- The Berlin Resort Hotel and The Club Health & Fitness are under new management.
When new owners took position of The Berlin Resort Hotel and The Club Health and Fitness, the hotel was good to go, but the fitness center was in need of some TLC.
To that end, Five Star Management Group set to work at the property located on the corner of County Road 201 and state Route 39 on the western end of Berlin.
“We are infusing some new energy,” said Jeff Conn, First Star Management Group CEO. “We renovated The Club with new equipment and a fresh new look. We decided to keep the name The Club. We rebranded with a new logo.”
Conn said the 77-room hotel was in great shape when they took over, but The Club required a lot of attention.
The renovation of the fitness center began in December and it was about two months before it was up and running, with new equipment, including a cold plunge, as well as technology for signing in and accessibility.
A golf simulator was added for players to work on their swings. It opened in this month and has gotten plenty of activity, Conn said. Players can reserve a time to use the simulator through The Club’s website.
The foray into the hospitality
Conn said his family’s foray into the hospitality industry started with the Encore Hotel in 2018.
“It all started with Amish Country Theater in 2012,” he said. “The theater was our first thing, and the lodging was connected to the theater. People would ask where to stay after a show and the lodging became part of the package.”
While The Encore was being built, the Conn family acquired the Blessings Lodge in Berlin.
“We found we really liked the cabin model of lodging, too,” Conn said. “We now have 70 cabins, tree houses and cottages.”
That led to the development of the management group.
“This allowed us to build up our systems, our staffing roles and to be able to acquire new properties without having to hire a new general manager, executive house keeper or maintenance director,” Conn said. “This gave us a corporate layer that had a maintenance director, etc.
“When the opportunity to talk to Jerry (Anderson) about the Berlin Resort came up last summer, we were able to more easily facilitate the transaction,” he continued. “It was the right time. It was a win-win for him and for our company.”
