In this Hotel Hell episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Town's Inn in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Town’s Inn is owned by Jason and Ana, who bought the Inn in 2007 as an investment.
It was also bought to keep Jason’s mother Karan Townsend busy in retirement.
She had retired from teaching but liked to keep herself busy.
Gordon finds out that Karan treats the hotel more like her home than a business and she sleeps in her office.
Her son, Jason, believes her welfare is the most important thing.
Even if it means she must no longer be involved in the operation of the hotel business or if he has to sell the hotel.
Gordon arrives at the hotel and finds clutter everywhere.
There are hats and freaky dolls for sale but also loaves of bread, which are all out of date.
He meets with one member of the staff who then tells him that the hotel has been that way for a long time.
Karan has been adamant that changes aren’t to be made to the hotel.
She also says that lack of focus and real management is one of the problems the inn faced.
Jason was not always around to oversee things too and does not come to the hotel enough.
Gordon is taken to his room but on the way he finds a selection of wicker baskets for sale.
They have price labels that range from $1-30 but they are dusty and covered in bugs.
Gordon says to the staff that the hotel was too dirty for guests to stay in.
Gordon is going to be staying in the Potomac Room, named after the local river but the room is awful.
The ceiling is cracked, the curtains fall down as the pole is too short and the cupboard is locked as this contains the owner’s clothes.
He asks for the key but Karan refuses to give him the key to the cupboard.
She compromises and says that she is willing to open it to show Gordon what is in there.
Gordon asks for half the cupboard and takes out half of Karan's clothes.
They are taken from the room and put in her office on her bed.
Gordon wants to sample the food from the restaurant so he heads down to the dining room.
He looks over the menu and orders mac and cheese, fiesta stew and trout.
The mac and cheese is split on top as it has been microwaved and has no seasoning.
The fiesta stew was made 5 days ago and the trout is watery.
Gordon meets with Sarah, a close friend who volunteers in the hotel as she likes to do something to fill her time.
Gordon spots Lamont with black bags and is puzzled what they are and where they came from.
He is told they are Karan’s clothes but he is confused as he only removed enough for one bag from his room.
There must be clothes stored in other rooms in the hotel for the number of bags that are removed.
The bags are going to Lamont's basement until she can sort through them.
Gordon meets the staff who get annoyed as volunteer Sarah tells them what to do.
She acts on behalf of Karan, whilst she sits in her office alone.
They say that she is careless in her job but nitpicks the little things in everyone else’s job, which was frustrating to them.
The kitchen has paint on the walls as Sarah wanted them painted.
However, she paints over cracks by sticking her business cards on the wall and painting over them.
Gordon finds that the wall is rotten underneath and Karan appears to justify filling holes with brillo pads.
Gordon returns to the kitchen, where he finds that there are 5 microwaves and just 2 cooks.
He is surprised to see that they are boiling pre-prepared burgers.
He confronts Karan about this but she sees no problems with this way of cooking the burgers.
Gordon takes a customer into the kitchen to see how it is cooked.
The customer is surprised as he was expecting a freshly made to order burger.
Gordon asks the young server to take two female customers to show them where the food comes from.
He wants the staff to explain that the rotisserie chicken is 6 months old and store bought.
Gordon tells the shocked customers about the origins about their food and shuts down the kitchen.
Town's Inn Part 2
Karan defends the chickens they are serving as she sees nothing wrong with them.
Gordon says that she has clearly given up but she tells Gordon that she cares about everything.
Gordon wants to inspect the kitchen further to find out if there are other issues.
The walk in is filled with old cooked bacon, fries in dirty water and fish stewing in blood.
The oven is disgusting and he finds out that it was last cleaned a year ago.
The equipment needs replacing but Karan tells Gordon that she is in debt.
She laughs off Gordon's comments about the faulty kitchen equipment.
Gordon is concerned about cleanliness and uses a bacteria test kit to test the hygiene of the restaurant.
He starts with seeing how dirty the room he was checked into was.
The carpet on the floor of his bedroom gives a reading of 803 when 30 is an acceptable reading.
Karan gets defensive and blames bikers and hikers for the filthiness of her inn.
Gordon refuses to sleep in the room and leaves the hotel.
As Gordon is leaving, he sees the office sign and Karan tells Gordon that it her private quarters.
He tells her she is not doing one thing right and he cannot help her to turn the hotel around when she is in denial.
After a lot of tears, Karan concedes that she was in denial but wants what is best for the hotel and is committed to making things work.
After the horrendous service the day before, Gordon returns the next morning.
He has hired a professional cleaning crew who he paid to declutter and scrub the kitchen clean.
He tells Karan to start packing up a box as she won’t be staying in the office.
Gordon meets with Jason to discuss the state of things at the hotel and he is surprised to find out things are so bad.
Jason tells Karan that he wants to make money and also support his Mom.
With no profit, the hotel will have to close as it will drag down his family.
Gordon finds a home for Karan to live in and will be paying the rent out of his own pocket.
He also reveals that he plans to send Karan off for a makeover.
Karan is grateful that Gordon has given her a chance to live out of the inn.
She hugs him before going off for her makeover.
Gordon reveals the makeover of Karan and of the Inn and the staff are overwhelmed by the changes.
The office is now a storeroom, which allowed more space in the dining room for guests to enjoy.
The rooms have also been given a modern makeover.
The menu has been reduced in quantity and simplified such that food can go out more easily.
The kitchen has been cleared of the clutter to maximize the space they can cook in.
On relaunch night, the kitchen is more efficient with food going out on time.
The customers are loving the new food.
Karan is more proactive as an Inn Keeper and the locals enjoy her company.
Most of them promise to return and they leave with goods from the store.
Gordon tells Karan to take some time off and spend time with her grandchildren.
What Happened Next at Town's Inn?
Since Gordons visit, Karan continued with the lease on the house.
The staff are helping to make positive changes and Jason has become more involved with the business.
Reviews were mixed since Gordon's visit, more recent reviews on both Trip Advisor and Yelp.
Recent Yelp reviews mention a cluttered hotel and out of date product in the store, problems that Gordon encountered on his visit.
Their website shows a great contrast between those rooms that have been renovated by the show, those that appear to renovated by the owner and those that have not yet been renovated.
Karan has since moved back into the hotel and is living in a room on the second floor.
A number of the other hotel rooms have been renovated.
Town's Inn aired on June 07 and 14 2016, the episode was filmed in November 2015 and is Hotel Hell season 3 episode 3 and 4.
Read About More Hotel Hells
Next episode - Lakeview Hotel
Previous episode - Vienna Inn
That this hotel was allowed to function, serve meals, have guests stay is beyond belief. Where are the health inspectors? Are there no standards in an Inn only 30 miles from Washington DC. Neither the owner or the kitchen staff should be allowed to run an establishment like this. The owners son is responsible for the terrible condition of the place, he has no excuses. Why did they not buy a used-book shop for mother? Good Hygiene is not something you can suddenly discover, it is a way of life. This place will revert eventually to it's former self.
ReplyDeleteI see their facebook page is still up, and I see post after post after post of renovation announcements. Karan shouldn't be trusted with trying her shoes, let alone running an inn!
ReplyDeleteI was gobsmacked at how stubborn and delusional she was, all hiding under a veneer of fake politeness and soft spokenness. Don't be fooled, she is as bitter as they come! Every valid concern Gordon bright to to her, she instantly shot back with a backhanded comment in that quiet little voice of hers, like there was an ocean of anger just simmering under the surface.
I really hope she's kept far away from the business, if she's allowed to set even one for in there again it's going to go to right back to the way it was. You can't get into such a bad shape without it being a baked-in aspect of her personality, especially considering not only did she see nothing wrong with what she had done, she threatened to fire anyone who tried to change it for the better.
Karan is friggin scary! I don't know if I've ever seen someone as passive aggressive as her. This is the first episode of Hotel Hell that left me feeling queasy, and honestly I have no idea how on earth her poor soon can keep the place afloat after having to pay for the renovations needed to undo the massive structural damage she singlehandedly caused.
ReplyDeleteI feel kinda sorry for her.. I honestly think she has some issues. Like Gordon says, it's not normal what she does and how she lives but she's completely fine with it. If that were my mother, I'd get her checked over by mental health professionals because there's seriously something wrong with her. Not in a very bad sense and I'm not being insulting but she seriously does need a real check. There's just things in the way she talks and acts that would make me worry to high heaven if my mother acted like that.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm looking too far into it and she's just like this but honestly, there seems to be a lot more going on and the son seriously doesn't look like he wants to help. If it were my mum that was living like that, I'd rent out a house for her and if I couldn't, she'd be staying with me. I would never EVER let my mum sleep on a wooden board in an Inn she's meant to be in control of. That's not a life for anyone, especially for your own mother. I hope she's doing okay, she's not a bad person at all but something just isn't right.
Eww, Karan crapped on the floor. That's nasty.
ReplyDeleteShe needs to be in some sort of assisted living.
Her mistake is not cleaning or managing the cleaning. Having the accident is embarrassing but not uncommon or should be a cause to insult her as a person (be nice, we're all people and we all have our shameful moments).
DeleteThis episode hit a close nerve with me. My grandmother was incredibly similar to Karen. She too was a retired teacher, that also was a hoarder. Her tiny apartment was filled with trash for arts & crafts, news papers, & dog cages. There were pathways you'd have to take, to get from the kitchen to the bedroom. The bathtub was rendered useless from being turned into a dog's potty box. Unlike Karen, she had an extremely explosive temper when it came to trying to help change her lifestyle for the better... I don't know if it's dementia, or OCD; maybe both. Either way this episode freaked me out & was pretty sad to watch.....
ReplyDeleteWow this episode was disgusting!
ReplyDelete