Shell Lake hotel becomes a Wyndham

SHELL LAKE — Shell Lake is now the only place in Washburn County home to a Wyndham hotel.

The former AmeriVu Inn, located off Highway 63 south in Shell Lake, was purchased by Nick and Rebecca Dillon, a couple who have been in the hospitality business for many years. Originally from St. Paul, Nick’s stepfather got him into the business of running duplexes and laundromats, and eventually hotels.

The family moved to Wisconsin about 13 years ago and bought the Rub A Dub Dub Laundromat in Hayward. A tornado decimated their home in 2016, and they had to live above the laundromat for about eight months, selling the land from their former home to a church.

However, Nick said, “it’s impossible to work where you live.”

Rebecca said they really liked the Spooner area because of family-friendly venues such as the library and Lakeland Family Resource Center. They moved to Trego in 2018, keeping ownership of the laundromat and building two more in the Twin Cities.

In 2022, they purchased the former Northern Pines hotel in Hayward and did renovations, turning it into the Lumberjack Inn.

Running a business in the Twin Cities out of northwestern Wisconsin was getting to be too much (Rebecca was also a flight nurse), Nick said, so they began looking for another place to run in Washburn County. AmeriVu was up for sale, so they got help from the Northwest Regional Planning Commission and Shell Lake State Bank to purchase it on May 6, which Nick said was “the easiest transaction.”

“Now we don’t own any laundromats,” Rebecca said, as they sold Rub A Dub Dub to the Leddy family of Spooner.

The Dillons wanted to make a drastic change to the Shell Lake hotel, and began researching brand names. They found Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, a chain with 25 brands and over 9,000 locations around the world with high standards.

“Wyndham gives a piece of mind for people” because of those standards, said Nick.

The hotel is now called the Shell Lake Lodge & Travelodge by Wyndham, and it operates as a “soft brand,” which Rebecca says it means they can keep the northern Wisconsin feel to the lodge and allows them to be more creative. They wanted to keep the Northwoods theme for their customers.

“That was really important to us,” she said.

Shell Lake Lodge is only the sixth Wyndham soft brand in the country, and Nick said he hopes other hotels will “use us as an example” so they can keep their character.

The Dillons bought all-new mattresses and amenities such as linens and soft goods that are under the Wyndham name. Spooner Glass and Door put in all-new windows, and they also worked with Sticks and Stones on furniture. There are 41 rooms, with three suites and nine different styles. Some rooms have whirlpools and balconies or log furniture and fireplaces, “something for every style out there,” said Nick.

They also got the pool running again, as Nick said it hadn’t been open since around 2019.

“We worked our butt off to get that pool running,” he said.

They acid washed the floors in the pool area and put in new drain covers, along with fixing the plumbing issues, and will be repainting the duck slide in the kiddie pool. The pool room is now open, except for the waterslides, as there are currently no lifeguards on duty.

A bar area, the Fireside Room, that used to be a lounge for visitors, will soon have the ability to serve people once a bartender comes on board. The City of Shell Lake granted them a license at a recent meeting and people can relax in the armchairs or at the bar, or play games by the fireplace in winter.

“Right now, people use it as a hangout,” Nick said of the Fireside Room.

The Dillons will be working with the new Northwest Express restaurant going into the Spooner Civic Center to have events for hockey parents. The Dillons are a billet family who host junior hockey players, having started with the Moose and then the Wisconsin Lumberjacks when they were based in Spooner, and Nick is a youth coach.

The hotel has continental breakfast, the basics, and they plan to expand it eventually.

Rebecca said in the future, they hope to offer open swim and work with the Lakeland Family Resource Center on toddler days in winter. The Spooner Area School District reached out to them for high school events, too. The conference room is open to anyone who would like to use it, as the Hayward hockey team uses the conference room at the Lumberjack Inn.

Additionally, since the hotel doesn’t have a gym on-site, they plan to partner with the Body Shop for customers to work out. They will also have pickleball paddles and volleyballs available to check out to play at the Tiptown courts.

“Our goal is to really become community-focused,” said Nick. “We are open to any nonprofits that want to partner.”

When they renovated the Hayward hotel, they shut it down for three months, but in Shell Lake, they have been continually open while making changes. They recently housed the crew working on the highway project.

“Customer service is our number-one focus,” said Nick.

“We want people to vacation in this area,” added Rebecca.

The least expensive way to book a room at the Shell Lake Lodge is on a mobile device through Wyndham, which also offers discounts.

“If you can’t think of a discount, we have a discount for you,” Nick said.