About The Best Western Crystal Inn |
 Best
Western Crystal Inn wins Best 4 Star
Best Western Crystal Inn was awarded the Best Western
Award for Excellence –
‘Best 4 Star Property’
at the Best Western Australian national convention.
There were 15 award categories open to all 220 Best Western
Australia hotels, motels, resorts and apartments. All
winners were recognised in front of their peers at the
hotel company’s national Convention at Novotel Twin
Waters Resort, Queensland. The awards were presented at
the Gala Dinner on Tuesday 22nd Aug 06 |
 Designed and built by four sisters (Sharon Gleeson, Jennifer
Brennan, Christine Healy, Mary Anne Carew) the Crystal
Inn is only 4 years old. One of the four sisters Christine
Healy said “This is a very competitive award category
and we are thrilled that we have won, I love managing
the Crystal Inn and we have worked hard to make sure our
property is unique and looks after all our guests needs.
The four of us are all very different and we all contribute
in different ways to the running of the motel. It has
been an interesting journey to be in business with all
women and sisters to boot.!!! …
We have a very supportive
father and he has been a great support to us as it hasn’t
always been easy in a world that still struggles with
women in business.
Located only 4 minutes from the CBD of Bendigo, the Best
Western Crystal Inn features 30 rooms, a conference room,
undercover parking, BBQ area and cable TV.
All of the
quiet and spacious rooms open on to a tiled sunlit courtyard
with a gazebo that guests can relax under and enjoy the
peaceful ambience of the motel. They can sip their favourite
wine, or take a swim in our 30 deg heated swimming pool.
More
than ever before, women are either calling the shots or
wielding greater influence when it comes to selecting
accommodation and there are more women travelling now
than ever before, both because there are more female business
travellers and more women willing to travel alone for
leisure. Catering to the female traveller has been a hot
topic for the accommodation industry for some time. Yet
finding a hotel run solely by women is still a rarity.
What makes this property unique is that is was designed
and built by four sisters:- Sharon Gleeson, Jennifer Brennan,
Christine Healy, and Mary Anne Carew.
 Sharon Gleeson tells the story…
Four sisters working together is exactly what it sounds
like - lots of laughter, fighting, yelling, and more laughter.
We are all very different, so we all have different strengths.
Between us we have 3 husbands, 15 children, assorted animals
and experience in at least 10 different industries from
teaching, nursing, hairdressing, marketing, selling fuel,
convenience stores, car washes and even graphic arts!
Yes, we can do all this - but the bank was not sure we
could sell beds.
If we never hear the phrase “Green
fields” again, it will be too soon!
Luckily for us we had our dad (Ron Anderson) - business
man extraordinaire, who always had a dream to build a
motel but he was heavily involved in the family business
of fuel stations. He passed the dream to us girls (plus
a huge debt) and bullied the banks
into lending us the money for the motel.
We thought we’d done the hard part but we found
having four girls heavily involved, puts a lot of stress
on a building site. Mostly they got used to us wandering
around with our hard hats and our high heels, but some
die hard construction manager found it very difficult
to cope with women telling him that the tiles were sloping
or the lighting was badly placed. He had to learn the
hard way that we meant what we said, and just because
we sooked about hat hair, didn’t mean we didn’t
know what we were talking about.
 We laugh about it now,
but it was a very frustrating time, mainly because some
men found it difficult to listen to anything serious a
woman had to say. To us it was a rude awakening that outside
the professional world, women struggle to be taken seriously
in what are still considered men’s domains.
The decorating was great fun and we went for classic simple
styles and we sourced our designs from everywhere. You
won’t find our quilts anywhere in Australia because
we had them specially designed.
Our furniture was designed
by a Melbourne furniture maker who crafted the designs
to suit our rooms. We used local people wherever we could.
Finally on Christmas Eve 2002, we opened for business.
This is when our real skills were called on. Christine
learned hard and fast about computer programs and running
a 30-room motel. Luckily Chrissy, like most women, can
multi task efficiently. She has done an incredible job,
as she is a single mum with three teenage children and
has been plagued by health problems since we opened.
I guess that is the real story behind the Best Western
Crystal Inn - we are all very family orientated and when
Chrissy needed us, we all had to step up. Not always that
easy as Jenny lives in Canberra and I live in Geelong,
and it was often left up to Mary Anne to help as she was
the other sister living in Bendigo. We all run our own
family businesses and our children are a huge priority
to us. However when a sister calls, we all come running!
It has been a wonderful challenge and a huge learning
curve but gradually, with the support
of Best Western, we are beginning to achieve our goals.
Starting from scratch meant every guest was even more
important and it was imperative that we keep each guest
as a return client.
 Our rooms are extra large, with extra insulation to keep
them quiet for a good nights sleep. Our Tuscan style courtyard
is centred around a heated gas pool and having large families
ourselves, we were very aware of catering for all kinds
of families and groups.
Our two bedroom suites with their
own kitchens and living areas are great for large families
or friends travelling together.
Our honeymoon suite with
its large spa and private balcony is very popular and
we pride ourselves on catering for the “movement
challenged” with our lift and extra large bathrooms
and doorways. In an exciting new step we are now beginning
to move into the corporate market with the opening of
our 20-person conference room
We were a close family before we started this venture
but now we share a common goal and it has brought us even
closer. When we are together we are loud, probably even
a little boisterous but we work at including each of us
in decision making and we are all fairly decisive people
which is important in business. Of course this strong
mindedness can be quite difficult, but so far the wounds
have not been fatal! We are, at the end of the day a family,
and that will always come first.
So
much hard work! So much Tia Maria on ice!
Winning
the “best four star motel” award has given
us a new determination and we have lots of new ideas for
the year ahead. We wish all women starting out in “green
fields” the success we have had. We hope that they
have the strength to listen to themselves and the wisdom
to build a network of people who will support and encourage
them in their journey.
(Thanks mum and dad!) |
|
