A heritage of hospitality in Fort Bragg
FORT BRAGG, CA >> Bob Hunt, owner of the Beachcomber Motel on Highway 1 at Pudding Creek, has fifty years and three generations of history in Fort Bragg. This week the motel celebrates those fifty years of serving visitors who come to enjoy the coastline. It is a celebration of success, perseverance, and continued commitment to Fort Bragg.
In the mid-1970s, Hunt recalled that “Fort Bragg wasn’t even a tourist destination whatsoever.
The business would be busy from Memorial Day to Labor Day. After Labor Day, you pretty much just closed the door. You’re better off not even being open. There was no one coming.”
Early customers, Hunt noted, were abalone divers and fishermen. “We had an outdoor patio area where they could clean the fish and cook it on our barbecues.”
“Now,” he said, “it’s all changed. A lot of people like Fort Bragg.” Hunt cites more restaurants, harbor excursions, the Coastal Trail, and the ocean as attractions for tourists. “Fort Bragg is catering to the tourists. The city embraced it. Before, it was just a logging town.”
Business was so good that Hunt added three more motel properties to his portfolio in the past twenty years. At the age of twenty-nine, he sold everything he owned for the down payment on purchasing the Beachcomber Motel from his father. His father had operated the motel since Bob Hunt was sixteen years old.
Besides the Beachcomber, Hunt also owns and operates Surf and Sand, purchased in 2011; Beach House Inn, purchased in 2013; and the Harbor Lite Inn, purchased in 2020. He also owns a motel in McCall, Idaho, and once owned ten motels in Alaska.
Hunt managed to hold on to all his properties despite the COVID state mandate that closed hospitality businesses. He was allowed to keep the Beachcomber open only for people with necessary travel. “We stayed open there,” Hunt said. He added, “We got a lot of emergency people staying there who had no place to go. We used three or four rooms a day, just enough to help out. The other
properties were completely closed.”
Since banks were flexible about his loan payments during these months of no incoming revenue, Hunt chose to keep a few key employees on the payroll at his cost. Other workers were reluctantly laid off. The banks had offset loan payments for six months. The pandemic would stretch on much longer.
When the state lifted COVID restrictions on motels, Hunt recalled, “There was so much demand because people were pent up. We went immediately to 100% occupancy, and we stayed there for over a year.” Hunt still saw the business as “his whole life despite the lengthy downturn. It’s hard to imagine not having it when you start something at sixteen, and you’re still there at sixty-six.”
Hunt stressed, “We have family heritage there. My dad bought it. It’s become one that I don’t think I’ll ever sell. I’ll gift it to my kids.” Hunt said that the most meaningful part of the business has been “the relationships with employees. I’ve known some of them for twenty years. It’s these nice relationships that I enjoy now at my age. I take care of the people that take care of me.”
The difficult side of motel management is the intense time commitment. “It’s definitely hands-on, twentyfour hours a day. It’s more difficult now, since social media,” Hunt said. Previously, bookings were a lowkey process conducted by telephone.
Hunt noted, “I couldn’t do it without management. If you don’t have good people that care, your business will suffer. I’ve been blessed with some very good people. I pay them well, and they do a wonderful job.”
Key to Hunt’s good management is Jon Glidewell, the regional manager of the four properties. His responsibilities include supervision of all site managers, motel operations, bookings, and even working a shift if necessary. Hunt relies on Glidewell to run the motels for him since Hunt no longer lives in Fort Bragg.
In 2003, Hunt first met Glidewell in McCall, Idaho, when Glidewell appeared at age seventeen, looking for a summer job. He returned every summer. Hearing that
Glidewell wanted but could not afford any college education, Hunt made a deal with Glidewell.
Hunt would pay for his education, and someday when Hunt needed Glidewell to work for him, he would call and expect Glidewell in thirty days. Glidewell agreed to the deal and then attended and graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with a hospitality degree. Time went by, but Hunt finally made the call when Glidewell was a manager at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.
Glidewell came within thirty days, paid back his tuition costs to Hunt over time, and now, after twelve years, looks forward to deeper investment in Hunt’s properties. Hunt commented that Glidewell knows more about the motel operations than himself.
Although Hunt now resides in Florida and Idaho, he still maintains close contact with his employees in Fort Bragg. It’s been a long time since Hunt’s teenage days of taking on the daunting project of converting one nine-room, run-down motel into a financial success. Hunt respectfully remembers it all.
Gavin Newsom signed an executive order for a moratorium on water shutoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This moratorium ended on December 31, 2021. The water department began providing notices to delinquent customers that the water shutoffs for accounts over $2000 will resume on April 4.
As of the last billing cycle, there were 217 past-due accounts totaling $217,256. This total is up 62% from the previous year and up 224% from March 2020. 40% of those delinquent accounts are over 120 days due, 19% are between 30 and 60 days due, 20% are between 60 and 120 days due, and 21% are under 30 days.
While the shutoffs for accounts over $2000 will resume, the City’s shutoff policy says a 20% down payment can establish a 60-day payment plan.
There are also utility assistance programs. The City of Fort Bragg has a utility assistance program that provides up to $500 for qualified accounts. The water department can also aid low-income households in applying for other programs.