We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rich and Kerrie Marr. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rich and Kerrie below.

Rich and Kerrie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Kerrie and Rich Marr were married fall of 2020 after meeting in 2016. In January of 2021 Rich decided to make a change in his career of 30 years in Occupational Health and Safety, but wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. Kerrie had been a worship leader for 15 years and had changed careers as well in 2019. While Rich was in Oregon doing some construction work for his uncle, Kerrie woke up one night and started thinking that maybe it was time for them to pursue their dream of owning some kind of event space or destination location. She says that she had to stop before sending Rich the listing for a property that she found because she knew that he would want to do it which meant selling everything and making a huge life change.
The first location they found didn’t work out, but they stumbled on a beautiful spot in Red Feather Lakes on Ramona Lake that had a lot of potential. This sent the two of them into a whirlwind for the next 4 months prepping and selling two houses while purchasing the property in Red Feather Lakes.
They saw the potential and worked diligently to develop business plans for the two businesses that would put them on a trajectory for success. They met with consultants that they partnered with the Larimer County SBDC to identify in order to gain the knowledge needed to start down the road of running a restaurant, bar, and lodging accommodations.
Kerrie and Rich approached this new endeavor with the mindset that their cabin rental business, aptly named Marr’s Mountain Cabins, would be the revenue generator and that The Tavern at Red Feather Lakes would be an added “bonus”. Once they opened the doors this quickly changed. The tavern brought in exponentially more revenue which required them to scale their business much sooner than they had expected.
The Marrs have partnered with the local community to develop a Chamber of Commerce as well as a non profit that benefits the area. 2022 was their first full year in operation and they grew 30% YOY in 2023. They currently have one full time manager and 3 part time team members.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Kerrie and Rich both have a background in developing programs with a high level of excellence and attention to detail. When approaching this life change their mantra has always been, “What would we want”. This practice has proven successful in establishing a place that people feel comfortable and at home. They try to keep their business model for The Tavern at Red Feather Lakes very simple and straight forward. They do not over promise and under deliver. Consistency is what sets the Marrs apart from others. When you order a signature cocktail, it tastes the same every time. When you order the same thing you loved on your last visit, it needs to taste that way this time. When hours are posted, it is the responsibility of the owners to make sure they are open when you expect them to be.
The team at Marr’s Mountain Cabins and The Tavern at Red Feather Lakes work diligently to come up with new ideas for events to develop an “experience” not simply a stay or a meal. That is the fun part of the business and has proven to be very rewarding to everyone.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Treat your team as people, not employees! We have a very difficult time finding high quality team members that will be loyal to our business in the very small community where we are located. Making them feel valued in ways other than simply paying them more has been the best way we have found to attract and keep great team members.
Asking them to “own” some aspect of the business is a great way to accomplish this. We have recently challenged one of our team members to be our “Point Person” for our cabins. They are responsible for checking our bookings to see if a guest will be here for an extended stay, have pets, small children, etc. etc. and make sure we have the correct amenities available for them upon their arrival. They have embraced this new project and we can see in their day to day interactions that they have grown because of the trust we have placed in them.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We take pride in consistency, Because of this we make every attempt to pivot only after we have fully exhausted all opportunities to make something work. Our local community was asking us to provide breakfast some days of the week, so in the spring of 2023 we developed a breakfast menu and began serving shortly after. We did not see the uptick in business that we had anticipated, but we wanted to wait to get through the summer season to evaluate if it would gain traction. Being open for breakfast made it increasingly more difficult for our management staff as we were stretched very thin during the summer months. We waited until Labor Day weekend in 2023 before we pivoted and ended our breakfast offering.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.marrsmountaincabins.com
• Instagram: thetavern@rfl, marrs_mountain_cabins
• Facebook: The Tavern at Red Feather Lakes, Marr’s Mountain Cabins