By Adam Davis
Drivers on the Killington Road have certainly noticed the newly renovated Apres Inn. The new business bears little resemblance to its predecessor, the Happy Bear Motel. New owners Casey and Brett McManus have taken painstaking efforts to revitalize the motel with a complete makeover of the interior and exterior while keeping it as an affordable option for Killington visitors.
Renovations include a complete overhaul of each room with new beds, furniture, wood installations, rustic wood floors, and remodeled bathrooms. The exterior of the inn has seen new coats of paint and new wood paneling to update its look while maintaining its classic charm. While renovations are now nearly finished — they expect them to be totally completed by the end of July — further improvements are also planned for the future.
“We’ll fill in the gaps as time goes, as the creative juices keep flowing and ideas pop in our heads,” Casey said.
The McManuses took ownership of the inn on Feb. 2 and renovations began in March — right in the middle of the snowiest months of the winter.
“What really drew us to a business like this is being a part of this great local community, serving it, and investing in it, as well,” Casey said.
With only days to acclimate themselves to the new business, the couple jumped in with both feet. The former owners of The Happy Bear stayed on for five days to show them the ropes before handing them the keys for good.
“We ran it as it was through the entire month of February and the first couple weeks of March before we took a few rooms offline as prototypes for the renovation,” Brett explained. “We were renting and renovating at the same time until the mountain closed. Midway through April is really when we went full bore across the rooms and are just wrapping up now.”
Despite the Apres Inn being their first foray into motel ownership, it isn’t the McManuses’ first experience in the real estate or hospitality business.
“We bought a duplex and fixed it up, rented out one side and lived on the other, but we just didn’t love being landlords,” Brett explained. “So we transitioned to doing a couple of Airbnbs in the Finger Lakes, where we’re from, and we really liked that.”
It turned out that the hospitality industry was a natural fit for the young couple.
– The McManuses have been renovating the former Happy Bear Motel on Killington Road in Killington since March and are nearing the end of the remodel. It is now called the Apres Inn.
“Once we found the world of Airbnbs, I loved the ability to create an experience for somebody. So that’s when we realized where we really mesh together,” Casey told the Mountain Times.
– Casey and Brett McManus are the new owners of the Apres Inn.
Entrepreneurship and a knack for hospitality wasn’t their only motivating factor for buying the inn. The McManuses had been visiting the Killington area for years, as they both bike and ski, and found the local community to be one they wanted to be a part of.
“What really drew us to a business like this is being a part of this great local community, serving it, and investing in it, as well,” Casey said. “We could not have asked for a better crew that have helped us get the inn to where it is now. It was so valuable to have their insight and local knowledge. It felt like we made a great decision right from the start.”
