Pre-Launch · Hospitality & Leadership
The Warm Cookie Effect
THE SECRET TO STAND-OUT HOSPITALITY
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Ella Rachel Kerr, Author & Small Business Owner
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Lee Weinstein, Former Director of Communications, Nike
Plaster of Paris, patina, and a lot of sanding: Samantha mid-restoration at the Balch Hotel.
The Story Behind The Book
She walked into a hotel with no furniture, no guests, and no idea what she’d just said yes to. Her heart surged anyway.
After thirteen years as a Middle School teacher, Samantha Irwin traded her classroom for a historic 1907 hotel in rural Oregon that hadn’t welcomed guests consistently in 65 years: twenty-one rooms, plus a lobby, parlor, dining room, kitchen, and an acre of grounds.
She and her husband moved into her parents’ camper, dog and cat in tow, in the hotel’s parking lot, and rented out their own home to a couple who expected to need it for just a year.
Months into restoration, the Irwins moved out of the camper and into the hotel itself, refinishing hundred-year-old fir by hand and chasing wasps out of stripped window frames along the way. The renovation stretched to 10+ months before the hotel was ready to open.
The Warm Cookie Effect isn’t really a book about a hotel. It’s about the people who built it with her, and the hiring, training, and culture-building lessons that turned strangers into a team who treated the business like their own.
The Warm Cookie Effect, Explained.
Three principles. One culture
people don’t want to leave.
01
HIRE FOR HEART
Hospitality is a gift. Hiring people with a heart for service is at the core. How do you know if someone has the natural gifting of hospitality? Samantha can show you.
02
Train for Skill
Once you’ve got the right person, give them a real system: scripts, standards, and the freedom to add their own personality once the fundamentals are second nature. People don’t learn by osmosis. They need training that hits on their learning styles.
03
Retain with Intention
People don’t just stay for a paycheck! They stay because they matter. They matter to the team, the business, and to the guests. Uplift, educate, support, and challenge. This is how you build a team that treats your business like it’s their own.
A Real Building. A Real Story.
1907 to today, in three chapters.
01
1907
The Balch Hotel opens in Dufur, Oregon, at the time sharing electricity with the mill! 12 hours for the hotel, 12 hours for the mill. Dufur was an important stop for travelers of all kinds back in 1907. (Interesting note – the land was owned by a woman! Balch is her married name.)
02
THE RENOVATION
Moved into her parents’ camper, dog and cat along for the ride, and rented out their own home. Stripping and refinishing wood, reglazing windows, learning plaster repair, and landscaping – all were part of restoration. No furniture. No guests. All vision and work.
03
TODAY
A thriving hotel for destination weddings, events, retreats, and travelers. Dufur’s 300+ days of sunshine a year make it ideal for outdoor events, cycling, motorcycle riding, car groups, and people wanting to unplug. This book is how it happened.
Work With Samantha
Three ways to bring the
Warm Cookie Effect to your team.
GET THE BOOK
For the leader ready to build a culture people don’t want to leave.
Practical, story-driven lessons on hiring, training, and retention, pulled straight from a real hotel turnaround. Available for preorder now! (Amazon is the link below but call your local bookstore!)
BOOK SAMANTHA TO SPEAK
For the conference or leadership retreat that needs more than a motivational speech.
Samantha brings the Warm Cookie Effect to your stage: real stories, a hospitality-first mindset, and takaways to implement and improve customer and employee retention.
TRAIN YOUR TEAM
For the owner who wants this culture built in, not just read about.
With the Power of People Academy, Samantha trains your team with on-demand video lessons that move your staff from ’employees’ to valuable contributors to your growing business.
The Creating a Culture Deck is an additional tool that reinforces learning and lessona. We all know that staff get ‘wore out’. Consider the Deck your ‘drip irrigation’.
About the Author
Samantha Irwin
Samantha spent thirteen years as a Middle School teacher (and LOVED that age!) before trading her classroom for a hotel in a town pop. 650, with no guests, no furniture, and no hotel experience.
For nearly a decade, she owned and operated the Balch Hotel, a historic 1907 property in Dufur, Oregon, building a team and a culture from scratch, one hire at a time.
Today she helps hospitality and service leaders do the same: hire the right people, train them well, build a team that stays, and increase customer loyalty.