Courtesy / The Rasor Family
Dick Rasor.
December 28, 2022
Bethel Inn Resort purchased by Massachusetts hotel group
Courtesy / Giri Hotel Management
The 200-acre Bethel Inn Resort is the 47th acquisition in New England for Quincy, Mass.-based Giri Hotel Management.
Crowned as “America’s best ski town” by USA Today in 2019 and increasingly known as a summer destination for its growing trail system, Bethel’s year-round market was a top attraction for a Quincy, Mass., hotel group that acquired Bethel Inn Resort this week.
“We absolutely love Maine, and the Bethel Inn represents so much of what we like about it,” Claire Mulholland, director of digital marketing for Giri Hotel Management, told Mainebiz.
“Many of our Maine hotels are seasonal, and we are excited for the opportunity to operate another all-season hotel that offers guests ample opportunity to truly take advantage of the location and atmosphere," Mulholland said. "Plus, it has an incredible history in the town and a passionate team that made it what it is today.”
The deal closed Dec. 22; the sale price was not disclosed.
The sellers were Allen Connors, Missy Rasor, Kathy Rasor and Kerry Rasor.
The full-service resort, founded in 1913 at 21 Broad St., is on 200 acres and has 50 rooms and several condos. The property caters to outdoor enthusiasts, corporate travelers and wedding parties. Amenities include an 18-hole golf course, onsite restaurant and ski shop, ample meeting space options, scenic views of the White Mountains, cross-country ski trails, and an onsite fitness center, spa and pool.
“We are excited to bring this hotel into our portfolio and continue to serve its guests with the level of excellence they have come to expect,” Nazba Jenulevich, Giri’s regional director of operations, said in a news release. “We look forward to working alongside and supporting the team that has made this hotel successful for so long.”
The inn was built by Dr. John George Gehring and several of his patients.
According to the inn’s history, Gehring practiced surgery in his native Cleveland until he suffered a physical and mental breakdown at age 30. Seeking rest and recuperation, he moved to Bethel, where friends lived, and resumed his practice in 1895.
Gehring’s home still stands at the end of Broad Street.
“Bethel became known as the ‘Harvard of the North’ because of the many patients he served from that august institution,” the website says.
His treatment included outdoor activities like chopping wood and weeding gardens. Many of his patients stayed at Bethel’s Prospect Hotel. But in 1911, the lodging was severely damaged by fire.
“After a plan to rebuild it failed, five of Dr. Gehring’s grateful patients included him in a partnership to construct the Bethel Inn so that people coming to see him for treatment would always have a place to stay,” the website says.
The inn opened to the public in 1913, and thrived from the wealthy summer clientele that arrived “from all over the East Coast and Midwest by train, carriage and chauffeur-driven automobiles with their servants and steamer trunks in tow for stays through the season,’” the website says.
But by the 1960s, the inn’s heyday was past. A succession of owners struggled with operations until Feb. 28, 1979, when it closed. Canal Bank of Portland held the mortgage and took over the property from then-owners Harris-Cayhill Partners. At that time, the resort consisted of 100 acres, five buildings, 60 guest rooms, dining rooms, a swimming pool, lake house, nine-hole golf course and cross-country ski trails.
In May 1979, Canal sold the complex to Richard "Dick" Rasor, an “advertising executive with a marketing background, a hotel upbringing, and a few dollars in his pocket,” the website said.
“It wasn’t just a business. It was a lifestyle for my father,” said Kerry Rasor, the daughter of Dick Rasor, who was the inn’s majority owner until he died in April.
Raised in New York City, Rasor’s father was an executive in the hotel industry.
He served with the Air Force, then began a career in advertising, eventually overseeing national accounts such as Ford Motor Co. and Lever Brothers.
“My father was a ‘Mad Man’ — a Madison Avenue guy,” said Kerry Rasor. “He was a rising star in the advertising industry.”
But Rasor got burnt out on the pressure of working on some of the industry’s largest accounts.
In 1979, after looking to buy a business of his own somewhere in New England, he came across the Bethel Inn and Country Club. By that time, the property had fallen on hard times and had closed its doors.
“Dad bought that place out of receivership for less than half a million dollars,” said Rasor. “He gave the property a new life.”
The property was “really tired” and required an injection of money: It’s estimated that Rasor put about $7.5 million into renovations.
That included a redesign and expansion of the golf course by golf pro Gregory Cornish, which allowed the inn to host PGA tournaments.
Other projects included renovations to the rooms and public spaces and construction of 53 town homes, a conference center, and a recreational center with an indoor/outdoor pool and workout area.
He reopened the inn but business didn’t take off right away.
“He had a couple of bad years at the inn,” said Kerry. “He bought it in 1979, but then there were a couple of snowless winters.”
But her father was a “recreation evangelist” who used his advertising skills to promote not only the inn but also the community.
He was a close friend of Leslie Otten, the owner at the time of the Sunday River ski resort, and a member of a number of industry associations.
“Together they would promote Bethel,” Kerry recalled. “They would drive to Boston and take the ski gun and blow snow onto the commons and invite all the radio stations — ‘We have snow in Bethel!’ He was an advertising guy. That was the main thing he did for the inn — promotion and advertising.”
She added, “He was a real community guy. He wasn’t just about making the inn successful. He wanted Bethel to be successful.”
One of the things he was proudest of was when the coach from local Telstar High School approached him about forming a golf team at the inn.
“He let them use the range and practice there for free,” Kerry related.
Rasor always had a general manager to oversee operations. For many years, that was Allen Connors, who started working at the inn at a young age and worked his way up. In 2000, Rasor took Connors on as a partner in the business.
“Allen is like family,” said Kerry.
When Dick Rasor died in April, Connors became the largest shareholder, and Kerry, who is also a senior accounts manager for Mainebiz, inherited shares with her sister Missy Rasor and her sister-in-law Kathy Rasor.
Although Dick Rasor would get offers for the inn, he never entertained the idea of selling it.
“He loved to entertain and he loved to ski. He’d hold court up there. He loved bringing friends there. He loved participating in the golf tournaments,” Kerry said.
She continued, “The thing my sisters and I are most proud of is my dad’s impact on the community and how he developed the inn into the four-season resort that it is today. It’s hard for us to let go.”
But when Giri made an offer in the off-market deal, the four owners decided the time was right.
“I know that Giri, with its resources, will be able to take the inn to the next level,” said Kerry. “We felt like it was time to pass the torch.”
Connors said the deal came about when Roger Daigle of Daigle Commercial Group in Portland introduced the owners to Giri representatives earlier this year.
Giri agreed to keep the staff, which number about 80, with 25 of them being year-round, he added.
With the acquisition, the company now owns and operates 47 properties in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. Giri is assessing further plans for the property, Mulholland said.
Other recent Maine acquisitions include Giri’s purchase in May of the 450-acre Sebasco Harbor Resort in Phippsburg and the December 2021 purchase of the Union Bluff Hotel in York.
About half of Giri’s properties are in Maine. The company represents hotel brands ranging from Hilton Garden Inn to the Comfort Inn.
Giri was founded in 2004 by Ashish Sangani and is owned by a group of principals, including Sangani, Ryan Amin and Sagar Malavia.
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