We stayed in a mediocre hotel during our honeymoon. After that memorable experience we started thinking about the possibility of creating a luxury hotel ourselves “someday.”
That “someday” came a lot sooner than we thought it would (two years vs. decades down the road.) Neither of us had owned a business nor had any hospitality industry experience prior to embarking on this journey. Our limited knowledge of hotels came from traveling in our single days, staying in various hotels around the world. However, when the opportunity presented itself—as risky as it sounded to everyone (including ourselves)—we knew that uprooting our family from Washington D.C. and moving to a village (population 805) somehow felt right.
The work we had in store was daunting and some days we’ve wondered, “What were we thinking?!”
An intense year of major renovations first resuscitated and then breathed new life into the building. There is a lot to be said for putting in good ol’ elbow grease and investing in beautiful structures of days gone by. They just don’t build today like they did in the past. However, it isn’t for the faint of heart or spirit, mind you!
With the help of numerous members of the community and many hopes and prayers, our crazy dream became a reality and we opened in July 2014 with eight rooms and suites.
Since then, we have continued to renovate and improve our building adding two ground floor rooms, The Ivory & The Slate…
The Ivory room 
The Ivory bath
The Slate room 
The Slate bath
…and also opened the Harkness Salon & Spa (May 2017) matching the atmosphere of the hotel.
esthetics room 
salon|spa entrance 
pedicure station 
hair salon 
massage|water therapy room
In November 2018, we received the “2018 Most Inspired Design of The Americas” award at a ceremony held in London. We were surprised and honored to say the least.
We’ve come a long way in just a few short years. It’s amazing what can be accomplished with creative vision, a little resourcefulness, having great help, and dedicating countless hours to an inspirational project.
Our next venture is a restaurant within the building…fingers crossed it will come together in 2020!
Unexpected luxury sums up what we’ve created here in McCammon, Idaho…some say the pictures don’t do the renovation justice. —You’ll just have to come and check it out for yourself!
Best,
Aaron & Arianne Hunsaker
Harkness Hotel, Harkness Salon|Spa
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