Skowhegan Towne Motel (Skowhegan Towne Motel)
The quiet revitalization of Skowhegan’s Towne Motel
In Skowhegan, Maine sits a 34-room motel that has been there as long as anyone can remember. A staple of the town’s landscape, the motel was lovingly cared for by just two families since the late 50s. By 2018 the motel’s owners were ready to retire. They decided to sell not to a corporation or a developer, but to another family who would care for the motel as they had for so much of their lives.
Dennis and Angelica Krebs met in Mexico as teenagers in the early 90s. They stayed in touch and eventually married, settling in Dennis’ hometown of Skowhegan. It was Angelica who, while working as a housekeeper at the Towne Motel, was approached by the owners who asked if she and her husband would be interested in buying the motel—the Krebs was well-known in the community and Angelica knew so much about the motel already. Wouldn’t it be a great fit?
Angelica and Dennis discussed the opportunity. Dennis was fully booked with his own successful contracting business. They had a son in the Army, a daughter in college, and a daughter in grade school. They were renovating their family home. They agreed it was not the best time to start a new venture, but they kept an open mind. They discussed it with the owners, then the bank. Over the course of the year, the pieces started to fall into place despite their initial reservations. In 2018, the Krebs took ownership of the hotel.
They divided and conquered. Angelica knew how to keep the critical housekeeping running. Dennis focused on the other aspects of running the business. But the first year was tough.
“I naively thought I could run the motel on the side. But this is a 24/7 operation,” Dennis says of the beginning. “I had a business, but every business has its own quirks. It was a bumpy first summer with a lot of sleepless nights and learning curves.”
Dennis immersed himself in the basics of hospitality operations, basically moving into the hotel for months to take on the task 24/7. By the second year, Dennis stopped taking contracting clients to focus on the hotel full-time. The couple came up with a five-year plan to get the motel to a point where it was reliably profitable. “We realized we needed to invest as much money into the hotel as we spent on the hotel. That first year, everything went right back in.”
With day-to-day operations under control, the Krebs focused on bringing the motel to the 21st century. They refurnished every room, replacing paint, floors, appliances, and décor for a fresh, clean, and welcoming vibe wherever you look. Overdue signage, siding, and parking lot brought new life to a dated exterior. They created a website that supports online booking. There’s wifi in every room. It’s important to note that the couple did much of this work themselves. Dennis’ skill set as a general contractor proved invaluable in getting this work done at a time when skilled labor and materials is tough to find. Anyone else taking on this venture may not have found the same success as the Krebs.
Despite all the fresh new changes, they kept the name. The Towne Motel had a great reputation dating back to the 1950s and has been a favorite place to stay for travelers on their way to Maine’s North Woods or even to Canada. The Krebs saw the value in this and understood that when people see a long-standing business change hands, it can cause skepticism, especially in a close-knit community. So, they let it work for them. Dennis explains, “There weren’t any signs saying, ‘under new management.’ We allowed the changes to speak for themselves. We love to hear people say, ‘Wow, this looks better! What happened?’ I want our work to be the advertisement.”
When asked how being a motel owner has changed his view of the world, Dennis says there are surprising similarities between his current and previous businesses. Instead of working with one family over a period of months as a general contractor, he works with several families a day as a motel owner. But both roles require a natural drive to provide a welcoming, warm environment for others. “I always enjoyed working with people. You get to learn a little about their lives and their experiences. It’s become natural to greet customers, get to know them, and ask them about their day.”
The Krebs are seeing more first-time visitors to Maine, visitors looking to enjoy the natural beauty of the area and maybe even relocate. They stay for weeks, sometimes months. Those who decide to stay bring new revenue, awareness, and development to the area. They plan to meet the area’s changing needs, but do not have an aggressive growth plan.
“We certainly don’t want to take a good thing and force change on it. Why ruin something by forcing change?” Dennis muses in an authentically Maine sentiment. Thanks to their successful relaunch, the Krebs are seeing a steady stream of bookings with no lull in sight. But as anyone in hospitality knows, lots of bookings mean long hours. “It’s been a good financial year but an intense amount of hours,” Dennis explains. The Krebs expect to see more return on their investment in the coming years, now that the most important updates have been made. They hope to hire more staff and spend more time with family.
Regardless of why you’ve come to The Towne Motel, Dennis and Angelica wish only one thing, “We want people to feel like this is an extension of their home.”
For more information about The Towne Motel, check out their BBB Business Profile. To learn more about BBB and read more stories like this, visit Behind the Business Stories.
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