Hello and welcome to The Carriage House journal!
My name is Jenna, and I’ll be posting here occasionally, letting you in on bits of our story, updates, and renovations to our property, and tips for traveling while in Strasburg and Lancaster, PA. My husband Jeremy and I purchased The Carriage House a little over a year ago, along with my parents, Kevin and Sharon Adams. In case you’re wondering, none of us ever dreamed of owning a motel, hotel, inn or anything of the sort. So how did we end up here?
For those who love a good backstory…
In June of 2017, Jeremy was browsing local properties and said, “Jenna, I found our dream property.” And while the subsequent photos didn’t look like a dream to me (picture year-round colored Christmas lights glowing across the property and plenty of deferred maintenance), I nodded my head when he said that he and my step-father, Kevin, were going to check it out the next day. When you marry a visionary, many of these ideas just sort of play themselves out. Honestly, I was hoping for that this time around. It didn’t seem like good timing to me—Jeremy was running several businesses, we were homeschooling our small children, and I enjoyed picking up hours as a nurse at a local birthing center. However, the idea of purchasing The Carriage House just took root more deeply by the day. Ultimately, through a process of prayer and surrender, together with my parents, we felt the Lord leading us to step forward into a BIG adventure. We settled on the property August 17, 2017, and welcomed guests that evening.
Contrary to popular belief, we didn’t “shut down” the motel to begin renovations. We closed 4 rooms at a time and scrambled like mad to have them refreshed in 2 weeks. This meant new flooring, paint, furniture, décor, linens and a top-to-bottom cleaning of each room. All while putting out figurative fires, like fixing the leaking roof, taking care of mold and pest issues, and overhauling the old phone, computer and wifi systems. We constantly apologized to our guests for the eyesores and headaches we inherited with the property. It was EXHAUSTING, but as guests began to applaud the changes and our occupancy rates climbed, we were filled with excitement. Shortly after finishing up the rooms, we began renovating the exterior of the motel and the interior of the historic cabin that we purchased with the property, which sits along East Main Street.
In April of 2018 my brother-in-law, Jon Krause, left a 12-year career in banking to join the team at The Carriage House. He and my sister Heather moved to the property and Jon became our on-site manager. Our team was complete. Up until this point Jeremy and my mom, Sharon kept things afloat (along with a few wonderful part-time staff). But, as Jeremy will tell you, he and mom create chaos. This is a good and necessary part of the growing process, unearthing potential and opening up space for creativity and connection. Jeremy brings the big-picture vision and energy, mom brings the heart and hospitality. They are both excellent at interacting with and caring for guests. However, their thoughts bounce from one thing to the next like ping-pong balls, and order, focus, and strategy aren’t strong points for either of them. When Jon entered the scene with his calm presence, mind for numbers, and vision for quality guest service, we all breathed a sigh of relief. Things clicked and we began to hit our stride. With Jon’s guidance, daily operations were running smoothly at The Carriage House. Now, Jeremy was free to be the visionary, mom could share her heart and hospitality with our guests and staff, I could bring beauty and order to our spaces while taking baby steps towards curating “our brand”, and Kevin could focus on the accounting and finances.
So where are we at today?
We’ve enjoyed a thriving summer and fall season, totally revamped our website (yay!!), and made connections in the Strasburg community. In the next few years, we plan to completely renovate the bathrooms and office, expand our amenities, and continue upgrades to the rooms and façades of our outbuildings. There’s so much we still want to do, and some days all we can see is where we want to be, not where we are. Images of staged perfection on Instagram and Pinterest can be so distracting, and we wonder if we measure up. But then we re-center: we’re doing this to create a place for travelers to call “home” for a few days. A welcoming spot with a bit of beauty to foster reconnection and fresh perspective. We want people to feel cared about, to sense the peace that we pray over our property. To leave refreshed, inspired, and encouraged. And I believe we’re succeeding at that!
Shortly after we purchased the Carriage House, Jeremy read the following scripture and it resounded with us:
Job 31:32 “…but no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler—“
And while we’ve put up the “no vacancy” sign a lot lately, that is our heartbeat. To open our doors to travelers, provide them with a simple, comfortable place to spend the night, and send them on their way with a blessing and a smile.
Beautifully written Jenna! We are happy and excited for all of you on this BIG adventure!
Thank you, Janessa!
Thank you for sharing your journey. It is a good reminder of how God works everything out for good for those who submit their will to His.
We’re thankful for this truth, Carol.
Wow! Thank you for sharing your story of surrender and reliance on the Lord! We just booked for this coming July thinking “This looks like a nice place to stay”. Reading your story makes it even more special and I look forward all the more to staying there!
Gloria, I’m so glad that you enjoyed hearing a bit about our journey. The Lord is at the center of all we do at The Carriage House, and we’re thankful for his grace and direction in the process of growing our business. We look very forward to meeting you and your family! Happy travels!
My Husband an I have stayed here every year for the last 3 years, John and his team are wonderful. I you need anything during your stay they all try to help you out. They do not treat you like guests of a hotel the entire team treats you as if you are part of their family. I look forward to every trip down to Strasburg because I know we are in good hands staying at the Carriage House.