By Katy Savage
Sleep Woodstock has a new owner after 10 years.
Owner Patrick Fultz sold the motel to business partners Cliff Johnson and Billy O’Sullivan on June 15.
“We sold it in a day, which is crazy,” Fultz said.
Fultz and his wife, Leslie Browne, are moving to a condo in Mendon while they figure out where they want to retire.
The 12-room motel on Route 4 in West Woodstock is one the most affordable housing options in Woodstock.
Fultz and Browne bought it on a whim. They came from the area from Manhattan 10 years ago searching for a weekend house. They started searching at 8 a.m., looked at 11 houses in one day and made three offers — all of which fell through.
“We kept driving past the motel,” Fultz said.
Sleep Woodstock had been closed for a year at that point, but both Fultz and Browne liked the idea of earning revenue in their retirement.
Fultz was a marketing executive while Browne worked for a law firm. Browne continued to commute to Manhattan for the first five years of ownership, where she was an office manager, head of human resources and paralegal.
They renovated just about every part of Sleep Woodstock, including all the bathrooms, the owner’s quarters and the office.
“Every year we took on different projects,” Fultz said.
They outfitted the 1960s motel with retro refrigerators.
“It’s nothing like what it was when we bought it,” Fultz said. “Our place is fun. We got the building to where it was and where it could be. We wanted to get our Friday and Saturday nights back.”
Fultz still owns a restaurant beside the building, which is leased by Mountain Creamery for the next four years. Fultz also stepped down from his role as a member of the Woodstock Economic Development Commission (EDC) since he’s no longer a Woodstock resident, though he will still serve on the EDC’s marketing committee.
The new owners, Johnson and O’Sullivan, own about 100 inns and vacation properties in a dozen states, including Maine, Hawaii, Oregon and Utah, Colorado, Arizona.
“We have a formula on how we like to do things,” O’Sullivan said.
Johnson, a Woodstock resident, and O’Sullivan met about five years ago as friendly competitors. O’Sullivan was an executive at Property Management, Inc. while Johnson was the co-founder of Vacasa until he became the vice president of sales at Realtor.com.
They started buying short-term vacation rentals together before transitioning to inns during the pandemic.
“We both didn’t like the direction that the AirBnb was going — blowing up blocks and changing towns in ways that were not great for the community,” O’Sullivan said.
They move around to the different properties and live there to get them up and running.
“The first thing we do when we move in is we remove the front desk,” O’Sullivan said, explaining the front desk area at Sleep Woodstock has been converted to a common space with soda and peanuts. Eventually they plan to add a coffee bar, provided by Woodstock-based Abracadabra Coffee, as well as beer for guests at night.
They’ll keep the name, Sleep Woodstock and add amenities, like a sauna, and a fire pit in the front yard.
O’Sullivan moved into the owner’s quarters with his wife for the time being. Eventually, stop living there and convert the living space — a three bedroom, 2 1/2 bedroom house in the middle of the building to a six-person vacation rental with a full kitchen.
They’ll have a local general manager, maintenance and housekeeping team with a self check-in process.
“We’re trying to provide more and really good jobs,” O’Sullivan said.
O’Sullivan, who spent one afternoon doing the housekeeping himself, calls himself a “wanderlust.”
“I feel guilty about living anywhere,” O’Sullivan said.
He moved to Woodstock with his wife with just his backpack, a t-shirt and running shoes.
“That’s what I need,” he said.
Sleep Woodstock is their first location with year round tourism.
“It’s a dream scenario because Patrick and Leslie are such rockstars,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s hard to step in here and genuinely hard to fill their big shoes. That’s the fun part and the daunting part.”
