140 Years. Four Generations. Inside One of America’s Last Great Family Resorts.

Speaker A: Bob. I'm Bob beach and you're listening to Suite Success.

Speaker B: You've just checked in to Suite Success. Join me, Katie Klein, for exclusive conversations with hotel executives, hospitality leaders and industry innovators. Together, we'll uncover the strategies and techniques these masters of hospitality relentlessly refine. Whether you're already in the industry or just starting out, tune in every week to unlock the secret to your sweet success. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Sweet Success. I'm your host, Katie Klein, and today I'm, um, thrilled to welcome Bob beach to the show. Bob is the fourth generation steward of Basin Harbor Resort, 120 room lakeside resort on the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont. What makes Basin harbor remarkable is isn't just its size, its history, or even its stunning waterfront setting. It's the fact that the resort has remained in the same family since 1886. This year marks Basin Harbor's 140th season, a milestone that traces back to Bob's great aunt, Ardelia beach, who established the property as a working farm and summer retreat nearly a century and a half ago. Today, Basin harbor encompasses 700 acres, welcomes generations of returning families, and stands as one of America's last great family owned resorts. Bob, thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker A: Thank you for having me.

Speaker B: I have to tell you a little funny story to start out. So when a member of your PR team first reached out to me when they were describing Basin harbor, they had mentioned Dirty Dancing vibes, something that immediately piqued my curiosity. And about two weeks ago, once we had had this interview, schedul, my husband and my two children and I, we went to a restaurant in my neighborhood in Astoria, Queens. And it's a restaurant we love, we've been going to for a really long time. We actually had our rehearsal dinner there the night before our wedding. So we know the owner of the restaurant pretty well. We hadn't seen him in a really long time. So we walk into the restaurant, we see him, we start chatting about, you know, all the things in life that have happened since the last time we saw each other, probably about three years ago now. And he starts telling me, oh, we go to this resort every summer. It is the best place ever. We love it. It really kind of has Dirty Dancing vibes. And I look at him and I go, are you talking about Basin Harbor Resort? And he's like, yeah. And I'm like, is the owner Bob Beach? And he's like, yeah. So how funny is that that your PR team reaches out to Me references Dirty Dancing. Then, completely unsolicited, I have someone telling me it's the best place he has ever stayed. And he continue to go year and year and year. So I just thought that was such a kismet moment. And I. It really made me want to ask you about that parallel that's being drawn to Dirty Dancing. Why do you think people pull that out when they're talking about Basin Harbor?

Speaker A: So, first and foremost, I'd say we're grateful for him for saying. And the second part is, you know, we're a seasonal resort, summer resort, and we have forever had a plethora of youth staff members who come here. They're from all over the country, often parts of all over the world. We have about between 250 and 275 staff that work for us. Uh, and about 140 of them live on site. And so one of our restaurants, uh, is a former sawmill, and it's parked right on the airfield. And there is an opportunity for them to go and meet not only our guests, but themselves at this place. And it's got. We have bands and, uh, DJs that come in really festive. We had a big wedding party in there last night with a big, huge bonfire outside. And, uh, they get to, you know, play with the guests, but also engage with each other. And, um. It's just been, uh. It's all true. Was just.

Speaker B: Even from that sentence alone you just mentioned former sawmill, airfield, bonfire. I mean, uh, you're painting such a picture of the place and why people unsolicitedly start talking about it on the street and are obsessed with it. And right before you and I started recording, we were talking about your great aunt Ardelia beach, who started the resort. She started it in 1886. I mean, what must it have been like for a woman in that time to start a business on her own?

Speaker A: It's really pretty interesting. So my family moved to Vermont in 1800, and they were. They settled a mile and a half up the road from where we are, and they were farmers. And my great aunt was a schoolteacher, uh, teaching in the local area and was engaged to a fellow who. His name was Timothy Allen. He was related to Ethan Allen. And he fought during the Civil War and was killed at the age of 21. And it was her love of her life. She moved to Des Moines, Iowa, started teaching school there, and heard of, uh, the one half of the Basin harbor property up for tax foreclosure. And in 1882, she submitted a bid. It went to Auction. She submitted a bid of $4,000 for the property and actually bought the farm. She was probably making like a hundred dollars a year. So we don't know where she really got the money. We m have this great letter that she wrote to a friend of hers. Uh, it's like a nine page tome. And she says, I'm going to turn it into a resort. Literally the word she used. I'm going to cut the windows out, make them bigger, put out lawn chairs, Adirondack chairs, and watch the lake go by and don't tell anybody about my business. And either it was because she was going into business by herself or because Basin harbor history really starts more like 18, uh, 1785, because it was a. An in and a stop along the lake for commercial trade. Property had already been in hotel business. So the hotel that was operating on the other side of Basin harbor had been working since 1785. It was like 100 years of business already. And, uh, she was concerned that she would be competition with the Winans family.

Speaker B: And you had referenced that. That was half of the property that was up for sale. When did the other half join the resort?

Speaker A: So Platt Rogers, the first permanent settler here, was a, was a land surveyor during the Revolution. He built the first road from Albany to Montreal, built the first bridge over the Boquette river where Au Sable Chasm is, and was heavily involved in the founding of Plattsburgh, New York. He bought one acre where the flagpole is at Basin Arbor in 1785, established a ferry that ran across the lake, and then he went on to buy 7 miles of lakefront from Button Bay State park to Otter Creek. And that property continued as an operating hotel and commercial wharf, uh, area until about 1923. So it wasn't until 1935 that my grandfather bought that other half of Basin harbor and it became one big harbor again.

Speaker B: Um, and it will probably come as no surprise to anyone who's listened this far into the episode, but you've really become somewhat of the resort historian and you guide weekly history talks, which I think is so cool for anyone who's coming to stay. What are some of your favorite stories about the history of the resort that you like to share with guests?

Speaker A: You know, I think it's important to note that because of the state of Vermont and the importance of Lake Champlain, the history of that is so important and of such a crucial part of Basin Harbor's history and the story that I tell, uh, myself and another fellow started the maritime Museum, the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. Like 40 years ago. And one of, just to give you perspective here, because of the advent of zebra mussels coming into the lake, in 1993, we surveyed the entire bottom of Lake Champlain and we found 75 new shipwrecks. There are now 350 shipwrecks known to sit on the bottom of Lake Champlain. And they represent a time period from Native American, French and Indian War, Revolutionary war, War of 1812, and then this rich commercial period of, of a hundred plus years of sailing canal boats and canal trade from Canada to New York. And uh, the most important vessel that we found was the last remaining Benedict Arnold gunboat sitting on the bottom today. It's called the Spitfire. We found it in 1997 and it is completely intact. It sunk October 11, 1776. The mast still stands and the cannon is laid out is in the front. So the partner, my partner was the executive director of the Maritime Museum. And this is one of the booklets that's been produced up at the Maritime Museum. It's a tale of three gunboats. It talks about the Philadelphia, which is in the Smithsonian, the Philadelphia, the replica that we built. And then the final is the way the gunboat sits today on the bottom of Lake Champlain.

Speaker B: How deep does the lake go? Like, is it possible for people to snorkel to see that wreckage?

Speaker A: So interestingly, Lake Champlain has nine underwater state parks. Uh, there are eight in Vermont and one in New York. And they're set up for sport divers to go down. The lake is 420ft and the Spitfire is in greater than 150ft of water. So you will see this summer some, uh, interesting stuff coming forward about the Spitfire. So this boat's been untouched since the time that thing settled on the bottom. So there will be artifacts in that because it's sunk under duress. And so that's part of my story, but my grandfather's tales of what it was like to go into business. You know, the same issues that he faced were our, uh, face today. He talked about what it was like. He wrote in his diary what a day was like in the life of a hotelier. He'd get up at 4:30 and stoke the fires for the cooks. He'd be out milking the cows. He'd be often, if the cooks didn't show up, he was the one doing the cooking. They were doing the butchering of all of the animals that were brought to the table. He had an extensive, uh, vegetable garden he named, uh. So he graduated from the University of Vermont in 1911. And he named his farm Fresh Food Farm. And so he was serving, you know, he was ahead of the curve a little bit. Mhm.

Speaker B: That could be a place that could charge a premium nowadays because people would love that. Very in vogue.

Speaker A: So um, there were big uh, water cisterns in some of our large farm buildings and stuff that provided the potable water if the water wasn't, if the wind um, wasn't blowing because the windmills were pumping the water. He had a bull powered treadmill located over the bank by the, by the main lodge. It was a, literally a conveyor belt set up for animals to tread on. And it drove a paddle wheel that drove the piston, the one piston pump which pumped water back into the, to the uh, cisterns. Then he would have to pick up his guests either by coming by steamboat onto Lake Champlain or traveling by railways from the greater New York area. So steamboating was the way to get around back then until the steamboat, until the, the uh, trains came into the champlain Valley in 1849.

Speaker B: And what about for you? Did you grow up at the resort or coming to the resort or working at the resort every summer throughout your childhood?

Speaker A: I grew up here and I started working seasonally every year when I was 13.

Speaker B: Wow. Was it always expected that you would go into the family business? Was there an option for you? Did you ever want to do something else? Or was it always, you knew that this would be your, this would be what you would do.

Speaker A: So it's really interesting. My parents never pushed us to go into the business. They just let it happen. I actually went to a hotel school in Denver and I was the only summer vacation I ever had was one. And it wasn't when I was out in Denver. And I said, you know, I was working for a construction firm and they were building, you know, 5,000 houses in Denver at the time, which was a lot. And uh, I said, you know, I have to go back and work for my family to see if I'm going to get in, stay in the business or not. And that was in 1972 or 73. And I went back and my uncle was doing what I later started doing, which was running the physical plant of the, of the hotel. And I worked for him for a summer and I got done the end of the summer and I said to my family, I can never work for this guy again. I am going to take a trip, I'm going to come back and pick up my stuff. I'm moving back to Colorado and you won't see me. Again, what?

Speaker B: So then what happened that changed?

Speaker A: So, uh, I, we went to Mexico. A friend of mine and I, uh.

Speaker B: Oh, you really took a trip. You're like, I'm out of here. I'm leaving the country, out of here.

Speaker A: And I came back, I called home to say I was coming back and I was in El Paso, Texas. And my mother tells me, your uncle has died at 59 years old. And, and you have. What are you going to do about it? So I had the time to drive back from El Paso with my friend and got here and I said, well, you know, I did work as a plumber's helper for a summer for them and um, maybe I should just come back and give it a shot. I'll give it five years. And here I am.

Speaker B: Oh, that is probably the most surprising twist of a story that I've heard on this podcast. Okay, so to make sure I'm understanding, you are in hotel school in Colorado. You go back for the summer to work at Basin Harbor Resort. You're working for your uncle at the time after the summer ends, you're like, I can never work for my uncle. So then you decide you're leaving, you're never going to work for the resort. And by the time the next summer comes around, your uncle had passed away. And everyone's kind of looking at you like, what are you going to do?

Speaker A: So because I was the plumber's helper at 24, I took over the operation of the physical plant here.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: So there are 120 buildings here. And um, you know, we do everything but generate our own power. We have our own, uh, water treatment plant, state licensed, we have our own wastewater system. You know, it's like running a small city, right. So we, we can be feeding a thousand meals a day. So I was running the laundry, the kitchen, all the back of the house stuff. And my sister moved back at the same year in 1974, and we both reengaged and continued working full time since 1974.

Speaker B: Did you get to finish school or like, had you been finished or did

Speaker A: you have to drop out about a semester short of finishing?

Speaker B: Wow. And did you, how did that feel? Because in one regard you were like, I'm, um, done. And now all of a sudden you're kind of thrown back into something that you had just said you weren't going to be doing. Did you feel obligated or were you excited by the opportunity? What, what was that mindset like?

Speaker A: Honestly, it was more about my uncle than the property. He was very challenging to work for. And we grew up treating everybody with respect and humility. It's the most important thing that we can pass on to our family members and also to our staff. Mhm. Everybody should be treated the same. Uh, and I just don't think he was um, living that dream. And so I back and hit it hard and um, never regretted it.

Speaker B: With that one missing semester, I could imagine that spending so many decades at Basin harbor has taught you way more than any classroom or management training program ever could. What do you think you can only learn on the job versus what people are taught in school?

Speaker A: I view hospitality, it's really about connecting with people. And if you want a real understanding what hospitality business is, you have to come and do it. And you can, you can learn everything you need to in school, but you, you have to be able to communicate with a variety of people.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: So I got m, I married late in my life, so my wife is younger and I have a 22 year old and a, and a 27 year old. And we all believe in being able to communicate with any level of person. Doesn't matter what the age limit, you know, you know a baby to 90. So you treat people with respect, you listen to what they have to say, you learn from what they tell you. And uh, that's what hospitality business is. It's the engagement.

Speaker B: And how do your kids feel about coming into the family business at some point or are they already working for the resort?

Speaker A: Uh, my son is actually, he's now 23. He's running our marina, which is a 66 slip marina. He's the arbor master and he also has a coast guard license to drive our cruise boat, 45 foot cruise boat. So he's running 10 people under his control down there. My daughter is working for a hospitality, uh, high end hospitality firm out of New York City, uh, doing social media for him.

Speaker B: That's amazing.

Speaker A: We're hoping that she comes back too. She's engaged with it, she's just not on site yet.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And she's gathering some learnings externally to then bring it back. And you know, you touched on something earlier of like there are a lot of things that have stayed constant. A lot of probably the way that you're talking about the approach of people and listening to people and taking care of people. I'm sure that was as true in 1886 as it is today as it will be in 2086. However, some things have changed. You referenced the bull powered treadmill, people arriving, but by a steamboat milking Cows in the morning. And then on the flip side, we have your daughter learning about how to market via social media for hospitality. I mean, that really kind of shows what has changed in the industry from the time that you've started working really full time at the resort to until now. What are some of those biggest changes you've seen, whether that be in your day to day operations or even guest expectations.

Speaker A: Well, I think I should start by saying you used the term steward. We really, really believe that we are stewards of the land. You know, you don't really own it, you're there for a short time, you try to improve it. So we don't change for the sake of change. We change as the time moves forward. The Internet, you know, WI fi, we don't have TVs in our units, but have good WI fi so that you can stream stuff. And we're at the end of the road, we're six miles away from the nearest town. We're right on the lake. I always say there are many beautiful places in the world and this is one of them. So we're so grateful to be here. Just kind of protecting the land, trying to improve it. In my lifetime I've planted, you know, probably 400 trees. And it's a big property. It's very spacious. You never feel cramped here. A lot of walking trails, great biking because it's the valley, so it's flat. So we do upgrade. You follow the food trends. We're not flashy, but we're authentic. And so it creates a sense of safety. Uh, you can't use a term of things are safe because you can't really ever tell. But what is so important to people who come here? They do unwind. They always, I hear this all the time. They pass by our entry sign and they begin to chill out. They get here, they pull their kids, bikes off their, their cars and they go and do their own thing. And what used to always be the way, but it's not so much anymore. And they don't have to, uh, worry about where their kids are. It just creates this sense of stress relief all the time. You can just sit in a chair and watch the Lycobi, just like in 1886.

Speaker B: Yeah, it really is. It's painting such a picture of so many things are modernized. Like you said, people are driving in versus arriving by a steamboat. You know, I know you have air conditioning in the rooms, you have WI fi, as you mentioned, but that kind of reason that people arrived in the past is still the same, which is like the decompression, the family time, the ability to be together and relax. And you know, you mentioned your daughter being in New York City. I am as well. Just this morning I was taking my kids to school and I opened my apartment door and my 4 year old goes running out. She was gonna stop before the street, but I didn't know she was gonna stop before the street. And I kind of live in that state of always. And everything you said about being able to drive in and say go enjoy kids sounds like such a luxury in today's world.

Speaker A: It is. And um, that is something. It's very challenging to describe that to somebody. And again, we don't want to be pretentious about stuff like that. You know, it's not our place to tell them that you're going to get here and you're going to chill out. You have to experience that for yourself. Right. You have to be able to just relax and enjoy it. And you know, the view is a killer view. Right. You're seeing the high peaks of the Adirondacks across the lake from us. You know, we get stellar sunsets and uh, there's enough stuff to do that um, it doesn't matter what age the family person is. So we have kids camp so they can be as active in a kids camp or not.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: If they want to stay with their. We've got a lot of family reunions and so we've got stuff for, you know, eight is eight, like kid to 90. And so there's something for everybody to do here.

Speaker B: And that's what the restaurateur in my neighborhood was talking about and how much he, that the kids, his kids looked forward to the kids camp and they didn't stay in all day. I think they ended around 1 o' clock or so. So it gave them time to be kids, to make friends, to have their own connections, to play in the way that they want to. Gave the parents time to sit and read a book, which sounds like such a novelty. And then it gave them plenty of time still to be together as a family.

Speaker A: We view our kids as everybody should, as guests. And um, those kids are our next future guests. We have families that have come here four generations. We are very engaged with all of our guests and I think they enjoy it. It is the difference between an independent property and um, more of a commercial setting of a Marriott or a Hilton or something. I just think that the kids drive a lot of the reason that parents come here. And a lot of them, there have been many lately in Particular who have met here as kids, end up getting married, have their own kids and come back here.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: And so, and the same from, from the stack perspective too. So a lot of our staff have met here and end up getting married here and then we'll return.

Speaker B: Wow. And you just referenced the bigger company is obviously Basin harbor has been family owned for 140 years. How has it been challenging to stay independent when you were seeing so many hotels go under the bigger umbrellas?

Speaker A: Yeah, it is challenging and to run a seasonal business is very challenging.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: Go from zero to a hundred. You know, we've got 30 full time staff and then we ramp up to you know, 250.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: A challenge every year. But the benefit of seeing these people return, you know, I'd say like 99% of the people that come here love it and really enjoy it. And you got 1% maybe that don't always like it. Expectations have, have grown over time. You know, guest expectations are uh, pretty significant.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: We can change the way we operate strictly by knowing what our guests really want and what, and what we've seen, what makes them happy and what doesn't.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: And so in Vermont we say the longer you hold on to it, the better it is. There will never be another Basin harbor in Vermont. Not like this because you would never build like that. Right. So all of these cottages, all of our 76 cottages are different. So at one point in time, when my grandfather was uh, in the 1930s when he bought the other half of Basin Harbor.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: M. He wrote. So we, he used to send out this newsletter called the Breeze to, you know, was his twice a year article that he would send out was like a news sheet. Right. And he would also produce that every day when we were open. He wrote to his guests and he said hey, if you have. So that back then in the 30s, people were spending a month here and most of them were coming from the greater New York area because they could get train up or take the steamboats. And um, he said, hey, if you have a cottage, you send me the plan and I'll build it for you. And so a lot of them did and that's why all those cottages are different. He had this building technique, he called it studless construction. No two by fours except for where the doors and windows were. So he formulated this idea that because we're all on mostly on ledge here, he would take cedar posts, build a hardwood floor frame and then he would send 2 by 10 planks to a uh, sawmill on The Burlington waterfront. And they would create this tongue on the top, groove on the bottom, V cuts on each side of the front and back of the plank because it was the inside and outside of the house.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: He would nail them together like Lincoln logs. He built all his own doors and windows, built a lot of the furniture, used the local stones to create the facades of the front of the buildings and also the fireplaces that were inside. And then, um, he would build, he like built 10 of them in six weeks. And he wasn't opposed to building more. He'd take more reservations than when he had accommodations for. And then rapidly build another cottage.

Speaker B: Which sounds like incredible craftsmanship, but also must have been so hard for you to retrofit in things like air conditioning.

Speaker A: Amen. Amen. So when, so what we have done, because those, they were so carefully laid out so you had to build, uh, a wall within a wall. So literally if you were gonna put in a, a window where there wasn't one with these two by these two by eight planks, you would literally cut the hole and just push it out and it would just be one piece that fell out. They were so integrally put together, so they were challenging. And so we would have to put two by four walls in them. And so some of these cottages have had like five, five additions put on them this time. So they started. He started building cottages in like 1920. He went to Florida in 1919. He had a guest who was always trying to get him to, to go to Florida to see what it was like. Uh, the fellow was living in Miami. So he, in 1919, he took his kids, four of his kids in a converted Model T to Florida. Took him six weeks to get down there. And then for the rest of his life he got down there. And Flagler had built the big hotels on the east coast of Florida. Miami was booming. You know, Addison Meisner had built some great buildings down there. And it was just ahead of the, ahead of the time. And so he came back and he would always come back with these ideas. So in 1920, started building these really small cottages. I'm talking like the size of a big fish shanty and um, push out windows, communal bath houses. The rate was like four or five dollars a week for room and board. And the big things that people would do would be to go out and fish, row out and fish and. And there was a golf course here by 1916 and tennis courts earlier than that. And so there were these sports that he just continued to, to grow into. Built the hay barn The Hundred Foot Barn became uh, an activity center. He was a go getter, just continued to build out the stuff and build more cottages and as time went on so you would never ever have 76 cottages. I mean it's like all these buildings

Speaker B: and uh, in a way it's almost counter to what you said earlier. Like right now you're saying you don't want to make any changes just for change. Really listening to your guests and understanding what they need and want and how that's shifting. And then you have his approach which is very, it sounds like experimental of uh, oh, let's try this, let's try that. Do you feel like there's still space on the grounds that you want to test some new things or is it more about improving what you already have?

Speaker A: It's always improving. It's like if you're not upgrading, you're going the other way. There's just ways of doing it right and so have to be upgrading, kind of keeping up with the standards of what the expectation of the guest is. We uh, have a great decorator and it's um, you know, it's, I can't call it an Adirondack style, but it is a cottage, a typical New England cottage style in these rooms. That's how they're, cottages are decorated. So these are like studios to three bedroom cottages. So they're just, it's a really wide range of combinations.

Speaker B: Ardelia had her nine page letter. You've referenced your grandfather, had his newsletter as well, his diary. Are you also taking notes about what your day to day life is, knowing that perhaps in 140 years someone will be reading your letters as well?

Speaker A: Yeah, I've, I've said for years and years and years I'd said. So I've been doing these history talks for 20 plus years, right? Mhm. And so they're always changing because there is Lake Champlain here and there are stories every day that are coming out about the industry in the Champlain Valley every day. And so I've always said, oh, uh, I've got to, I've got to write this. I've got to write all this stuff down. And it's like I've recorded my history docs but I have not written the book. M. My grandfather was a great um, historian himself. He wrote this book as centuries passed. This is an original oil painting of basin harbor in 1813.

Speaker B: Wow.

Speaker A: The boat on the dock is the Vermont one, which is the first steamboat on Lake Champlain. So that interest in history skipped a generation. Like I was into it as a kid. One of my grandfather's friends was a, he um, was really into everything history. Uh, he was the only non Steinway president of Steinway Piano. And he was a really interesting guy. Built his own boat from New York City to, to come up here. So there was big boating activity in the 30s. He was the only one that pulled a cannon out of Arnold's Bay in 1936. So I used to go arrowhead hunting with him. And um, I found out later that he was throwing chips and arrowheads on, he was seeding it for me to find.

Speaker B: No.

Speaker A: So, you know, as a kid I was growing up with that and I was really interested in that. And then when the uh, early, early 80s came along, I was, I was thinking about arrowheads and I knew a spot where he took me. And I went back there after, you know, 10, 20 years and I found a perfect arrowhead. And it was like the driving force that restarted me again. And then there was a group called the Champlain Maritime Society who was uh, very active in shipwreck exploration in Lake Champlain in the early 80s. And my, my partner, Art cone, was a professional diver, was part of that association with the Champlain Maritime Society. And we said, you know, they don't have a, they don't have a home, but we could provide a home for them at Basin Harbor. They said, no, we don't want to do that. And so I had a select board member from a town close by and he said, you know what, I have this stone schoolhouse. I'll give it to you if you'll move it and restore it. So in my grandfather's book, this is like the localized history of this area. He said, you know, so we own a schoolhouse up the road that he and my whole family went to. It's a stone schoolhouse. That stone schoolhouse that was given to me is the exact same venue. So he said, I'll move it to you if you, uh, I'll give it to you if you move it. And So I borrowed $60,000 and tore that thing down, moved it and reconstructed it. And that was the beginning of the Basin Arbor Maritime Museum, which now has gone on to be the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. So my history, uh, when I got into this, I grabbed everything that I could find from my grandfather's stuff.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: Like 4000 articles. So he, he was his own photographer, he was his own writer. All the menus. I've got like a thousand pictures that he took. All of the stuff that he wrote, wrote a couple of books. And it just rubbed off on me and I just, I meant m. And

Speaker B: now you need to be saving all of your menus, your photos, your stories as well to keep that going.

Speaker A: Trying to do that.

Speaker B: Yeah. What have been some of the toughest moments in the resort's history?

Speaker A: Covid. Mm.

Speaker B: I was wondering about that because in a way I imagine it then had a very big boom afterwards with all of your outdoor space. But what was that time like?

Speaker A: So interestingly, Covid we had on the books. It was going to be the best summer we ever had. M30 weddings booked. And then when Covid came along, we had taken a lot of advanced deposits, like 2 million bucks worth.

Speaker B: My gosh.

Speaker A: And so beginning in April, we were losing $250,000 a week. Uh, people wanted their money back. We said, well look, you know, we can't necessarily do that, but you know, when you come back, we'll give you the credit.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And so the interesting thing my grandfather had really always told me, he said, you know, you'd really be. We'd be better off if we had four hotels in a row. Because that way you're not a single person sitting out at the end of the road. You've got. There's four other hotels and you can grab from those four hotels. So if you're losing some, you're gaining some.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: And so when Covid came along, we have all this space. I mean we have a lot of land that is just wide open. And um, we had 76 cottages. So the state said you can only be at 50%. So we have a giant dining room. You know, it looks over the lake. It's. It was one that my grandfather had had designed from a, ah, an architect in Florida. Had a big, it's just a big panorama of glass showing out on Lake Champlain. It will hold. It's got three parts of it. It'll hold about pushing 300 people. So when Covid came along, cottages were not exempt. So we could take all the cottages. We could seat 150 people together with six foot spacing and we could have outdoor events. There was no Covid here for two years. Nobody got Covid. And so we started slowly. We had 70 full time staff and we started to get so much business that we couldn't find any other staff. So we had to limit what we could take. So the maximal ever get to was 70% that I spent two months of my life running our laundry, washing, washing and drying the linen. And that's how I spend my time. So we Thought we could get all this extra staff. And we, we ended up with 110 staff members that were part time and full time. So that was, and then we really, honestly, it was so challenging that we said, you know, we're not going to be able to make it. So we, we went to a bankruptcy, um, lawyer and said, you know, we've got debt and you know, it's not looking great. And they said, don't think it, you've got the asset. Don't, don't go there, don't give me the keys to the kingdom. And um, you know, PPP came along and we survived. And um, then we had three just over the top years.

Speaker B: Oh my goodness. So you, after, after all of this history of this being in your family, everything, there came a moment where you really thought, I'm gonna have to file for bankruptcy. Wow. And then now, since because of the recovery and then the boom that we all know that came for not only the hospitality industry, but particularly places like yours with all the outdoors and all of the space and everything, now I think you're very firmly in the other direction. Is that right?

Speaker A: Yeah. And um, so, you know, you asked me about what are some of the challenging moments. So my family business had nine members in it. And in 1990, my sister and I, so I should back up. In 1988, uh, we were, we would have these family business meetings like once or twice a year. And so we had this clerk of the works who, who was a young lawyer when he started, but then became the president of the largest bank in Vermont. And he was still doing the clerk of the works for us. And so we were having this meeting. There were, there were, there are three family members, brothers and sisters, the third generation, and then their kids and our kids. So he came forward and said, you know, said, your third generation people are getting older. And um, you know, maybe you young people should think about what you want to do to, you know, move the baton forward. And so Penny and I, my sister said, yeah, we probably like to do something. And none of the other kids wanted it. Or one, my cousin was a doctor, one was working here and then another of my cousins was a cpa, uh, living in the South. And so we said, yeah, but there's no money. We got no cash. I mean like zero cash. And uh, he put us in contact with a fellow who was a local accountant. And he said, you know, I know somebody I can put you in touch with. And um, they're really interested in family run businesses in Vermont. So we met this Fellow had, uh, a handshake deal and uh, he agreed to fund us to buy out my family. That turned into a two year challenge to buy them all out. And that was wild. And so we all.

Speaker B: Family dynamics are never easy. Add in business, that makes it even more complicated. And then I imagine, like you said, there's going to be perceptions of value and what people, numbers people make up in their head. And then there's the reality in the fact that you needed to actually find financing to be able to buy them out.

Speaker A: So you said it so. Well, it was exactly all those things. So we all got along pretty well. So if you were going to buy, just say you were going to buy a cruise boat. You know, everybody'd be all in. If you want to change the carpet in the dining room, forget it. You'd have, you'd have nine people trying to pick the carpet. So you had to like pick and choose. So we bought them out. It took two years. Bought him out in 1990. We have never had an argument since.

Speaker B: That's nice.

Speaker A: So, um, my sister is backed off a little bit. So, you know, the last five or so years, I've actually been doing the running of it.

Speaker B: Yeah. And it's probably helpful for them to see the amount of work that goes in. I mean, you just mentioned two and a half months of your life during COVID was spent you physically doing laundry. I mean, you can make all these assumptions in your head, but when you actually understand the day to day operations of it, it is a ton of work.

Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, the other part of our family is we never give up and we have very hard work ethic and um, are not afraid to do any job.

Speaker B: As you celebrate the resort's 140th season, what are you most proud of?

Speaker A: Well, we made it this far and I could say it's not always rosy, you know, year to year it's not always rosy, um, because it's a seasonal business. Staffing as it was for my grandfather's time in 1909, part of his daily thing was the cooks would be buzzed, they wouldn't show for work, and he would have to do the cooking. Well, the same occurs today, so the same issues. Uh, you know, so, you know, staffing is challenging, but it's worth it.

Speaker B: Bob, I want to ask you the last three questions that I ask every guest. And the first is, what was the best hospitality experience that you personally have ever had?

Speaker A: So because I told you earlier that, um, I did not have but one summer vacation, I had the Luxury of getting a month or six weeks or sometimes two months off in the winter. So we have traveled the world scuba diving and visiting third world countries for cultural improvement, understanding. Right. And so we would take our kids to do this. And so I uh, always said, you know, if people from the United States could go around in different spots of the world to see how lucky they are, there'd be a lot less whining. So I would say, I asked my wife and daughter that first question and they said, you know, we were traveling in Zimbabwe and there's this place called the Queen Victoria Hotel and it's on the falls of the Zambezi River. And that place was not a corporate place. It was a beautiful spot, great food, the service was awesome. The people were so friendly there. And I'd say that was one of the best experiences we've had.

Speaker B: On the opposite side of that, what was the worst hospitality experience you've ever had?

Speaker A: We arrived in Nairobi and we would often, not actually still to this day, we would just wing it. We would never have a plan, we would just go for it. I mean some of these times when we dive we, we'd have a, a destination in mind, but we didn't always pick the spot. So we got into Nairobi and hear people out there screaming for help. And it was unsafe and it was like the people weren't that friendly at that particular spot. And we left.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Found another spot.

Speaker B: That's terrifying.

Speaker A: Yeah, it was just somewhat unsettling.

Speaker B: Mhm. Final question for you. What does hospitality mean to you? And is there anyone? It could be a person, it could be a brand that you think has truly mastered it.

Speaker A: So we were traveling around this winter and we visited a little 20 room hotel in Ortega, it's a little island in Sicily. And they just went out of their way. The fellow at the desk we had a great exchange with and it turned out that he had been out there traveling and his mother wanted him to come back and, and his mother was actually running the hotel. Um, they were just the nicest people and they just, everybody in that hotel went out of their way to be so pleasant and it's really about engagement again. It's like you loved, I love to, to hear the stories from the people. And he said, you know, I wanted to come back to the sunshine and I just love it. And uh, when you see the enthusiasm of people telling their stories or them listening to you and loving what, whatever you're telling them, that's what makes it special. It's what makes you keep going at it, Bob.

Speaker B: Um, this has been so much fun. Thank you for taking the time to share over 140 years of basin Harbor Resort history with us. I really appreciate it.

Speaker A: Grateful. Thank you so much.

Speaker B: All right, everyone, it's time for today's sweet summary, where I break down the key insights and actionable takeaways from today's conversation. So much of what we talk about in travel comes back to the idea of being transported, creating a true sense of place, preserving the history, culture, and character of a destination while still delivering the comforts modern travelers expect. And it's clear that this philosophy sits at the heart of Basin Harbor Resort. Whether it was his great aunt, his grandfather, his uncle, or Bob himself, many of the fundamental responsibilities of a hotelier haven't changed all that much in the past 140 years. Even though Bob may not start his morning milking cows, welcoming guests arriving via steamboat, or putting bulls on treadmills, he does continue a tradition that stretches back generations. Listening to guests, asking questions, respecting opinions, and constantly improving the experience based on their feedback. Bob spoke about treating every guest with respect and humility. And it's that same mindset that he extends to his employees and the property itself. He doesn't view himself as the owner of Basin harbor so much as its caretaker, its steward. As Bob put it, we're not here for a long time. And while that's a simple observation, I'm not sure many of us truly appreciate it the way that he does. When you're responsible for something that has existed for 140 years and you hope will exist for another 140 years, you gain a different perspective. You realize you're not the main character in the story. You're simply one chapter in a much larger book. And perhaps that's why Basin harbor has endured for so long. Because generation after generation has understood that their role isn't to reinvent the resort, but to preserve what makes it special while thoughtfully preparing it for the future. The result is a place where guests can arrive for their first time or their 50th and experience that same sense of relaxation, connection, and escape that visitors felt that back in 1886. Just now with air conditioning and wi fi. And that concludes another episode of sweet success. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please subscribe, rate and review the show. We all know how important those five star reviews are. I also want to say a massive thank you to each and every one of you for tuning in. It means the absolute world to me, and I'd love to hear from you if you have ideas for future guests, guests, new topics to cover, or even just want to say hi. Don't be shy. Message me through our website, sweetsuccesspodcast. Com, or on social media at, uh, Sweet Success Podcast. That's suite. Like hotel suite once again. I'm your host, Katie Klein, and I'm super excited to see you all next week.