand twenty-four, they searched for a riad on the ocean side of Rabat's medina. They found a very rundown one with no bathrooms that had been abandoned for over twenty years. It had gorgeous traditional features and tiling.
Renovation costs and family support
They bought the riad outright, paying forty percent with savings and sixty percent with loans from family and friends. They started renovations in April two thousand twenty-five and estimate they spent seventy-five thousand euros, or about eighty-six thousand eight hundred dollars.
Ilyana Surfhouse opens with family help
After five months of renovation, they welcomed their first guests in October. The five guest rooms sleep sixteen people at rates starting at five hundred Moroccan dirhams, or about fifty-three dollars per night, including breakfast and dinner. Ilyass' family helps run the business.
The essence
Nina Ottevanger and her husband Ilyass restored a twenty-year-old abandoned riad in Rabat, Morocco, and opened Ilyana Surfhouse, combining accommodation with surf lessons after meeting through surfing.
