HAPPYEng. Atef El-Omda: the man who brought the world to Hurghada and founded HAPPYDAYS
HAPPYDAYS stories · Photos from our Facebook page, 2019–2020
Behind the name HAPPYDAYS is the story of one man. Atef El-Omda, an Egyptian engineer who, on reaching retirement, had the usual path in front of him: travel the world and see new countries. He chose the exact opposite. Instead of going out to the world, he decided to bring the world to Egypt.
Instead of travelling the world, he brought the world to Hurghada
In 2014 he opened the first HAPPYDAYS in Hurghada. The idea was never just “apartments for rent”. He wanted everyone who stayed with him to experience real Egyptian hospitality: a welcome at the door, a glass of tea, sitting together in the living room, and asking after each guest as if they were family.
That is why the name itself was a promise: whoever stays with us should truly have happy days.
An open home for every nationality
That small living room welcomed guests from France, Turkey and Belgium, from Russian-speaking countries and from many other places. People who did not share a language, yet all sat on the same sofa and took the same photo: him in the middle, everyone around him smiling.
Guests who came back for him
Over time something nobody expected happened: guests started coming back to Hurghada just to see him again. Not for the apartment or the price, but for the man who had welcomed them the first time as if they were his own children. And when someone left, the goodbye at the door was hard on both sides.
Our guests had their say
This kind of hospitality showed in the reviews. In January 2020 HAPPYDAYS received a Booking.com Traveller Review Award with a score of 8.6 out of 10 — the third year in a row, as we wrote on our page at the time. And we still receive words like these from one of our guests: “The best place, the highest level of service and true courtesy.”
When he passed away
Eng. Atef El-Omda, the founder of HAPPYDAYS, passed away during the Covid pandemic. Only then did we understand the size of what he had done: this man had shared love, respect, warmth and joy with people from every corner of the world, and everyone who stayed with him really did live happy days.
The happy days go on
We carry on along the path he started. The work has grown, and we now manage and run more units in more places, but the rule is the same: every guest is treated like family, every unit is handed over clean and ready, and whoever stays with us leaves wanting to come back.
This is the first story in the “HAPPYDAYS stories” series. The next ones belong to our guests.