Hotel owners see room to grow in Ritzville

RITZVILLE — Amy Galbreath knows exactly what it takes to run a successful hotel.

“Cleanliness and friendliness,” she said.

As half-owner of the Best Western Bronco Inn, Galbreath added that being situated in Ritzville, right alongside I-90, doesn’t hurt either.

“We’re kind of right in the middle,” she said. “So people come from Seattle, they come from Montana, they come from Canada, they come from Portland, we’re kind of the halfway spot. We’re on the way to everywhere.”

“Amy always says we’re in the middle of nowhere and the center of everything,” added General Manager Nichole Thiel.

Even in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that has hammered hospitality businesses, especially restaurants and hotels, it’s that location “on the way to everywhere” that is allowing the 63-room Best Western Bronco Inn to add another 35 rooms.

According to Adrian Lawson, a superintendent and project manager for Spokane-based A & A Construction & Development, as well as the owner of the other half of the hotel, the owners have budgeted around $3 million for the expansion.

A & A is doing the expansion work, giving Lawson something of a unique perspective on both contracting work and hotel management.

“It doesn’t change how I do work; I still try to do the best product I can, get the best price,” he said. “I’m a little more in tune with quality just because I’m an owner, so I’m a little more hands-on, nit-picky, but at A & A we’re pretty top notch, so it’s not much different than I would do for any other project.”

Still, as the jack-hammering of rock and concrete reverberates throughout the building, Lawson said he knows his construction crew has to work hard to keep interruptions to normal business at a minimum.

“You have to get your job done, but you have to provide a quality of service to keep your customers happy and coming back,” he said. “You’ve got to walk a tightrope, and we do a pretty good job of that.”

When the expansion work is done, hopefully by June or July of 2021, Lawson and Galbreath said the Bronco Inn will have 97 rooms. One of the current bedrooms will be lost to expand the hotel’s laundry room.

And it will be ready for weary travelers — no matter where they are coming from or where they are going.

Galbreath said the key to their survival has been return customers.

“I’ve heard it over and over again — we’re clean and we’re friendly. Even during COVID-19, I had some people say we’re not going to stay anywhere else, we’re going to the Bronco Inn. We know they’re clean,” she said.

“If we have to stay at a hotel, we know that’s our best bet there,” Galbreath added.

The region’s wild weather also helps, Thiel explained, because sometimes I-90 is simply too treacherous to traverse or difficult conditions prompt the interstate’s closure.

“Dust storms. Wind storms. Ice storms. Snow storms. Rain storms. We get ‘em,” she said.

“We love it,” Galbreath added about terrible weather. “People have to get off that road. On Labor Day, a dust storm closed the freeway, and it happened to be right here that they routed people off.”

Galbreath said that stranded 5,000 travelers in Ritzville, itself only a town of around 1,650 souls.

“And they lined the streets,” she said. “Well, shoot, we filled up really quickly that day.”

In fact, Galbreath and Thiel said the Bronco Inn often has to turn customers away, and that prompted part of the decision to build the new rooms. But an expansion was only one of several options under consideration, Galbreath said, with the owners at one point thinking about selling the hotel.

“I had a large property improvement plan that had to be done for Best Western, which was very costly,” she said. “They were requiring some updates in the rooms. I just kept putting it off because of all these unknowns we had.”

Finally, Galbreath said they decided to not only do the upgrades, but add the rooms as well.

“This is the time to do it,” she said.

Still, this has been a difficult year for a lot of businesses, and Galbreath said it’s all been held together this by long-haul truckers, business travelers and skilled and professional workers traveling to work sites.

“We feel fortunate that we’re still open,” Galbreath said. “We’re kind of essential; truck drivers loved that we were staying open, and workers have to get to their jobs. They’ve been our lifeline this year.”

In a normal time, any investment is a risk, but especially during a pandemic. However, Galbreath and Lawson said they both believe this is a risk worth taking that will turn out well.

“There is a silver lining. COVID is happening, and the hospitality industry is toast, yet we feel confident enough that this is a good idea, to add onto this thing even during these times.” Lawson said.

“That’s how much we think this hotel works. We’ll come out the other side,” he added.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.