HALIFAX – After 27 years operating a local bed and breakfast, two Halifax sisters are calling it quits.
Sisters Sheila and Innis MacDonald, who were both nurses, gave up their careers to open Fresh Start Bed-and-Breakfast in April 1987.
“Her wish for a quiet B&B and my wish for a business, and we ended up here in the middle of the city rather than in Cheticamp or somewhere,” said Innis.
At that time, bed-and-breakfast operations were booming, and Fresh Start quickly went from three guest rooms to eight.
But the highlight of most visits was the food.
“We were told by some bed-and-breakfast expert that if we kept serving the kind of breakfast we served, that we’d be bankrupt,” said Sheila, looking at her sister. “But we kept on, didn’t we?”
The market has since dropped off, which is one of the reasons the sisters have decided to get out of the business. Other reasons include their age and the demands from guests for increasingly well-stocked rooms.
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“People want private bathrooms, Jacuzzis, televisions in every room, fireplaces if possible,” said Sheila. “It just seemed that too many people were getting a cut of our money.”
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There have been plenty of notable people stay as guests at Fresh Start, and it was once the site for a scene in the movie ‘Justice Denied’.
“They said, ‘Would you mind if we made the house look like a funeral parlour?’ and we said no,” said Sheila.
Some celebrities have also visited. Singer Mariah Carey stayed during the making of the television movie ‘WiseGirls’.
The sisters have seen 20,000 guests over the years. including a student from Denmark, who left a few sculptures and never returned.
Innis laughed when contemplating what might be next for the duo.
“We’re woodlot owners, so we may be chopping wood,” she said.
Whatever their decision, the sisters are committed to staying in Halifax’s north end — where they say they’ve never had a problem and would like to buy a home.
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