Many burned-out workers daydream about what they might do once they retire from their 9-to-5 jobs.
For some, it’s traveling the world, while others think about how they would use the time to learn to bake or sew.
Robin Singh’s dream was to open a bed and breakfast. When he got the opportunity to make it happen while still working — and with his partner, Sharan Samra, by his side — Singh jumped at the chance.
In 2024, Robin Singh was feeling stuck.
Overall, Singh, 32, was happy. He loved living in San Jose, California, and he was planning to propose to his then-girlfriend, Sharan Samra, 28, by the end of the year.
His work as an engineering lead at Google, though, wasn’t completely fulfilling him.
“I was feeling very frustrated with the way the job was going, the way that things were completely out of my control,” he told Business Insider. He added that he wanted a creative outlet and a project he could have more control over.
As he considered his situation, Singh decided it might be time to make a long-held dream come true.
“Having a little bed and breakfast has been a dream of mine for 10 years,” he said. “I was like, ‘You know what? Now’s the time. If I’m gonna preserve my sanity, I need something I really, really, really love.'”
Soon, Singh started looking at properties in Northern California and Oregon, hoping to find a location where he could bring his dream to life while continuing to work full time at Google.
Samra, the head of marketing at a startup, was supportive of Singh’s goal, but she didn’t realize how serious he was about it until he took her to a property in Oregon that he had fallen in love with.
Singh fell in love with a run-down RV park on the Oregon Coast.
Singh was open-minded about where his B&B might be, but he started his search along the coast of Northern California and Oregon because of a long-held love for the area.
“That area, I think, is one of the most beautiful stretches of the entire country,” he said. “Having gone there a bunch of times, I’ve always wanted a place that’s really cool that I can stay at, and I knew that was something I was really missing.”
Then, he found a listing for an RV park and motel called Fish Mill Lodges and RV Park, located just outside Florence, Oregon, in the town of Westlake. The property, which dates back to the 1940s, was about a 10-minute drive from the coast and sits on Siltcoos Lake. When he saw it, Singh said he felt like his dream was finally coming together.
“As soon as I pulled up, I was in love with the place,” he said.
By the time he saw it in person, he was already imagining transforming it into a boutique hotel, even though the property needed a lot of work.
The structures weren’t in great shape, and the land itself was overgrown.
Fish Mill Lodges and RV Park was home to six one-bedroom cabins, one larger cabin, and a bigger house. The 2.5-acre property is situated on the water, with a bridge providing access to the docks.
Singh said when he first toured the property, the walls of the cabins were rotting, the floors were creaking, and algae was growing in the toilet bowls.
The exterior wasn’t doing well, either. Singh said there were untended blackberry bushes that had grown to be nearly 10 feet high, and the docks weren’t safe to walk on.
The place was going to need a lot of work, but Singh was ready to take it on anyway. Samra needed to see the space in person before she was sold, too.
“I just had so many doubts,” she told Business Insider. “We’ve never owned a small business. We don’t have experience in hotels, and we both have full-time jobs that we need to keep, and we live so far away.”
“Everything seemed so impossible,” she added. “And then we went up there, and I just fell in love with the place.”
They closed on the property in November 2024 for $1.23 million.
Singh said he had money saved to put toward the land, and he and Samra were planning to continue working their day jobs to help pay for the property’s renovation. Still, he struggled to get a loan from a bank for the initial purchase.
“I had banks and stuff lined up, and all of them backed out in the end, saying, ‘Hey, it’s a tough time in hospitality right now. And if this thing fails, we’re going to have a building that is in a state of disrepair,'” Singh said.
Singh and Samra ultimately worked with a hard money lender to finance the purchase, and they were able to close in November 2024 — just a few days before Singh proposed to his now-wife.
Singh used the extra time before closing to prep for the renovations.
Because securing financing took a bit longer than he anticipated, Singh said he was able to get almost completely prepared for renovations before they even closed on the property.
Singh doesn’t have a background in design, but he had a clear vision for what he wanted the hotel to look like, drawing out designs himself.
“Robin’s not an artist,” Samra told Business Insider. “Even the drawings that he’s talking about, imagine a 3-year-old scribbled something. That’s what the drawings are.”
Singh was able to give those drawings to professionals, who created renderings of rooms or furniture designs. He said he even flew to India just four days after he proposed to Samra to start working with custom furniture designers.
Singh planned to focus the renovation on the cabins and big house, deciding not to rehab the RV hookups.
When they bought the hotel, the dated cabins needed a refresh.
The one-bedroom cabins had a lot of potential, but Singh and Samra said they weren’t too appealing for modern travelers before the renovation.
“Originally, when you walked in, you would open the door, and you would walk straight into the kitchen, which we thought was a little odd,” Samra said of the cabins.
Samra and Singh also said the kitchens were dated, with older appliances and decor.
They liked the setup of the main living area, though, which featured windows that overlooked the property and a Murphy bed attached to the wall. The cabins also had separate bedrooms that needed facelifts.
Adding massive windows to make the view the focal point of the cabins was key.
Although the windows that overlooked the lake at the cabins were great, Singh and Samra thought they were too small.
“One of the very first things we did was replace all those windows with floor-to-ceiling windows so that you can actually enjoy the lake view,” Samra said.
The process was a bit intensive, particularly because they found that some of the cabins had rotting wood, which meant they needed to replace entire walls. They collaborated with their contractor, Rafael Gonzalez of Home Remodel Specialist, and his team to implement the changes.
The main house was also in rough shape.
In addition to the cabins, the property included a larger house that was also in disrepair when Singh and Samra purchased it. They said the floors were rotted and moldy, and that birds had once lived in the house, leaving their mark all over the place.
There were also four studio apartment-style rooms in a structure together on the property, which needed a facelift as well.
Singh and Samra said they had a great time transforming the property.
Singh and Samra said it takes them about 10 hours to drive from San Jose to Westlake, and they made the drive frequently during the months they transformed the RV park, taking the trip whenever they could as they balanced their day jobs.
Luckily, the drives turned out to be fun and productive for the new business owners.
“We’re figuring out the names, the story for the place, and the theme for the place as a whole,” Singh said of the conversations they would have. “Those drives were some of my favorite times.”
During one of their drives, they even decided on the name of their new hotel: the Florentine Waterfront Hotel.
They also figured out that Samra would oversee operations for their new venture.
“She’s the one who makes all the operations for the hotel possible,” Singh said, adding that Samra has spearheaded creating efficient processes and the best guest experience they can have.
By June 2025, the Florentine Waterfront Hotel was up and running.
Singh and Samra told Business Insider it feels like work on the hotel will never be completely done, but by June 15, all of their rooms were open and rentable. However, they started opening rooms in April 2025 so they could do some testing.
“We gradually opened so that we could test out the concept to see if it would be successful or not,” Samra said.
Both said their experience in the tech and startup worlds made them easily adaptable and ready to pivot when needed, allowing them to learn as they opened new rooms over time.
For instance, they said that cleaning rooms after guests left took them close to two hours when they first opened, so they had to strategize on how to make that process more efficient while maintaining quality.
“I’m grateful that we opened one at a time so we could give that really personalized attention to one person, and then two people, then three,” Samra said.
When renovations were finished, each of the cabins had its own aesthetic.
On their many drives to and from the hotel, Samra and Singh came up with a different theme and catchy name for each room on the property. They wanted each space to have a distinct aesthetic and vibe so they could appeal to a variety of guests.
Music fans might appreciate the Record Room, which is filled with retro musical decor, while the Sage Suite (photographed above) has a restful, relaxing feel.
“The minute you walk in, you feel like the load on your shoulders has just been lifted,” Samra said of the Sage Suite. “The whole environment in that room is calm and meditative and peaceful. If you need to escape the world for a while, that’s the room.”
As of January, the cabins cost an average of $237 per night, while the studio apartments cost $137.
Every cabin has a stunning view of the lake.
Regardless of the theme, for the six cabins, Singh and Samra made the large windows they added to the structures the focal point of each living room. For instance, the living room of the Vanilla Villa (photographed above) offers the best views of the water, according to Singh and Samra.
Each cabin has one bedroom, but the couple also kept the original Murphy beds that are in the living areas because they offer such stunning views.
“We encourage everyone to sleep on the Murphy bed because when you wake up, the first thing that you see is the gorgeous view,” Samra said.
Singh and Samra slightly changed the layout of the cabins to make them feel more elevated.
To make it so you don’t walk right into the kitchen in each cabin, Singh and Samra added a small entryway to each space, separating it from the kitchen with an archway.
The kitchens also got major updates, with counters and cabinets lining the hallway-like space. Singh and Samra made the counters into a DIY project to help cut costs.
“Having blown all the budget on buying the place, everything had to be very, very creative,” Singh said.
They said they wanted marble counters, but they knew they couldn’t afford them. Instead, they installed epoxy countertops to create the perfect colors that matched each room.
They also tweaked the layout of the bathrooms.
In addition to the Murphy beds in the living area, the cabins feature a private bedroom and bathroom, which Singh and Samra have made some changes to.
Much like they did in the kitchens, they decided to separate the vanities from the shower and toilet in their cabins.
“We were thinking that a lot of times when we go to hotels, we really appreciate the places that have the sink and vanity outside the shower and toilet area,” Samra said. “If one person’s showering or using the bathroom, you can still have the vanity area to get ready.”
The countertops on the vanities match those in the kitchens as well.
The big house became the Funky Fortress.
The Funky Fortress, which costs $337 a night as of January, wasn’t previously rented out to guests, but Singh and Samra said they knew immediately they wanted to make it a rental property.
“That’s where the managers used to live and stay to run the place, but we converted that into a rental as well because it has the best views,” Samra said.
“It has panoramic views all around because the hotel sits on a peninsula,” Singh said. “We’re right at the tip of it, so when you’re sitting here, just in every direction you see the lake.”
The Funky Fortress is full of color, from a blue curved couch that Singh had custom-designed to bright artwork.
It can also sleep eight, as it has a queen bed and a queen-sized bunk bed.
They also did plenty of work on the exterior.
Singh and Samra said the landscaping at the Florentine was in disrepair, with vegetation overgrown and the dock falling apart.
As they brought it back to life, the couple made some discoveries.
“All the blackberries being gone is the biggest thing we’ve done,” Singh said, adding that it was so transformative that they discovered seven metal boats hiding underneath the thick bushes as they removed them.
“We still have them,” Singh said of the boats. “We gave away two of them to our friend who helped us cut down some of the blackberries.”
“It became a passion project for everyone,” Singh said of transforming the Florentine.
Singh and Samra used their income to finance the bulk of the renovations, but they said when their budget got tight, their community rallied to help bring the hotel to the finish line.
“I had to take out extra home equity and everything to actually fund the construction and also borrow from other friends and family when we ran out of that budget,” Singh said.
Singh said Gonzalez also worked with him when cash got tight, rather than putting the project on hold.
“Rafael, my home remodel specialist, gets so much credit for this place because he worked with me on everything,” Singh said. “He prioritized this project over everything else that he had, and we grew to be such great friends over this.”
Their first summer was a hit.
Since they were fully operational by June, Singh and Samra were able to host guests at the hotel for the duration of summer, which is the busy season on the Oregon Coast.
The couple told Business Insider they were booked to capacity for the majority of the summer.
“Our first summer has been beyond expectations, and we’re so grateful for that,” Samra said.
For the moment, Singh and Samra aren’t thinking of the money they make from the Florentine as profit.
“Any money that we make just goes back into everything that needs to happen to the place,” Singh said, including additional projects they hope to take on in the coming months.
And for Singh and Samra, making money wasn’t really the goal either way.
Although they’re glad the hotel has had a steady stream of guests, Singh and Samra said making a dream a reality was the real win.
“It was a passion project, and it was so gratifying,” Singh said. “It wasn’t numbers. It was heart and soul into it.”
Now, their attention is on how to keep growing their business and help the community they have come to love thrive.
“We’re working with the local community, Dune City, the city of Florence, and the county to try to see what we can do to make the entire area attractive to where visitors want to visit year-round,” Samra said. “We’re working with all the local business owners because everyone has this mindset of when one business succeeds, or we bring people to the whole area, we all win.”
As they look back on the work on the hotel, Singh and Samra — who got married in November 2025 — say that the experience of becoming business owners together has only helped them grow as a couple.
“It made our relationship stronger,” Samra said. “I’m grateful to say that.”
“I think our strengths and weaknesses go really hand in hand,” she added. “Creativity is his zone, and thinking of the big ideas and bringing them to life is my zone.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
The post A couple bought a run-down RV park for $1.23 million and turned it into a boutique hotel appeared first on Business Insider.
