Hidden Moose and Good Medicine among best ski hotels in country
Giving directions to Glacier National Park, putting out a plate of fresh cookies and stoking the fire for warmth. These and so many more are the daily duties of the innkeepers of the Hidden Moose Lodge and the Good Medicine Lodge.
But the two Whitefish couples who own the separate lodging establishments wouldn’t have it any other way. They say their goal is to always provide a special experience for their guests who often become like family.
Kent Taylor, who owns Hidden Moose with wife Kim, says at a large hotel the owner isn’t going to sit down at the breakfast table with his guests.
“We come over and pour coffee for our guests in the morning,” he said. “We don’t just hand you the key to your room, we walk you to your room. Then we give you maps and directions, and we serve you beer and wine in the evening.”
Betsy and Woody Cox own the Good Medicine. Betsy says they have a loyalty amongst their guests.
“We develop a relationship with people,” she said.
It’s no wonder that the two Whitefish lodges, when nominated for the Best Ski Hotel in USA Today’s reader’s choice poll, would beat out major lodging establishments in the country.
Hidden Moose Lodge was named No. 1 and Good Medicine Lodge No. 3 on the list that is part of USA Today’s 10Best.com and determined by a month of online voting. The others on the list include much larger establishments in larger resort towns, including second place finisher the Hotel Jerome in Aspen, Colorado, which has about 100 rooms, and includes a spa and several restaurants.
Hidden Moose Lodge
The Taylors left their careers to move to Whitefish 22 years ago and open their own inn. Kent at the time worked for Weston Hotels and Kim, who would eventually pick up her career again in Whitefish, has more than three decades experience in financial services. Before relocating, they skied at Whitefish Mountain Resort on the last day of ski season and when they returned home put their Seattle house on the market with the intent of moving to Whitefish. They knew it was risky leaving behind steady incomes and 401Ks, and they worried whether guests would show up.
“We had every corporate perk in the world,” Kim said.
“We traded it for a great town,” Kent added. “It’s still great.”
Along with their two children, Klaire and Kyle, who were 2 and 10 at the time, and the family dog they shared one room in the lodge and rented out the other three. They welcomed their first guests at Christmas. In those early years they did it all, cooking and cleaning themselves.
Kim recalls one breakfast when Klaire, a toddler at the time, made an appearance at the breakfast table without any clothes.
“You don’t get that at the Super 8,” she recalled telling her guests.
Both children grew up in the lodge helping as Hidden Moose has expanded to include 15 rooms today.
The focal point is the great room in the lodge which features a 20-foot high river rock fireplace and a vaulted ceiling with massive log beams. It’s a place guests can cozy up to the fire with a glass of wine in the evening or sit in the adjoining dinning room with a cup of coffee in the morning.
“We built a place we would like — a place with a nice breakfast, where people are friendly, where there’s beer and wine in the evening and a hot tub to relax in,” Kim says.
Kent believes that personal touch is what makes Hidden Moose and the other bed and breakfasts in Whitefish different from the larger hotels. He says that’s the reason Hidden Moose was able to get the No. 1 spot for Best Ski Hotel.
When he and Kim found out they’d been nominated, they laughed thinking they didn’t have a chance to win. But they asked their former guests to give them a vote in the poll.
“We have a grassroots following,” Kent said. “We have 22 years of past guests. We have some people that have been coming back three times per year for 20 years. They came to our daughter’s high school graduation because they felt like they saw her grow up.”
Good Medicine Lodge
The Coxes have had a similar experience in their time as owners of the Good Medicine. Sitting in the cedar log building beside the warmth of a fireplace on recent snowy day, the couple related stories of their returning guests.
One couple has been returning year after year around Christmas. The couple spends a few days with their children and then stay a few at Good Medicine. The couple is moving to Whitefish this year and its the first holiday they won’t spend with the Coxes.
“It’s the first Christmas they won’t be here,” Betsy said. “We’re so used to having them here. We will have to invite them over.”
The Coxes purchased Good Medicine in 2002. The house, originally owned by Kay Lund, was converted into a bed and breakfast in 1993.
Before moving to Whitefish, the couple had been searching for a place they could purchase for a working retirement. Betsy had a career with Northwest Airlines and in interior design. Woody worked as an agriculture teacher and for the Department of Education in Minnesota.
They looked extensively in Colorado and around the West in search of a bed and breakfast to purchase. Betsy visited Whitefish, staying at the Good Medicine while she searched for a place here, but came up empty handed.
“I loved Whitefish, but couldn’t find anything,” Betsy recalled.
A few days after returning home their real estate agent called to find out more about what she was looking for and asked if Betsy was interested in the Good Medicine because the owners were interested in selling, but hadn’t put the property on the market.
They purchased the Good Medicine and went to work remodeling it adding a living quarters for themselves, and expanding the kitchen and adding guest suites for a total of nine guest rooms. They’ve kept the same cedar wood running throughout the new parts of the lodge to create a warmth that flows through to every guest room.
They too were amazed to find themselves on a list with some of the top ski hotels in the country. Even more surprised that they earned third place. It was another affirmation that their guests really do enjoy staying with them. And once those former guests learned Good Medicine had done so well in the poll, the congratulations started coming in.
“We got an email from a couple who stayed with us who said they would have never dreamed they would have spent their honeymoon in the No. 3 ski hotel,” Woody said.