Meet the Team...Finding exclusive holidays for you
Sarah Stanley
Founder of UHS, Sarah puts the ‘m’ in multitasking. With a background in farming, Sarah spent a good few years travelling the world before settling in Australia for 12 years. Returning to her Cornish roots in 2000 to turn the seed of an idea into a reality, Sarah launched Unique Home Stays identifying a niche in the market for exclusive holidays and began the business from her living room whilst juggling a day-job and three young children – Morgane, Josh and Bryce. A keen horse rider, latterly Sarah has had few spare hours in the day to indulge in hobbies, but now that there’s a larger team at UHS, she is planning to be able to spend a little more time away from the computer;! A wealth of knowledge on anything UHS, and renowned for hatching a new idea a day, Sarah’s enthusiasm, zeal and passion for the company is contagious, just don’t ask her to do anything technical – she has an aversion to the credit card machine!
Michaela Hamshaw
With the patience of a saint, Michaela aka ‘The Accountant’ is the soothing voice that explains to the rest of the team for the umpteenth time how VAT works! A Cornish lass born and bred, after a spell living in London with her other half, Michaela moved back to Cornwall in 1999 to start a family, and joined UHS in 2005. With a background in customer services, Michaela is by far the most pragmatic member of the team, a brilliant trouble-shooter and general ray of sunshine in the office. Out of the office, Michaela loves camping, swimming, walking the dogs and cheering on her son Gabe in karate competitions... she has even been known to indulge in a little X-box! Having recently visited and fallen in love with the Isles of Scilly, we fear that she might soon be requesting to remote-access in from the islands!
Tabitha Corbett
Possessing the most creative doodles of the team, ever since her arrival in the UHS office last January, as well as organising all the UHS paperwork Tab has been allocated role of chief birthday card designer! When she’s not painting, drawing or making things, sea-loving Tab, who’s originally from the Roseland peninsula, loves snorkelling, the sunshine and generally spending most of her time with her toes in the sand. Planning a wedding is never easy, and with a head full of dresses, venues and invitations, it’s a wonder that Tab can concentrate on sorting us all out; but there’s no form left unsigned with the queen of the spreadsheets, dividers and filing system at the admin helm!
Jess Clark
Jess is originally from Wales, and can often be found heading valley-ward of a weekend. After a couple of years travelling in the southern hemisphere, Jess headed back to the UK to find an equally beautiful NZ-equivalent in Cornwall (though she does tend to pine for warmer climes during the long, dark winter months.) With a degree in English, although most renowned for her malapropisms, Jess enjoyed an eclectic selection of ‘character building’ jobs, then working for a couple of years as a journalist at Cornwall Today magazine before joining UHS, where she now heads up the exclusive country house team. Possibly possessing the least geographical know-how of the team, Jess feels most comfortable when sat in front of her map of the UK. When out of the office, Jess can occasionally be found power walking, often with pasty in hand, along the north Cornish coast.
Jen Morgan
A true Cornish girl born and bred, Jen has returned to the county she loves after many travels away. Since graduating with a Hospitality Management degree back in 2000, Jen has spent most of her career in the wine industry, her ‘enthusiastic’ and ‘healthy’ interest in wine and all things bubbly led her to manage one of the largest wine merchants in Covent Garden. After four merry years in London, Cornwall and the sea beckoned. Jen joined the Unique Home Stays crew back in October and is now part of the house party team with a focus on our wedding clients. A keen photographer, sailor and wine lover, Jen really enjoys the finer things in life!
Hayley Spurway
Having spent years trotting the globe, from the ski slopes of Europe to the vineyards of Australia, Hayley came back to the UK and got her first proper job at a travel magazine. A swift three years in London was more than enough to make her see sense, so she swapped the rat race for beach life when she relocated to Cornwall in 2003. With a passion for writing and the great outdoors, she now writes for various magazines, websites and guidebooks. Whilst keeping up with the words for Unique Home Stays, she aims to get a non-fiction book or two under her belt before living out the rest of her working days as a lollipop lady and novelist.
Sarah Milligan
Having studied Hospitality Management at University many moons ago, Sarah spent time organizing corporate events before being tempted by the bright lights of London and the music industry. She then spent six fun years gallivanting around town working for various records labels and pop artist managers. In 2005, when the thought of listening to another new band in a smoky Camden pub filled her with dread, she decided to find an alternative life in sunny Cornwall. Sarah joined Unique Home Stays House Party team in 2007 and looks after our corporate clients, as well as the overseas members. Her passions include beach walking, cooking for friends, music and dogs! Currently she has to make do with cuddles from our gorgeous office dog ’Skippy’ but hopes to own her own dog very soon.
Dave Marks
Dave, commonly known as ‘the only guy’ on the UHS team, thanks his lucky stars that he’s not based in the same office as all the girls, who look at him blankly as he launches into what they class as ‘tech speak’ . Also the youngest of the team, Dave gets quite of lot of ribbing from his co-workers, who he is sure endeavour to make his life as difficult as possible by sending through a constant stream of website requests. Dave joined UHS in its infancy, at which point he rebuilt the site you see today from scratch and has been responsible for its on-going evolution ever since. How he finds time to actually do any work for anyone else is a miracle, although UHS is just one of an ever-growing client base both in and outside of the county. During the rare moments that he manages to escape from in front of the computer, Dave can be found pursuing an in-depth study of the locally brewed delicacies.