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Diaries of a Lodge Owner
In 2009, sheet metal mechanic, Steve Niedzwiecki, turned his passions into reality using steadfast belief in himself and his vision by investing everything in a once-obscure run-down Canadian fishing lodge.
After ten years, the now-former lodge owner and co-host of The Fish'n Canada Show is here to share stories of inspiration, relationships and the many struggles that turned his monumental gamble into one of the most legendary lodges in the country.
From anglers to entrepreneurs, athletes to conservationists; you never know who is going to stop by the lodge.
Diaries of a Lodge Owner
Episode 107: Wilderness Luxury: Rick Dolishny's Glamping Revolution
Escape to the edge of wilderness luxury in this eye-opening conversation with Rick Dolishny, who alongside partner Jenn Carr has created Ontario's most innovative glamping experience at Maynooth Station Lodge.
Rick shares the fascinating journey of bringing North America's only double-paned glass panoramic geodesic dome to life near Algonquin Park. This isn't just camping with better amenities—it's a revolutionary approach to wilderness tourism where modern comforts meet forest immersion. The dome features air conditioning, gigabit internet, a private hot tub for stargazing, and yes, a proper flush toilet that even the most luxury-minded travelers appreciate.
What makes this story particularly compelling is how quickly Maynooth Station Lodge found success. Despite regulatory hurdles with Ontario's building codes that weren't designed for round structures, Rick and Jenn persevered. Now, just weeks after opening, they're completely booked through October, attracting urban professionals from Toronto and international travelers from as far as Germany. Their contactless check-in model perfectly matches what younger travelers are actively seeking—privacy, independence, and seamless technology integration in a natural setting.
Beyond the dome itself, Rick has woven together a network of local adventure experiences—from UTV tours to whitewater rafting—creating a comprehensive wilderness getaway that benefits the entire Maynooth community. Local businesses report dramatic increases in visitors, with travelers arriving in everything from family minivans to white Porsche convertibles.
Whether you're dreaming of your own glamping getaway or considering entering the outdoor hospitality business yourself, this episode offers invaluable insights into the future of tourism.
but what younger travelers are absolutely um seeking out, and again they're filtering the results to give them. This are experiences they want to experience algonquin park, which can be a real challenge for people if they're not used to camping. Algonquin park is gorgeous and people come around the world, but it's pretty rough. You're sleeping on the floor, but this is an Algonquin Park forest experience without sleeping on the ground. You're in the wilderness, but you've got everything you could possibly want and more.
Speaker 2:This week on the Outdoor Journal Radio Podcast Network's Diaries of a Lodge Owner Stories of the North. I'm back on the road with the Fish and Canada crew and I'm excited to talk with a longtime friend, former and current shooter, editor and technical expert for the Fish and Canada television show. But not only does this gentleman have time for us. He and his partner, jen Carr, have embarked on a journey into the waters that I know and love the northern tourism industry and it is my pleasure to introduce to all of you Rick Delishney. On this show. We talk about their new venture, manute Station Lodge, their geodesic dome project, what it took to get up and running and the tremendous success it's shown so far and, as usual, a bunch of great stories. So if you love learning about really cool stuff and enjoy a wee bit of entertainment, this is a great one for you.
Speaker 2:Here's my conversation with Rick Delishney. Welcome, folks, to another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner, and today is a very special day. I'm here with a wonderful man Ravishing Rick Delishney is what I like to call him and he has been with well. Peter Bowman is here too, walking in behind us, and, you never know, I might be able to persuade Peter to do an episode as well, but we wanted to get Rick on, because Rick's definitely more important.
Speaker 3:Ah, I agree, Peter's caress might show up right now. Oh my God.
Speaker 2:And we are sitting at Old Mission Resort shooting a television show for the Fish and Canada television show. And Rick is a very, very interesting individual because he has been a cameraman and wonderful things You've heard it on the intro and has been involved with Fish in Canada for how many years.
Speaker 1:Well, over 30 years. Honestly, it's on and off for quite some time, and the fact that I'm shooting all summer, that's actually that's a first. So, it's amazing after all these years, I'm doing something new and it's still exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, and that's wonderful. And speaking of new and exciting for me, rekindling our relationship has been new and exciting for me, but for one reason in particular, and that is you're getting into the outdoor hospitality industry, and why don't we talk a little bit about that? Because I know it's one of my passions and obviously it's one of yours. So what have you done?
Speaker 1:Well, honestly, steve, I've known you for so long and back in the shortier days and sort of what the you set the bar high for me, as me, as far as what my understanding of an outdoor adventure lodge might be. So I had that running through sort of my wish list of something I thought I wanted to do but didn't know how. Now my partner, jen, and I have traveled the world. We've literally been across the globe and we've stayed at a lot of accommodations and we've stayed at some really nice places. And we've stayed at a lot of accommodations and we've stayed at some really nice places and we've stayed at some dives, yeah, yeah. And we knew what we wanted and we both, as it turns out, really wanted to get involved in glamping.
Speaker 1:So glamping is camping. It's for people who want to experience camping but they don't, yeah, so it's like hot running water, air conditioning. And so we investigated what's going on around the world as far as glamping success stories, and what kept coming up was the geodesic dome, and we did some research on what's happening. In Europe, even like Scandinavian countries, they're very popular and in Canada they're starting to come around in Quebec and Saskatchewan and sort of the East Coast, but not in Ontario for reasons. Maybe we can get onto.
Speaker 2:So what exactly for us lay people is a geodesic dome?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's a geodesic dome. Yeah, so that's the geodesic dome. That's the. The original one was that expo 67 in Montreal. Oh really, it's a this structurally incredibly sturdy structure that is now used around the world, especially in hurricane zones and in the in the along the equator. They, they do. They build these geodesic dome first aid stations, hospitals and temporary shelters for people, because they will sustain hurricanes no way. So that's how they became a little more mass produced and available to the average consumer, who can just buy one now. But we got a bit of a special one, so we can talk about that later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, so whereabouts are you located? I know you're in Ontario, yeah, okay. So where do you have to put one of these geodesic domes to exploit the idea of glamping?
Speaker 1:Perfect. So Jen and I would have coffee in the morning on our deck and listen to and see no less than 100 snowmobilers a day go past our property. We own five acres just outside the village of Maynooth, which is about 20 minutes north of Bancroft.
Speaker 2:Oh nice.
Speaker 1:Which is two and a half hours to Toronto and two and a half hours to Ottawa. We're kind of right in that sweet spot, right on the border. Literally you can see Algonquin Park from our domes. So we are on the intersection of two of the busiest ATV and snowmobile trails in Ontario and there's nothing, there's really nothing between Bancroft and Whitney, and even then there's a lot of hunting camps and a lot of places with no electricity, no running water, and they shut down in the winter or if they're open in the winter they're pretty sparse. Yeah, so and we also noticed just the last there's a lot of women, snowmobilers and ATVers and they're couples and they've told us, and we've validated so far, they don't really want to stay in a honey camp. Yeah, they like the idea of having air conditioning and Wi-Fi and a private hot tub.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1:And heat in the winter. Absolutely, it's a multi-season resort. We're technically open three seasons plus, so we're working on that right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so how big are these domes, like how big is the dome that you have?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have a unique dome. It's one of the largest ones you can buy in North America. It's about 600 square feet. It's two stories, so we've got a space for storage on the second floor and we've got the only double. What is it? Double-paned glass, laminated panoramic window. So I'm excited about that. What does that mean? Until now, every dome that you would buy in North America, or actually in the world, the panoramic window is a single-ply clear plastic. And if you've ever stayed in a dome or if you've ever stayed in a tent that has clear plastic and if you've ever stayed in a dome or if you've ever stayed in a tent that has clear plastic windows, you know that condensation's a problem. And then they stain very quickly, yeah, and they get cloudy.
Speaker 1:The sun turns the plastic cloudy and yellow, but the big thing and the big problem with geodesic domes in North America is that when you have air conditioning inside or when you have heat inside and you have you have condensation. Yeah, and condensation. For some of our, our friends in in saskatchewan and in new brunswick. They actually have to build trough a trough along, no, to drain all the water that gets generated every single day and they have to run dehumidifiers 24 hours a day. So we mitigated that with the only double pane glass window panoramic dome in North America To this date I think we're still the only ones and we also installed commercial grade heat pump that does the dehumidifying and keeps the temperatures very comfortable.
Speaker 2:Wow. So was this a brainchild of yours that you had them build for you? Or was it like an option when you were researching it and you said, hey, we would like to do this? Or you said to the manufacturer hey, you do it this way, but we'd like you to do it differently for us.
Speaker 1:We actually sought out a manufacturer direct in china who said they would do this, and so we called them on it and said, okay, can you ship this? And they're like, well, oh no, it's kind of you know. You know, in business sometimes you promise things that aren't. They hadn't shipped it yet. So we were like, okay, this is something that we want. Can you guarantee it'll work in Canada and the coals. And they said it's industrial grade, like what we've done commercially, we're doing in this smaller glamping dome because they built the big like stadium homes, the people that we ended up hiring. So, yeah, no. So, to answer your question, it was a little bit of both, but no one had actually delivered it and we got the first one.
Speaker 2:Good for you, that's fantastic and have you like. I mean because there is nothing worse than being in a dome or a tent or whatever and it raining inside and it's nice outside.
Speaker 1:Yeah know what I mean. That's actually something people ask us about. Um, you know, stargazing domes are actually kind of popular. Out on the east coast, on new brunswick, they have quite a few, yeah, of these stargazing domes where you, you, you put the big queen bed in the center of the dome and you look up and you can see. Well, in Canada it becomes a rainforest, just like you said. Yeah, that clear, single-ply PVC plastic is just, especially in Canada. The heat rises, so we don't have anyway.
Speaker 2:We don't have the skylight dome, but what we do have is a totally private hot tub and you can sit in the hot tub all night and watch the stars all you want and watch the stars, oh yeah, well, I'd prefer to be watching the stars outside in a hot tub anyway, a couple of wobbly pops and your lovely lady beside you.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and we, and it's a totally private as well. Even though we're just outside the village of Manuth and our home is on the property, you actually kind of drive by our home to get through the forest to the first dome. It's very private. So, yeah, literally that hot tub is yours. We don't go up. We're a total hands-off. That's another thing we learned um sort of traveling.
Speaker 1:Um, we're a hands-off resort, so people pay, they book, they pay, they ask questions. They do it online. We never, we never even talk to them. Well, we never. We don't actually meet them. They check themselves in with a key code and they check themselves out and the system lets us know when they're gone. And it's actually a dream come true for jen and I to wow hands-off kind of resort and, as it turns out and we have the stats to prove it um, younger millennial and jen x travelers. That's actually a filter they set in Expedia. They want no contact with the lodge owner. Really it's a filter. Now you can look it up and it's actually there now and people will seek out resorts that are contactless and you just do.
Speaker 2:Wow, that in itself is a thought that is foreign to me. Yeah, I can imagine Right, but doing it the way that you're doing it, it sounds so intriguing to do so. Listen, if you don't mind me asking how much investment is there in a dome like this In time, in?
Speaker 1:everything. So it's interesting, we ordered it and delivered it, and our municipality really wasn't sure how to permit it, so it sat sort of in the permitting phase for almost a year, unfortunately. Wow. And then skip ahead to this year. We've only been open five weeks, really, skip ahead to this year. So 2025, we dusted off the last of the snow and chipped away the last of the ice on the platform that had been built in the fall. What kind of a platform did you build?
Speaker 1:Yeah, quite a substantial one, but anyway, from when we cleared off the ice to when we actually opened for business and you can see all of this on our Instagram and our TikTok page it was only four weeks, really, to build the whole thing. It's basically a small house. So, yes, I interrupted you. You had another good question. Oh, the platform itself. So that was part of the challenge and the expense, and I guess we'll loop back to the costs.
Speaker 1:Half of the cost was taken up with engineering studies like water testing and that sort of thing, but also the engineering that had to go into the platform that held this thing and just getting all the permitting done and getting all the stamped engineer drawings. Because, as it turns out in the province of Ontario, there's a reason why we don't have glamping domes in Ontario the Ontario building code. They just glazed over and they took months to get back to us and even then we had to really send them case studies of what's going on in Saskatchewan, what's going on on the East Coast, what's going on in, say, Norway and Sweden. And is this because they're round? Yeah, that's basically it the Ontario engineers and the building code like square walls and roofs Like flat roofs or canted roofs, but they like things that are flat and we have nothing in our dome that's flat.
Speaker 1:That was it In a nutshell. Yes, it was the fact that they just didn't understand a round structure and because it was technically commercial, it opened up other sort of engineering challenges and liabilities, but we got through it.
Speaker 2:Is it a concrete base or is?
Speaker 1:it a wood base, so this one's not concrete. We use helical pilings and for those that are interested to learn more about that, I would totally recommend it. The dome itself would have taken 18 sonotubes, so 18 holes would have had been dug in the ground, and 18, I don't know concrete like tons so much sonotube is going to be filled with concrete. So we went with a local supplier who does these helical piles and essentially they're aluminum corkscrews.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they look like augers. Yeah, they look like augers and they screw right into the ground and they're like 10, 12 feet long.
Speaker 1:They're really really deep, far deeper than any sonotube needs to be in Canada, and they went about 10, 12 feet I think, and we had 18 of them and the cost was about double. But it was finished in three hours and the framing started the very next day.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 1:So we'd have to wait for the concrete to dry, because there's no concrete.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:So we were able to actually get the contractor in the very next day and start to build a frame and the frame itself my God, it's a sight to behold if you do come to visit. Triple 2x12 beams oh really, you can land a helicopter on this thing. It's crazy. So that was a big part of the expense as well. For our next domes and we are zoned for more domes we might do a concrete pad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And then if you did a concrete pad, would you think about maybe in-floor heating, like a heat pump, with heating in the concrete?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's definitely an advantage of going with concrete pouring. In Canada is that's a very typical thing for garages and things to have in-floor heating. So yeah, we'll look into that for sure. We've got a weird kind of a hybrid floor heating right now where we heat the sort of a utility closet under the bathroom and we box that in and we have a small heater that runs in there and it keeps the floor of the bathroom nice and warm. Oh, that's beautiful.
Speaker 1:We didn't do full radiant heating. But again, we've only been open five weeks. This is July 2025. We've only been open five weeks. This is July 2025. We've only been open a month. So we'll get through the winter and we'll see how it works. And if we have to do something more dramatic, we will.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this whole this idea of glamping, I've heard of it and friends of mine in the Shelburne area tried yurts which were just glorified teepees on basically tent platforms and I've seen pictures of what you have there and this thing looks ridiculous, like it looks amazing on the inside and what kind of like. Okay, so you've been open for a little over a month. Yeah, has it been busy.
Speaker 1:Well, before we get into that, has it been busy. I realized we didn't say the name of it, oh, manuth Station. Lodgenooth Station Lodge. Maynooth Station Lodge. We bought the property across from the old Maynooth train station which was very, very important terminus in the logging days from Algonquin Park. All the logs would get trained down and they would either get split off in Maynooth to go in other directions or they kept going south to say Peterborough and Port Perry eventually. So Maynooth Station is we have the property across from that, so we're Maynooth Station Lodge.
Speaker 2:Now, that's very cool. Oh, what was your question?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, how have we been busy, steve? We are sold out. We sold out the day we opened, we pre-sold, and it's now July and we're booking into October now and every single day it could be a Tuesday in the middle of July, and every single day is sold out.
Speaker 2:Really Unbelievable. And how are you booking?
Speaker 1:We started for a few days. Just, we built our own booking engine. So I work, I work in IT, I'm a bit of a nerd and I I saw what was going on in their OTAs. So online travel agencies and the fees that they're collecting and sort of the general people are starting to think about maybe not supporting Airbnb for a number of reasons. So I built our own booking engine and I said, okay, if later down the road we hook up with Airbnb or Expedia or bookingcom, I'll create the mechanism to feed that calendar information to the other vendors, which I did.
Speaker 1:And we were booking for about two weeks and we started to get a lot of direct inquiries about Airbnb. And I see the reason why is sometimes you just you have an account and you just book everything through, say, expedia, or if you travel, if you're glamping, you book everything through Airbnb. So we tried it. Oh, steve, the minute we opened up on Airbnb, we filled every last available room or night for the rest of the summer of 2025. Really, and Airbnb now feeds us new business every single day. We wake up and there'll be one or two bookings that we didn't have to do anything for.
Speaker 2:So they're actually doing the bookings and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everything through Airbnb and they're promoting us and we're already. It's called Superhost. It usually takes people at least a quarter, three or four months. In two weeks we're a Superhost.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That is ridiculous. So you're enjoying this. What are some of the challenges that you've run into, if any so far?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, the big challenge is regulatory and sort of engineering and, yeah, no one knew how to build anything around in Ontario. So once we got through that and the snow melted this spring, things moved really, really fast. The challenges with ordering sort of this new technology with the windows direct from a manufacturer in China let me tell you I never want to do that again. You're an import-export logistics person and you're paying duties and tariffs and like that's not my business. I don't know. I didn't know what I was doing, but we did it and we somehow got a shipping container delivered to Manuth, somehow, a whole shipping container.
Speaker 1:Well, if you go on our TikTok page you can see the mess and the disaster that happened when this truck driver from Brampton tried to get into our forest and he was just stranded. There's a video on TikTok. We have a very active TikTok page. In fact it lit up before we even put a shovel in the ground. We now have over 100,000, we have about 200,000 views on our videos and it's just Jen and I goofing around trying to figure out how to.
Speaker 2:And is it Old Mission? What's the TikTok page so people can find it?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's Minuth Station Lodge, minuth Station. Yeah, we're at Old Mission Lodge. Yeah, it's Old Mission Minuth Station, minuth.
Speaker 2:Station. Yeah, we're at Old Mission. Yeah, it's Old Mission.
Speaker 1:Manute Station, Manute Station. Yeah, go on TikTok. And yeah, enjoy some of the videos of Jen and I totally trying things. For the first time we're having a ball, we're screwing up. That's actually the last of the challenges. Really was just deciding okay, we're gonna actually build this now, and a lot of the instructions were in Mandarin.
Speaker 2:Well, you speak Mandarin, don't you? Not today, right on. So you've had the pleasure of being at Chaudière. Yes, what are some of the similarities, or are there similarities to what you're doing versus what you saw at Chaudière, which was what I was doing?
Speaker 1:right. So chaudiere lodge falls into that short list of of experiences that jen and I have had of traveling the world, where, um, it came very close to the glamping experience, whereas you had the lodge itself, you had the full kitchen, the full dining room, and, and yet you were surrounded by nature. And even getting to Chardier Lodge, getting to with the launch from the.
Speaker 1:Doakies Reserve and that whole experience. That was it. Travelers these days don't really care. They care about the bed, and amenities and if they're free parking, that's the stuff that I would always look up when I was traveling.
Speaker 1:But what younger travelers are absolutely seeking out and again they're filtering the results to give them. This are experiences they want to experience Algonquin Park, which can be a real challenge for people if they're not used to camping. Algonquin Park is gorgeous. Can be a real challenge for people if they're not used to camping. Algonquin Park is gorgeous and people come from around the world, but it's pretty rough.
Speaker 1:You're sleeping on the floor on the ground and it's remote. You can hike but you can't really walk to get anything. But this is an Algonquin Park forest experience without sleeping on the ground. So back to your question. Chaudière provided this wonderful glamping. It wasn't glamping then, but it's sort of like hybrid of luxury. But you're in the forest and you had an incredible experience with a gorgeous dock and just beautiful facility, and it's that and it's when I was a kid, when I stayed at Fort Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World. Same thing You're in the wilderness, but you've got everything you could possibly want and more. Yeah, that was my goal. That's awesome. Yeah, that was my goal.
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Speaker 2:So you've mentioned millennials, Gen Z, Gen X, this and that. Are you finding that's who is utilizing your dome?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It's shocking actually. We kind of thought for the first year we'd be getting local ATVers and snowmobilers who are just curious. They've watched it being built over the past year. We're kind of internet famous in Maynooth and Bancroft just because people have been following us for years. Really, from when we started with the zoning changes we thought it would be sort of adventure people and, as it turns out, right now 100% are urban travelers from Toronto. We had somebody come up from Hamilton. We had a last minute cancellation and they said we'll take it, and the very next day they were up here from Hamilton with their two kids. Wow, and the kids wrote in our guest book they're like, oh, a bubble dome. I've always wanted to stay in a bubble dome.
Speaker 1:It's not exactly a bubble dome but I'll take it from a kid Because I was so excited and we also provide a free Algonquin Park day pass for everybody that stays here. So that's a $25 a day deal right there. But and there's a lot of I was surprised at the number of people who've never been to Algonquin Park, like I was born. I was born in Leamington but when I was one we moved to Whitney, which is on the East gate of Algonquin, so I have a long history of living up in this area. So it's very serendipitous and it seems like the universe was telling me something. To come back to the Algonquin Park mansion in Maynooth, but no, my guests, our guests, are urban and they're not just Toronto, hamilton.
Speaker 4:They're.
Speaker 1:Germany, france. Already we actually had two guests from Germany. We've got another one coming next week. Actually, wow, and they're finding us.
Speaker 2:Like I mean, just the fact that people are finding you is ridiculous. Oh, one thing I haven't asked you how much is it to stay a night?
Speaker 1:Ah right, right now it's $2.49 on weekdays and $2.99 on weekends and $50 for early check-in or early check-out and almost everybody is paying for that as well. So we're very excited. We kind of bias the pricing a little lower than other domes in other parts of the world. But they're on water, we're on top of a kind of a small mountain in the Halliburton Highlands, so our advantage is the view over the forest and the fact that we have actually I'm going to say it, we have almost no bugs up there. Wow, the wind blows up the Mattawaska Valley and it comes right over our hill and it just blows the bugs. I don't know if I can, I don't know if I would actually put that on my sell sheet, but I've noticed it Because I go to Algonquin all the time and black flies and mosquitoes are sometimes kind of crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, hey, in Shelburne the mosquitoes are pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're pricing it a little lower, but we don't have waterfront, and that seems to be the thing Waterfront just sends it through the roof.
Speaker 2:So you've priced it a little lower, but you've mentioned Algonquin Park. What are some of the other attractions that people are coming for that you can offer?
Speaker 1:Great. We've formed alliances with all the major tourist destinations in the Mattawaska Valley and the Bancroft area. For example, there's Bancroft Off-Road Tours. They run the glamping of UTVs Like these are automatic, oh really, like the most amazing UTVs I've ever experienced. Again, if you go on our TikTok page you'll see a video that we went on the tour that they offer customers. There's nothing you have to do. You show up, you put a helmet on a visor because it can get dusty, and they have a two and a four-hour UTV trip through the forest outside of Bancroft. So we have an alliance with them and sort of a and that's like a side-by-side.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's the nicest I've ever been in. Like, again, the video's on our site, you'll see it. But yeah, side-by-sides, yeah, four wheels and automatic transmission and the whole thing. And then we also have an alliance with the Mattawaska Canoe Center, whitewater rafting, 25 minutes from the dome, and I did some research on it and, again, we did an amazing video. It's one of my most popular videos and it's the Owl Whitewater people in Ottawa. They run that and then they run this here in Mattawaska Valley, which is like less than half an hour from the dome. Wow, and we're building more alliances as people come on board.
Speaker 2:Location, location, location. Exactly. That's very cool. Now, did you kind of luck out with your location, or did you buy this location, thinking of this project?
Speaker 1:No, jen bought it because it gave her the. She worked in tech and works in tech and you know, through COVID there was that whole flight out of the city.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So she had family up this way and so she bought the house off the former mayor of Maynooth actually. So it's a very small town community, but it's amazing. And then I met Jen just a couple years ago and come up and then, like I said, we were sitting on the patio drinking coffee, watching snowmobilers and ATVs go by and we're thinking, well, how can we capitalize?
Speaker 2:on this. Well, I remember you called me that's right, right when you were thinking about this idea?
Speaker 1:Oh, that could have been two years ago, eh yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:Well, it had to have been two years ago because at the time I was actually on the Amaranth Township Council and you must have been talking to Ange, or well, you called me wondering about getting some advice and I remember giving you advice as far as the township permitting process and all of that stuff, township permitting process and all of that stuff. But I remember you calling me and I was thinking, wow, this is a very interesting idea. I wonder how it's going to turn out. But for all intents and purposes, man, you've knocked it out of the park.
Speaker 2:And the great thing about it that I see that I've gathered from this conversation and folks, rick and I, we've already done one shoot together up on Buck Lake, obakamika Lake or something like that, at Buck Lake Lodge, and we've had lots of conversations to catch up. But the thing that in our conversation now that I see is you're in a unique position where you've already made inroads building your first dome. Yes, nobody else has made those inroads, not in Ontario. Everybody else in ontario other than in your township are going to run into the same problems that you did. So for expansion. Um, you and you mentioned you're already, uh, approved for more yes, and we have the infrastructure already laid.
Speaker 1:All our trench work is done for our second dome or A-frame. We're still deciding what our next project is going to be.
Speaker 2:So for the dome, like I mean, you've figured out the part of that, so I think that your second build will be far easier than your first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it will be, and we get asked a lot exactly those questions. People are either going to talk to the municipality or try to get zoning, and there's more people in Ontario that I think are really curious about us. We get emails all the time and even phone calls like how did you do it? Sort of thing. We have a website called domeduncom. Domeduncom is exactly that it's a DIY. It's a place where you can reach out to Jen and I and we're just consultants for hire and we can answer any questions you have about the zoning and the construction and the ordering of these domes. So that's a little. I got 25 side projects, but that's another one of my side projects and it supports Middletown Station Lodge.
Speaker 2:Hey, listen. Well, whenever you're throwing spaghetti at the wall, you never know what's going to stick right Spaghetti yeah, and that's the thing. The more irons in the fire, the better off you are. Yeah, and that's awesome. And how are you finding it logistically Like having guests coming in? Obviously you're not talking to the people. They're letting themselves in, they're letting themselves in, they're letting themselves out and your software, I'm assuming, is intelligent enough to let you know when they're gone.
Speaker 1:No, it's not. Not when they leave, although we're working on a solution for that. When they arrive, totally it triggers the cameras on the road and we can see that for sure. I guess it triggers them on the way, for that, when they arrive, totally it triggers the cameras on the road. Yeah, and we can see that for sure. I guess it triggers them on the way out too yeah.
Speaker 1:So we have some cameras on the entrance road that leads up to the top of the hill in the forest, and no cameras are up there. That's how we see it, so how long is your turnover?
Speaker 2:Like you know, like there's logistics with all kinds of different things. Even though you're removing the guest interaction part out of it, there's still a ton of logistics.
Speaker 1:Precisely, and the turnover is the largest. Hard cost, as you know, with any lodge, is turning over a room or a cabin for the next guest. There's time, there's resources, there's the soap for the laundry and there's money and the dollar value has ranged pretty broadly actually, from say, $40 to almost $90, actually over $100. If we hire an Airbnb service to come in and clean the dome, it's over $100 to turn it over, which is pretty substantial, but it's actually kind of par for the course. You do have to, really you have to be aware of that when you're pricing what you're trying to do.
Speaker 2:Well, have you got any questions about that kind of stuff? Like I mean, I used to turn over a ton of people. You had 16 or 18 cabins. I had 15 cottages, 15, right, I used to turn over a ton of people, you had 16 or 18 cabins. I had 15 cottages 15, right, yeah, yeah. Well, 14 on the Chaudière Island and then one on the island that I retain, that I own now, right, right, so I had 15 total cottages.
Speaker 1:I can't even imagine, steve, I can't even imagine. I have a million questions about that, but it's all got to do. That's funny. This week we have the best guests. They come in, they clean after themselves, we walk in, we just stand there and we go. All right, what do we do? Like you do it back there change the sheets and you're done. We had a guest this week. It was a family. They had young kids. They had dirty dishes in the sink. No, can you believe it?
Speaker 2:Like Jen and I, stared at each other for a minute. We, laughed.
Speaker 1:We were like we are so spoiled. We've got the best guests ever, but we had to wash the dishes and that took an extra 15 minutes and we were so pissed off Not the guests, we love the guests but the fact that we hadn't had to do that in three weeks just goes to show you how, how, how streamlined we got it so we could turn over in in just over half an hour. Oh, that's amazing. Which is kind of incredible, and that's working with the two of us a solo, it's about 45 minutes. If we have to wash dishes, add another few minutes.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then you, obviously you've got all of your linens. Well, that we can turn it over in 45 minutes. But then the whole getting ready for the next guest, and of course we're talking laundry. You know, for one dome it's like an hour and a half, but as soon as you go, two domes, all of a sudden it's three hours out of your day and then it's four and then it's six hours.
Speaker 1:Then it's the whole day, a week spent doing all the back load of laundry Like I can't even imagine. So we've got the one dome now. We're enjoying this while we can, yeah.
Speaker 2:And and you can, there are ways to to scale that up. Like I mean, um, you can get more laundry machines right. Like I, um, uh, with all 14 cottages we would typically be changing over all on the same day and not only changing over on the same day. Um, our changeovers had to be done by 3 o'clock in the afternoon and checkout wasn't until 11 in the morning, so we had between 11 and 3 to completely change over Potentially 14 cabins, and a lot of times there were 14 cottages.
Speaker 1:Just the way the lunches work and they're bringing the boats and groups in. That's right that's right.
Speaker 2:So, you know, we had um half a dozen washers and dryers each. We had um two, sometimes three, full sets of linens for all of the beds on the island.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, and we were talking, uh, 44 beds that's right, because you had each cabin would have about up to four singles. Well, we, yes and then you can make them into kings.
Speaker 2:We had that's right like we had, our largest cottages were three bedrooms, so there were six twins, uh, two in each bedroom. And, um, the way that we did it, every bed on the island was a twin and there would be two in each room. But if you wanted a king bed, if you push two twins together, and we had a seat belt system where we would strap the mattresses together so that you know when somebody rolls to the middle of the bed you didn't fall in between them. So we would have that with a nice piece of foam, so you could almost not tell that it was two beds rather than a king. And we would configure all the beds the way that people wanted them in the cottages and then that way, all we needed, as far as our I'll call it material, were king sets and twin sets.
Speaker 1:But see, that adds another layer of time and resource. We're just talking about turnover and checkout, but what you just described, you have a communication with the guests before they even arrive and you may have to send a crew or yourself to configure these cabins the way your guests want 100%. So I can't even imagine how you do it, but I'm kind of new to this.
Speaker 2:And those configurations would happen on the turnover. So we would have I would have our calendar by week and every cottage was listed on that calendar and then every day of the week was on that on that grid. So a week prior to and I would put them out in two week calendars. So every person on the staff whether it be in the kitchen, whether it was on the dock or whether it was the housekeeper servers they all knew who was coming in next week and what days they were coming in and how the cottages were to be configured. So when they did a changeover and a changeover folks just means when people leave the cottage and new people come in and you've got to. My goal was always to make and this actually come from Ange Viola my goal was always to make and this actually come from Ange Viola make that cottage feel as though when your guests walk into it, it's the first time that anybody has ever been in that cottage.
Speaker 1:That's incredible and actually I have Angelo Viola to thank for a number of our successes because, similar to our story, he's traveled the world. He knows what he likes and doesn't like. One example that always comes up porcelain flushable toilets. He's done with compost, toilets are great, and Cinderella's, and we investigated them all and we ended up spending a significant amount of our budget on a commercial grade septic system because I knew Angela Viola would want a flush toilet. Wow, but you know what? It's one of the things that everybody says they can't believe we've got and they love it. Yes, so Ange was right. Yeah, I'll tell them that 100%.
Speaker 2:Wow, you're probably the only dome in the country that has a porcelain flush toilet.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're absolutely right Again, because people are really skittish about zoning and stuff. They have found a way around. It is just by making three-season domes or not even putting utilities in the dome, and the municipalities will treat that more like a tent or a temporary structure. And then sure, but then there's no toilet, there's no bathroom, the shower is outside. And then sure, but then there's no toilet, there's no bathroom, there's no, the shower is outside. The toilet could be a pit toilet or an outhouse or something outside of the dome or a shared comfort station, which is. I mean, I camped as a kid, I camp now, nothing wrong with it, but it's not the glamping experience that Jen and I wanted. So, yeah, we have porcelain toilets.
Speaker 2:And thanks Angela, yeah Well, toilets. And thanks, angela, yeah Well. Hey, listen, I with with those facilities. That's something that I want to do Right, that's something that I can feel confident that I know my wife will want to do. Oh yeah, it's like, it's like our cottage. It's very quaint, it's a 1950 Sears cottage kit, but we have everything you need. We've got a shower, we've got a beautiful bathroom with flush toilet, septic system, yep, like I mean, we've got internet, we've got the tv, we've got and that's just kind of new. I was a little bit torn on whether or not I was going to put internet in there, because my kids are glued to it a lot, but and not only the kids, it's everybody you know what that's?
Speaker 1:the glamping experience. Buddy buddy. People talk about unwinding and detoxing and I'm sure there's a reason for that. A number of our guests have said we're going to come and unwind and detox in the air conditioning with gigabit internet, and they consider that a detox just the fact that they got out of Toronto.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and that's true. So, like I mean, the whole idea of what you're doing is very cool and I'm really proud of what you've done as a good friend of mine and jumped into something like this, because I know we've not talked about how much it costs, but I've been, and I don't know if you've ever told me, but with a septic system, with everything that you've been, and I don't know if you've ever told me, but with a septic system, with everything that you've done, the piles, the whole deal, you've got to be 60, 70,000.
Speaker 1:That's a great guess. We're under 100,000, but that also included the infrastructure for the second dome as well, gotcha. But yeah, you're almost right on the money, it was under $100,000. And we did spend more on the sort of engineering and we spent more on, yeah, the septic.
Speaker 2:Getting the septic system in that wasn't cheap, like a lot of these domes that you were talking about previous to that. I would be floored if they invested any more than 20 Gs on them.
Speaker 1:Oh, there are a number. Yeah, there's a couple in Ontario that seem to stagnate. They either ran out of money or the municipality shut them down. There's a number of dome projects, actually very close, within 100 kilometers of where we are now in Algonquin, that aren't open yet. They've been under construction for years and, yeah, the quality of them it's that thin PVC, it's the single pane glass which doesn't work in Canada, and they're not open yet because there's no magic, there's no pizzazz, there's no. Again, going back to my Disney, having worked at Disney and then traveled to Disney, I have a very high. I set the bar high with what I wanted a glamping experience to be and, yeah, you're right, nobody's really done it in Ontario.
Speaker 2:And the key to your success and the key to my success in retrospect is absolutely what you just said experience, Exactly. It said, experience Exactly. It's the experience and the fact that you've got total privacy on a small mountain in the Halliburton Highlands.
Speaker 1:All right, let me qualify for that. There are no mountains in Ontario, no, but we are in the Halliburton Highlands and it is a high part of the Halliburton Highlands A beautiful.
Speaker 2:You're overlooking a beautiful valley.
Speaker 1:We are. There's a beautiful. The Papineau Creek runs just at the bottom of the valley and then you turn around 180 degrees and walk about a kilometer and you're in downtown. Downtown, you're in the four corners of Maynooth. You have a cafe, you have antique shops. It's a very quaint little town.
Speaker 2:I'm assuming it's a beautiful town.
Speaker 1:And a lot of people drive through it to get to Algonquin but they don't know what it is and they don't necessarily stop. But that's already changed. I'm going to toot my horn for a minute. There was literally a post that just happened on Facebook, on the Maynooth business Facebook page, and they're like oh my god, our, our traffic has increased a thousand percent and, uh, people are checking in from around the world and what is happening in manuth? And I've got to be quiet, okay, I'm gonna shoot my heart with you. Yeah, what is happening in manuth.
Speaker 1:That has, uh, brought some attention that now all businesses are benefiting from the caliber and the quality of guests that we're bringing into the community. One example that I'll give we had an executive from Toronto who worked in the software business and she just wanted to get away and she booked the dome for four or five days, showed up in this beautiful white porsche convertible, like it was. It's on our website, you can see it. She let us post it. It's the most beautiful car and it's parked right next to our dome. It's incredible.
Speaker 1:Well, she made an impression on the entire village of manuth. She would buy the pastries at the sunrun and then she went to the arlington, which is the big purple palace um pub hostel in Maynooth as well. She went there twice actually and got to know all the regulars, and all the townies were like, oh there, she's back. No way, pull up in this porch and buy a pizza and take it back to the dome and eat this pizza like in her dome just relaxing. We have made a great impression on the community and I'm really proud of what we've done.
Speaker 2:Well, um, you know what they say all ships rise with the tide and and when you, when you start um um doing wonderful things and hooking up with all of these other little businesses, all of those businesses benefit, and it's not just one way, it's all ways it goes, both ways it's all ways right, and that is also the key to great business and small business and making small business in this country work, because it's a very difficult thing these days to make anything work in this country with the way that our political climate is and um, um, I've been in small business basically for most of my life and um, and, and it takes a special kind of person to be able to just say, to hell with it, um, I'm doing it and and make it work and and that's what you've done, and congratulations.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks, steve, and, like I said, we set the bar high. Knowing people like you and Ange, and just Jen and I with our travels, we set the bar high. But thank you, thank you for the advice you gave us years ago, and here we are today, in 2025, talking about a project that is complete. It's a success and we're looking on what to do next.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it's a success. Very quickly, like I mean, since you've been, I'm dumbfounded at how well it's booking for you and I'm really excited because, you know, if I was in your shoes, I'd already be looking at the plans for the next one for sure. You know, like, and hey, listen, it's a huge investment that you made into the business but it's starting to pay off and you can actually kind of put some numbers together to figure things out. And when you're the best and when you start, see, the key is to start with the best. Look at everybody else and take the best of the best. And if you can start on top with your facility and have the idea of the experience that you want to provide for people, and that experience, even though you're not directly interacting with a lot of your guests Some of them, I think, you are- and I'll ask where's the liquor store and they'll text us occasionally.
Speaker 2:But you're still building an experience for them. But you're still building an experience for them by making available this web of amazingness that they can experience when they're there. Just you know, sitting. An idea that I'm really wishing I could enjoy right this moment would be sitting in a hot tub and looking at the stars. Oh, my friend, and maybe not right in this moment, like I mean, it is July the idea of doing that in January is much more appealing to me.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, but just the little things. You know stargazing, and you're in the middle of a beautiful boreal forest. You are, like I mean, you're at Algonquin, you've got the high-end side-by-side four-wheeling ATVing guys there, whitewater rafting, crazy. Like I mean, it's a wonderful, wonderful business model.
Speaker 1:Incredible community and I feel as if there's all these parts that were always there but we needed somebody to connect them and, as you've alluded to, which I will allude to, government is not our best friend. If you're waiting for them to promote you, you're going to wait a long time. They're probably not going to do you justice. Now we've had some great experience with the local Hastings Highlands Tourism Board. They've been actually incredible with helping us. The local funding through CFDC it's a federal sort of funding agency. Again, those are community-based government, maybe arm's length government or government-government agencies. They were great. But overall it's so much more satisfying if you can get people together that share your common vision of what something could be and gosh even like the local campgrounds. We're so friends with them and you know, we can offer it, we're all in it together.
Speaker 1:We, you know, even when we have our second dome, it's only going to be two domes, like it's not going to be a stretch for us to sell out. So we need to be able to build relationships with the local hotels and campgrounds and hostels and everything else which we've done and we're really proud of that.
Speaker 2:Good for you. So tell all the Diaries family out there again where to look for you, how to get a hold of you, how to book in and just make sure you reiterate your website and all of that stuff Perfect.
Speaker 1:So if anyone's interested in getting into the glamping business, domedonecom D-O-M-E-D-O-N-E dot com is where you can book Jen and I to answer any questions you've got and we've kind of done it all. We are at Manuth Station Lodge. You can go to manuthstationlodgeca and we have links to all of our socials. I'm kind of proud of it. Our TikTok really exploded. So if you're on TikTok you want to watch some fun videos on everything from installing that septic system to the day that the shipping container arrived and couldn't get up our hill, and what a disaster that was.
Speaker 1:We documented everything. So if you're interested in sort of the reality and the behind the scenes of the glamping experience, manoustationlodgeca and check out our socials and, like I say, reach out to us if you have any questions.
Speaker 2:We'd love to talk about it. Thanks, buddy, I can't wait to get there myself for sure. And folks, that brings us to the point where we're going to send you over to fishingcanadacom and check out the giveaways. Now, listen, I've just heard through the grapevine that our giveaways right now are a little light in the loafers. But you got to go and watch because I'm not 100% sure. But I've heard rumor about possibly a boat and motor Boat, motor and trailer that potentially could be going up there. So keep your eyes peeled for that and all the merch over there you can get. It's wonderful.
Speaker 2:And, of course, thank you to Lakeside Marine in Red Lake Ontario. They are a wonderful supporter of the Diaries family. And, of course, thank you to Lakeside Marine in Red Lake, ontario. They are a wonderful supporter of the Diaries family and we really appreciate you guys up there for absolutely second-to-none service. It's ridiculous. And also, night Night Nixon yeah, I still remember you, buddy, and all you folks out there. You know, nixon, he's our uh, he's our little diaries fellow that listens to me when he goes to sleep every night. So, uh, thanks, buddy. And lastly, thank you to all of you that have got to this point listening. I really appreciate it. It helps so much keeping this podcast going and like and subscribe and comment and you know you can get me at steveann at fishincanadacom with any questions and comments as well and we really appreciate it. And, rick, thank you so much for doing this.
Speaker 1:You're very welcome, Steve. Let's change the world.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, buddy. I love it. Let's change the world. And thus brings us to the conclusion of another episode of Diaries of a Lodge Owner. Stories of the North. I'm a good old boy, Never meanin' no harm a lodge.
Speaker 4:And that'd be fine.
Speaker 3:I'll be making my way, the only way I know how.
Speaker 2:Working hard and sharing the north With all of my pals. Well, I'm a good old boy. I bought a good old boy, I buy the lodge and live my dream, and now I'm here talking about how life can be as good as it seems, yeah.
Speaker 3:Hi everybody. I'm Angelo Viola and I'm Pete Bowman. Now you might know us as the hosts of Canada's favorite fishing show, but now we're hosting a podcast. That's right. Every Thursday, Angelo and I will be right here in your ears bringing you a brand new episode of Outdoor Journal Radio. Hmm, Now, what are we going to talk about for two hours every week? Well, you know, there's going to be a lot of fishing.
Speaker 4:I knew exactly where those fish were going to be and how to catch them, and they were easy to catch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it's not just a fishing show. We're going to be talking to people from all facets of the outdoors, from athletes, All the other guys would go golfing Me, and Garth and Turk and all the Russians would go fishing To scientists. But now that we're reforesting- and letting things freeze.
Speaker 4:It's the perfect transmission environment for life.
Speaker 6:To chefs If any game isn't cooked properly, marinated, you will taste it.
Speaker 3:And whoever else will pick up the phone Wherever you are. Outdoor Journal Radio seeks to answer the questions and tell the stories of all those who enjoy being outside.
Speaker 5:Find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. As the world gets louder and louder, the lessons of our natural world become harder and harder to hear, but they are still available to those who know where to listen. I'm Jerry Ouellette and I was honoured to serve as Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources. However, my journey into the woods didn't come from politics. Rather, it came from my time in the bush and a mushroom. In 2015, I was introduced to the birch-hungry fungus known as chaga, a tree conch with centuries of medicinal use by Indigenous peoples all over the globe.
Speaker 5:After nearly a decade of harvest use, testimonials and research, my skepticism has faded to obsession and I now spend my life dedicated to improving the lives of others through natural means. But that's not what the show is about. My pursuit of the strange mushroom and my passion for the outdoors has brought me to the places and around the people that are shaped by our natural world. On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, I'm going to take you along with me to see the places and meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and under the canopy. Find Under the Canopy now on Spotify, apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts.