Rosé Beach House: Lakeside Relaxation in Style

It's the middle of March in Winnipeg Beach, the sleepy little lake side town that holds countless summer memories for so many Manitoba families. At this moment, the town is its usual springtime quiet. Ice and snow still cover the lake. The streets are empty except for the occasional local resident driving down the main drag. The only action is across the street on Lake Winnipeg, where groups are on the ice fishing for walleye, dropping the last lines before the season ends. A lot of them have traveled here from the U.S. to fish, and many are return visitors. They've been here before, they know the area, they know where the fish bite. The only thing that's changed for them is where they're staying, and that's where I'm currently standing, in front of the Rose Beach House. What used to be a dated 1960s motel with brown wooden panel walls run by an elderly couple is now a breezy California chic retro motel adorned with bright pink doors run by new owner Liz Crawford. Traditionally, not the kind of place an angler would book for a week of ice fishing in our north of Winnipeg, but Liz is not your traditional small town motel owner. She's probably best known for her role in fashion, starting up a successful modeling agency after years of traveling the world as a model. So how did all of this come to be even Liz has to laugh? No this is a funny, this is just a quirky story about how you made up your, I'm ready for that. There's so much to discover across Manitoba, pristine lakes, vast prairie, and breath taking northern lights, and no one understands the nuances better than those who took the chance on running the resorts, the restaurants, and grooming the trails. This podcast is about the families that run our favorite spots in Manitoba. I'm Chrissy Troy and this is been there, never done that. This story is as wild and as fun as the newly revamped motel that Liz and her team renovated and the energy and the enthusiasm needed to create this very special spot is carried over into everything they do, including welcoming me for a visit. Hi, we went to get snacks. We got you lunch. Oh you're stupid you want, what are you doing? Thank you. We're coming out here. No you're the one who had to do the drive, we do it all the time. Nice to see you. We're gonna go, we have guests here. Okay, so it's fishing season, so we have ice fishermen. We're gonna go to the last room. Okay so. Yeah. We go from beach baves to American fishermen. That's Liz and her friend Mel. Mel is also Liz's business partner in the new addition, the two are planning for the Rose Beach House. And we're expanding into a resort with a pool and all kinds of winter and fun activities, saunas. So that will be a parking lot. This will be a, I'll show you the plans, a two-story with pink doors and spa. There'll be a pool, there'll be saunas and there'll be fun things to do. This will become the alleyway. It will be like DJs and fun things happening here. You're gonna be here, Chrissy. Oh, it's gonna be amazing. Oh, this is awesome. This is the constant enthusiasm that Liz navigates life with. Wish I had that thing where I stayed up at night, second guest myself, occasionally I just took. I wish I did want to say God, but I always, I'm so enthusiastic. I was like, it'll be a great idea. This is a great idea. And I'll let in a lot of the doubt, because usually what is the point? I'm already in it. So I don't have, I just kind of, okay, well, I left. So we're in it now. Liz is used to changing course and fast-moving projects. The creation of this motel is just an extension of a life that she already lives. Her modeling internationally came television and film work, followed by becoming a stylist from magazines. Not long after that, Liz started her first company, a PR firm that handled marketing and content curation for clients in fashion, lifestyle and hospitality. From her time modeling internationally, Liz saw the darker side of fashion that no one spoke about, human trafficking. She began educating lawmakers and speaking in the House of Commons. And advocacy work made it clear to her that there needed to be an overhaul on how modeling agencies operated. So in 2008, after working with the Canadian Center for Child Protection, Liz opened her own modeling agency, which included safeguards to protect young people from being exploited. In 2020, she added another business, opening a content creation studio with pre and post-production services. And in 2021, during the pandemic, well, everything was quiet. Luckily, Liz's daughter called from college to tell her about a speaker series that she just attended. "Mom, do you know the girls who own the Jew motel in Ontario?" And I said, "No." She said, "Go, ghoulet." And she said, "And these girls remind me so much of you and your girls. Like it's you and Gracie and Reina, like Megan, they're the same. You should really go and buy a motel." Well, that's at a left field. So at a curiosity, I just thought, "Huh, it's interesting." So I just got on the old Google machine and put in Manitoba motels beach for sale. And this came up on Kajiji. So I was like, "Now I'm curious. You picked my curiosity. I have nothing else to do." So I picked up the girls that we drove out here. We picked up some donuts on the way and knocked at the front door and met a lovely older couple who owned this place. It was called the Hamilton House. And yeah, we ended up purchasing the motel within three or four weeks. Liz told no one about purchasing the motel, but the exception of her father and a trusted friend. But before she jumped in, Liz researched the potential new project and uncovered a movement that was happening right across the U.S. People are buying motels and turning them into the chic five-star stays. And this is becoming all the rage in hospitality. People want to go away from. A lot of people want to go away from the big, big overwhelming, you know, chained my hotels, into sending quates, something more experiential. In seeing that, I thought, "Well, this is actually kind of cool and could be such a great opportunity." And we had all the time in the world. We have zero, zero history and construction or knowledge and construction, but we definitely know marketing. We understand hospitality and we have great, you know, Rana was into your designer and we have a great team. So it was like, "How hard can it be?" It was actually Liz admits that it was hard to start the project, but only because it was during the pandemic and the entire world was confined to their homes. And because of that, people wanted to improve their living spaces, which meant there weren't many options for contractors and builders for Liz to choose from. Nobody was available. Supplies were a problem. We didn't realize that everybody in 2021 was also doing a home renovation. So and we had, we said a date. We had three months to renovate before opening day. And we had already promoted and sold out opening day. So we had no choice. We were in it. And so we hired one guy and his name was Guy. And he was like, honestly, it should have been a comedy. So a guy named Guy named every day and he did, he's a great handyman. He could do some of this, do some of that. Like he just kind of could do a little bit of everything at Jack of all trades. So then we came up every day and we learned how to grace, took out all the flooring. So wait, when you say we, who's we? Okay, so me, Megan, Grace, Reina and we had an intern at the time, Akasha. So Zee, are your employees? Yes. All new. All new. Yes. And you say mostly models. Yeah. And you said, we're going to do this. Yes. And they were so keen. So when we hired a guy who does flooring and he could only come after his day job and he couldn't pull out any of the flooring for us. So Grace looked at me and said, I could do this. This is YouTube it. So then she says to me, just drive me over to, you know, Home Hardware or something. I need these tools. And that low and behold, if that girl did not pull out all of the flooring and all of the carpet of this job place and have it prepped and ready. Megan jumps out of the truck with a sledgehammer because we took a wall down in the man and her in Akasha just going at it. My daughter came up when they painted and, you know, Grace learned how to do backsplash. And yeah. So between us and a guy named Guy, we managed to renovate this place. And then my friends came the night before and planted all the flowers and we left here at 5 a.m. And we opened our first guest checked in at 3. I tell Liz the story. I remember hearing about her at that time. Did you hear about Liz Crawford? She bought a motel and went to pick beach and she and a car load of her model started knocking down walls and renovating the entire thing, the amazement and disbelief in their voices. I know it's crazy, isn't it? But I mean, I hear some people also don't know about models, which I always love to tell us to. It's like, okay, so the fashion industry is then multi-billion dollar global industry. We generally rely on 16, 17, 18 year old girls to make all those things happen in the fashion world. And the average age of models, right? 16 to 20. So now you have 16 to 20 year old girls working and navigating through a global multi-billion dollar industry. They are capable. They are smart. They are strong. So when you look at them and say, we're going to do this. They're saying, what time are you picking me up? They are. They are the best crew. For sure. Liz, Mel and I are sitting in the Julianne suite. It's one of five beautifully decorated spaces available at the Rose Beach House. Each suite offers either queen or double beds and I'll have kitchenettes. But there's also the Rose main house, which is a full-to-bedroom home. Each suite has its own distinct personality, a touching tribute to someone special in Liz's life. I always want things to be personal. I want to do everything in the sounds corny, but I really do feel this way about everything that I do. I want to do everything with love. And so for me, if I'm not interested if it doesn't have meaning. And so it was really important to me to not have numbers on the door, but to have names, names of people who inspire me that I love that I hold close and then have parts of them in these rooms. So the one we're in now is the Julianne and that's my older sister. And she is funny and passionate and a wildfire. So there's a quote in each room and hers is, "She didn't just walk on the wild side. She lived there dancing in the streets and setting fire to the sky." And that is my sister. And there's just so many things about when people learn that their story is a meaning behind every room is special and they enjoy it. And so yes, we let everybody kind of know that too. Oh, you're staying in the Julianne and this is what it represents. All sweets as well as the Rose main house are self-check-in, but you have full access to Liz and her staff should anything come up. And it has. Liz's philosophy on leadership is all about honesty. I don't like aim to be perfect and I'm not. And we definitely have bumps in the road, but what I have found to be really successful for me is that I let everybody in on it because I don't have all the answers. So challenges always arise in business. It's about being honest and it's about letting people help you. And even with the motel, you know, somebody at the other night, he went up fishing. He lost his keys. He found me at 10, 10, 30 at night. I'm in Winnipeg. He's like, "Yeah, I think I left the keys on the ice." And I'm like, "Okay, we're going to work this out together because this is a situation. I'm going to try calling one of our cleaning staffs. She lives here. I'm going to try a locksmith, but do you?" And we're working together to solve the problem I realize. I should have had a solution, but in that moment, that situation had never happened before. And I said to him, "This has never happened to me before." So, hold on, I'm going to sort this out. And I plan that people are really gracious and helpful and supportive. And if you just are honest, it's not usually as big of a challenge as you think it is. They did, by the way, figure out how to get them back in his room, problem solved. I was curious about Liz's determination and outlook on challenges. I asked her if that was a quality that she'd always had or something she picked up along the way, navigating through her businesses. Oh, that's so funny. You asked that. That's the best question because I have a theory. So I lived with my mother until I was 11, but then I went to live with my dad. And my dad was in a relationship with my stepdad. And so I was from 11 and onward raised by gay dad. And at the time, two dads living together wasn't really a thing. And one thing I really noticed as an adult that my friends didn't have the same experience as me, first of all, there was no misogynistic jokes. I didn't grow up around, oh, while women drivers. I didn't grow around, women can't do this. Or women are like this and men are like that. There was different in my household. Women were celebrated. And so now we joke all the time that I am the one who grew up with the confidence of a straight white man. Because it doesn't occur to me that I can't do something. Don't let her demeanor make you think Liz hasn't faced challenges because she has that first winter of ownership. Liz needed to replace all the plumbing after older infrastructure broke down, something the initial inspection didn't catch. And as a woman entrepreneur, funding for projects has its own hurdles. It is harder to get bank loans as women. It's also especially harder because as a woman like for me, I didn't take a salary for 10 years. So even though I could have equity, I could do well in my business, I could do whatever, not having a jetty-foring something. The bank doesn't love it. And I stayed at home with my kids when they angered. So they see me as somebody who's had periods of being unemployed. So being an entrepreneur is hard on any given day. Being women and being entrepreneurs, that is just a bit of a steeper hill. It's important to note that before Liz bought the motel, its busy season was winter. As it's a prime spot for ice fishing. And most anglers weren't concerned with the orange shag carpet in 1970s decor. In the five summers, Liz and her team have had the Rose Beach House. Let's become a top-rated summer accommodation in the province, bringing in groups of friends wanting to get away together, along with families, appreciating the beautiful Beverly Hills hotel-inspired accommodations close to the town's famous boardwalk. We're able to have an escape that's not so far from home, keeping dollars in Canada, feeling like there's some place to go and have a retreat. So that's the objective. Okay, and you also say palm trees. Oh yeah, I'm going to find palm trees. What's the point of artificial palm trees when they look real? Just so when you're just sitting on the pool side, you can just look over and see a palm tree. It's just, I have a thing about it. It makes zero sense to anybody but me. In between acquiring the motel and these phase two additions that include a two-story structure with 12 new rooms, barrel saunas, a plunge pool, and palm trees, Liz started another business, Flora. A holistic spawn sanctuary in St. Norbert. And so some of the new space in Winnipeg Beach will house a second location of Flora, which will face the lake and offer massage treatments, sound baths, and yoga. Liz mentioned before she's always been in and around hospitality, but now that hospitality is connecting people to this very special place in the province. And she's moving further in that direction with another plan. Oh, always. It's terrible. I don't verbalize them because everybody in person is like, stop. You need to stop. But no, I have lots of plans. Like there's lots of things I'd love to do. Most centered around creating experiences, I really feel that at this point, we all know this. We've learned this over the last, especially, you know, six, seven years between what we've been watching in the US, where things have gone politically. It's the extremes. I feel like the pandemic is like, OK, no, you know what? You cannot lose is that time spent. The experiences you have, the relationships you build on, and the love you give others in yourself. So when it all comes right down at the end of your life, are you going to be thinking, oh, boy, I'm glad I bought that car. Are you going to be like, oh, wow, I am so glad I spent that time with my friends and my family. And glad I invested in me. And so everything from here on is going to be within that theme of helping people create experiences and memories and wellness. Summer was busy at the Rose Beach House. Construction on phase two is going strong with a potential spring completion. Liz and Mel, they're getting closer to those palm trees dotting the Winnipeg Beach skyline. Make your reservation for next summer now at the rosebeachhouse.com and for everything one of Hig Beats, go to travelmanateauba.com.