The year was 1986. The place was San Mateo, California's Brian Jensen had graduated from Montana State University and joined a firm in San Francisco as an engineer, but decided he¹d rather be a general contractor. Joanna Guidotti was a tax attorney and investment banker working as a VP for a bank in San Francisco. She had hit the 'glass ceiling' and was growing tired of corporate politics. They met, there was chemistry, but neither was ready to settle down.
Brian yearned for a sense of community akin to his Montana upbringing, so he packed up his truck and went exploring. In Napa, he found a place where he could still drive to the edge of town without bumping into another town, yet where there was opportunity for an aspiring contractor. His first job was building a winery in Rutherford. He invited Joanna to visit him, and announced that Napa was where he was putting down roots. Enchanted with Napa and Brian, she decided to join him. It was serendipity the next morning as they perused the Napa Register to discover an ad that read: 'Want to own a mansion? Price reduced to avoid foreclosure.' It was Churchill Manor, and they closed escrow New Year's Eve of 1987.
Neither one of them knew anything about innkeeping. Churchill Manor had been licensed and partially restored by the prior owners. Brian and Joanna soon discovered the many challenges that lay ahead of them, both structurally and financially. Brian's engineering and building expertise, alongside Joanna's administrative and legal background, turned out to be the perfect combination of skills needed to turn Churchill Manor from a multiple-foreclosure property into a successful business while allowing for the ongoing restoration of the mansion.
New business for a bed and breakfast in Napa was much easier to develop at that time. There were relatively few inns, a rapidly growing clientele, and several local reservation companies eager to refer guests for a modest commission. No one had yet dreamed of the internet! One day, a woman stopped by and asked if she could take a photo of Brian and Joanna with their new baby and dog. Two months later, they discovered their photo with Churchill Manor featured in the Frommer's Guide to California Bed and Breakfasts. It sold over 500,000 copies, other books followed, and the phone didn't stop ringing for years.
Twenty-two years later, Brian and Joanna still love what they do. The business has matured, as have they. New faces, new challenges, new ideas in this ever-changing world, still make innkeeping the most stimulating and satisfying profession either one of them can envision.
The above article was published as "How I Became an Innkeeper" in the April 2010 issue of the CABBI online magazine.