08/16/2026
The Blue. Our first inn built nearly 30 years ago. We stumbled on the Blue Iguana property as a real estate investment. The property and buildings were extremely rundown and had been abandoned. We searched out the owner and asked her if she wanted to sell. She did. At the time we purchased it we thought it was an old apartment complex that we would fix-up and resell. After we purchased the property we found out it had been a 50”s roadside motel, and a motel/hotel use was the only legal use the County of Ventura would allow. Thus, as fate would have it, we had to rebuild the property as a hotel.. and thus we would be unexpectedly in the hotel business. We knew nothing about the hotel business but decided to build something artistic and unique, yet affordable, the type of place we had been looking for the whole trip, but had never found. At the time, we didn’t have much money but we were both artists and had many local artists friends who we brought in to help. We created artistic hand-made detailing throughout the property, using local stone, tile and metal artisans who were our friends. We did as much of the work ourselves as we could. Marc built the broken tile Iguana fountain, I set many of the the decorative tile motifs myself. Even our children helped, they laid stones in the patio mosaic designs. We spent many hours with our artist friends working on the property. We created an extremely unique, artistic property that was before its time.
The Blue Iguana Inn was a true Boutique Inn, before Boutique Inns were a thing. Thus, we immediately got all kinds of press. Almost immediately after we opened HGTV did a segment on the property and Sunset Magazine did an article dubbing the Blue Iguana “Hip & Stylish”. Every single feature filled us with gratitude.
Today, the Blue is still a beacon of beauty and comfort in our beautiful valley. We are so excited for all that is to come and all the friends we have yet to meet!
Come stay soon, we love seeing you. ✨
