Hi- I saw that program last week with the hippies in Oregon. I felt so sorry for the mother. Her sons were totally taking advantage of her. They had their own side businesses. One ran the restaurant, and the other one put on concerts in the hotel for which he charged admission, and neither one of them paid the Mother, who owned the hotel, anything. Her husband also was not very helpful. He seemed to be more interested in getting stoned than in helping his wife with the operation of the place. I think Gordon finally decided that the husband was not an asset to the place, and he kept him out of the loop when it came time to make changes to the hotel. The husband kind of reminded me of Paula Dean's brother Bubba.
The hotel in Mississippi was the first time though that I had seen Gordon bring in a professional chef for the kitchen. The wife did not have the training to be a sushi chef, but she could handle the tableside Japanese barbeque which Gordon suggested that she do. It was nice that he found the right job for her. It was obvious that sushi was not her specialty. The show was taped last Summer, and when they did an update at the end of the program Monday, it seemed that the hotel was still doing really well. I think the hotel was in disrepair when the couple took it over, and they ran out of funds to update the hotel rooms, and the husband knew that they needed to be updated. It was so refreshing to see Gordon and the family on the same page. They knew changes had to be made, and were glad to let Gordon make them. I think there are two more episodes of Hotel Hell left. Thanks, Nancy