In this Hotel Hell episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Juniper Hill Inn in Windsor, Vermont.
Juniper Hill Inn is a 110 year old hotel.
Juniper Inn is owned by Robert Dean II, an antiques dealer and his boyfriend Ari Nikki.
The hotel has been filled with antiques and the prices are high.
There is a minimum of a two night stay at $350 per night.
Robert still lives luxuriously despite being deep in debt.
He lets his friends dine and stay for free, refuses to pay the tips and struggles to pay wages.
Gordon arrives at the hotel and is impressed by the beauty of the hotel.
He finds that the front door is locked.
Robert informs Gordon that they are lucky to take $15,000 a month and are losing $200,000 a year.
Ari has invested over $1 million in the hotel.
Gordon goes up to his room but it smells like sewage.
It hasn't been used in 4 months so he asks to be moved to another.
He goes down for some lunch but is told they only open for breakfast and dinner.
They only serve meals during the day upon request.
Gordon meets Barbara, who tells him that she is rarely paid on time or paid correctly.
Gordon notices there are no prices on the menu.
Robert explains that they run a fixed price menu of $59 for 3 courses.
Gordon orders the crab cakes, they are small and taste like soap.
The lamb at a supplement of $15 is raw and sickly sweet.
Robert reveals the locals don't eat in the restaurant.
He doesn't think they are appropriate people for the restaurant...
The only part of the meal Gordon likes is the dessert but discovers that this is bought in.
Gordon is shocked to learn that the pair live in a $100,000 RV motor home parked outside the Inn.
The RV is a drain on staff morale as they are living on the poverty line.
Gordon leaves the hotel to visit the former chef Ida.
She explains that Robert stopped answering the phone and lost his way.
She was paid a $15,000 salary, never paid on time and had to purchase produce on her credit card.
He invites her to return at the end of the transformation but she politely declines.
Gordon returns to speak with the staff.
They tell him that they aren't being paid on time but the basement is overflowing with hoarded antiques!
Gordon gets Ari alone for a chat.
He tells Gordon that he has sunk his entire life savings into the Inn.
Robert has spent his money on antiques.
Gordon arrives to witness a dinner service and the pair seat everyone at once.
Due to this there is chaos in the kitchen and they attempt to send out burnt food.
After the terrible dinner service, Ari decides to take the reigns declaring himself the boss.
Gordon tells him he has no right until he starts paying the staff.
Robert's response is to tell the staff that they don't have to work at the restaurant.
Juniper Hill Inn Part 2
Ryan reveals that Robert has allowed his friends to stay at the hotel for free.
This has cost the restaurant $20k and he takes a portion of the servers tips.
Gordon confronts Robert and persuades him to call his friends.
They reveal that they did pay tips but it appears Robert pocketed them.
Gordon comes up with a plan to persuade Robert to sell off his antiques collection.
auctioneer Amy assesses his antiques to only be worth $25,000 due to their condition.
Amy reveals that a number of the paintings are reproductions and not originals as Robert thought.
Gordon tells Robert that his staff will leave if something isn't done soon.
He gives him the bottom line, if he isn't willing to listen to his advice he should sell the inn.
The next day Gordon assembles guests to give their opinions on the hotel.
Hotel inspector Stephen says that the hospitality is nice but he has nothing else nice to say.
Gordon asks Chef Giulian to cook three new dishes of his own for a $29 menu.
They will present the new dishes to Robert.
Robert loves them and is surprised when he discovers that Giulian created them.
The owners gather the employees and apologise for not paying them properly or giving fair tips.
Overnight, Gordon transforms the hotel, the great hall is now a warm and welcoming and the dining room is updated.
Gordon has left the rooms untouched as they were already to a good standard.
The second dining room has been transformed into the Blue Bar.
To relaunch the hotel, they are to do their first Sunday dinner service.
The relaunch starts off well.
When Sarah asks Robert and Ari's poodle to leave the bar an argument breaks out.
Gordon tells Sarah to go back into the other room.
He tells Ari that he needs to apologise for raising his voice.
Giulian struggles at first, failing to communicate with his sous chef Nita.
After a pep talk from Gordon he is soon back on track.
The locals and the hotel inspector recognise the improvements that have been made to the hotel.
What Happened Next at Juniper Hill Inn?
Many of the staff featured in the episode were no longer working at the hotel by the time the show aired.
A new Chef was hired for the restaurant.
Robert and Ari reported on their FB page that the phone lines were busy.
Bookings were up after the show aired.
Yelp reviews were mixed after filming highlighting poor levels of staffing and cleanliness issues.
Robert commented the below on one review,
I also wish to point out that the Gordon Ramsay show "Hotel Hell" in NO WAY reflects on what or who we are as people or as a business.
It is easy to create a show out of 300 plus hours of filming and edit it to death to insure that the host and network make great money and top ratings.
Restaurant reviews after filming were mostly positive.
The Juniper Hill Inn closed in April 2014.
They closed after it went into foreclosure with debts of $1.1million.
They posted on their website that they are no longer in business.
Ari was arrested in July 2015 for assaulting a police officer.
The hotel was bought by Kenni Lucci and sister Brenda Bradley in 2015 for $400,000.
They had plans to invest $500,000 to get the hotel up to code.
They told reporters that the place was left in a state of disrepair and there were boxes of unused merchandise.
The hotel reopened as the Windsor Mansion Inn.
Trip Advisor reviews are excellent.
Juniper Hill Inn aired on August 13 and 14 2012, the episode was filmed in February 2012 and is Hotel Hell season 1 episode 1 and 2.
Read About More Hotel Hells
Next episode - Cambridge Hotel
The majority of helped hotels seem to never make it
ReplyDeleteMost of the hotels/ restaurants Ramsey visits in his programmes are already up against the wall with the amount of debt they have so even if he can help turn it around it may already be too late. Also the fact that these places got so bad in the first place suggests even with help these places are probably less likely to take advice into the long-term. The question you need to ask is how many stayed open that would have shut down without his help, rather than how many stayed open in total.
DeleteActually, only this season of Hotel Hell had closures. The hotels in the other two seasons are all open. Also what the person above me said regarding all these places already being in a terrible spot.
DeleteAgreed with Brittany and the person above, the key here is consistency. I frankly did not find anything wrong with the changes made by Gordon or his recommendations, but am sure that the inns/hotels that were closed probably did what Gordon said for a couple of days but then you can't always force yourself to be someone you are not. And these are places that had existing conflicts within the administration and/or staff plus the debt and lack of rigor (in following the best practices), closure is the result.
Delete.... but even though Dean & Nikki failed, the new owners appear to have followed Ramsay's recommendations, and the place is much busier. Ramsay's initial judgement that Dean was clueless, and Nikki too stern a personality to be a host, appears also to have been spot-on.
DeleteThe problem is that people easily slip back into their old way of doing things, and a quick and temporary bandage is often not enough to change the nature of things.
DeleteYeah Greg, unless you look at the facts, you're totally right!
ReplyDeleteHow do middle aged men start all over again?? Especially Ari who invested everything and on foreclosure probably owes well over $1million.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing about this is how much they pretty much hoodwinked Ramsay. The cost of those cargo containers alone are between 5-8000 dollars each. Notice how he didn't do an evaluation of the stuff in those cargo containers? I bet he was told that the stuff in the containers don't have anything to do with the business There is probably over 200,000 dollars worth of stuff in there that they rorted from the business by having stuff bought through the hotel itself. I'd have a tax inspector do a proper audit of the entire hotels books. I'm betting they sold all that stuff off in the containers and pocketed the whole lot.
ReplyDeleteThat dude reminds me of a sociopath the way he manipulates the situation.
I have about 8 of those cargo containers left. The going price is 1600 - 2200 Canadian.
DeleteOh at last someone noticed that as well. I kept mentioning to my friend that the guy was ripping the place off and most of the money went to stuff that was in the cargo containers. How did Ramsey and his crew not question the value of the stuff in those containers? I also noticed he was so manipulative and deceitful in his manner with others that'd put money down that he was a sociopath. His boyfriend is someone that would have to watch his back with him. I'm doubling down the bet that his boyfriend ends up in lethal trouble with him.
DeleteAnyone want to report a tip to the tax office that there was tax fraud afoot?
Anyone know where him and his boyfriend are?
Take it on the chin and move
ReplyDeleteOn .. lts now history
Cheers Greg ..
Of all the Ramsay episodes of various themes, this is the one I seriously questioned the authenticity of. The staff almost "delivered" their lines with the quality of professional actors. The maintenance-man especially...he seemed too savvy to have ever been roped into working for (practically) nothing. One of the wait-staff was educated and absolutely gorgeous - yet apparently couldn't get a paying job elsewhere. All strange and very suss.
ReplyDeleteI actually stayed at this place recently. The owners from this episode apparently locked the doors, and just left one day. It sat abandoned for three years. The new owners said there were three year old dirty dishes still in the sink when they took over the place.
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for adding this. Really interesting to hear.
Deletenow named The Windsor Mansion Inn
DeleteThey must have fled
Deletewell this is the sad fact.
ReplyDeleteJusy finished watching this episode and wow! Sad how Ari and Robert just ran away. I actually had hope for them. I wonder how the staff is doing now.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteWow I actually had hope for Robert and Ari )^': I just finished watching this episode and was feeling sympathetic for them! The fact that they ran away is horrible! I wonder how the staff is doing now.
ReplyDeleteAre you high on opiates? Those guys were the WORST. Made me physically ill
DeleteWhat happened to the pigs!?
ReplyDeletethis property certainly earned the title "Hotel Hell", I felt so sad for the staff. I was just laid off and just started getting unemployment, the "bankrupt" state of Illinois will pay me $352 a week after taxes, $15 a week more than the job that laid me off last month.
ReplyDeleteI hated these owners since they were snobs that hoarded junk instead of paying their employees. They deserved to go under. Glad to see that the new owners are doing well and I hope they hired the help from the Juniper. They deserve good bosses and a pay check.
ReplyDelete