Hotel “Snowflake”
The hotel guests were all now sitting down to their buffet dinner and George finally had 15 minutes to get away, sit down and drink a beer on the veranda overlooking the lake and reflect upon the news he had received that morning.
George, a former mechanic, and his wife of 15 years, Jean, a successful artist in her own right, had both always had a dream to own their own Bed & Breakfast – and, ten years ago, they had gone even further and bought the local, well-known, but run-down hotel that the previous owners had been unable to turn profitable. Despite their previous lack of experience in the hotel business, the couple had been very successful in renovating the old hotel while turning the business into a charming, year round mini-resort. They had even been used by the regional tourist agency as an example for others as to how to build a successful tourist business. They were a local success!
The hotel was located on very large, wooded grounds on the edge of a lake near a small town of five thousand inhabitants less than 1.5 hours from the city. It was only 15 minutes from a downhill ski resort and an equal distance from a well-maintained and challenging 18-hole golf course – however, that 15 minutes was on poorly-maintained, unpaved road.
A few of the locals used the hotel to take a meal on special occasions, to attend local community and cultural events held at the hotel or for a beer after a day’s fishing on the lake. However, many considered it an “expensive hotel for city folk” and had probably never even paid a visit other than for the occasional local wedding held there.
The majority of the business was indeed built around attracting two different types of clients from the city. One set of clients came for long weekend packages centred around the hotel beach in
Summer, skiing in winter and golf, the Fall colours, etc or