Cairns motel owners check-out after almost 50 years

AFTER spending almost half a century running the Cairns Motor Inn, Ross Luca and Magdalena Darveniza had only one wish after selling the leasehold to the 21-room property… to keep working!

On her last day in charge, Magdalena, 77, the co-owner of the iconic Far North Queensland property, serviced all 21 rooms by herself to make sure they were spic and span for the new managers.

“Magdalena is a machine. It was amazing,” said Antonio Curulli from Tourism Brokers, who oversaw the sale of a 30-year leasehold deal for the property for $325,000. Ross and Magdalena have handed over control of their cherished business to Jeffrey Tian and  Fengling Wang. 

“Ross and Magdalena are real old school in their attitude to work,” Mr Curulli said. “They never brought staff onto the property, preferring to run it all themselves.

“Nothing was perfect unless their hands had touched it.

“Even after the leasehold deal was finalised, Magdalena is still asking the new managers if she can come back and at least do a couple of rooms a day to stay at peak fitness.

“Ross is 87 and was still running the property and doing the books until the last day. He was still at the front desk  processing credit cards for check-in after almost 50 years in the job.”

Mr Curulli said Ross and Magdalena’s husband had bought the property in 1976 but after Magdalena was widowed a few years later she and Ross continued to run the property in partnership until the end of June.

“Ross was an engineer and Magdalena was a farm worker before becoming motel owners. They came off the Atherton Tablelands and made a great success of the business.

“Back in 1976, they paid about $325,000 for the whole property which covers three street frontages and includes the 21-room motel and three houses. They have just sold off the lease for the 21 rooms of the motel for $325,000, the price they paid for everything all those years ago.”

Conservative estimates now value the property at $5 million.

Mr Curulli said new operators were coming into the motor inn to give it a “fresh lease of life”.

“Having been under the same management for 46 years or so, it’s very much a retro motel,” Mr Curulli said.

“Everything is fully functional, but it takes you back to the 1970s and they’ve been able to maintain that time warp.

“It’s probably the only motel in Australia that doesn’t have a computer check-in system – everything is still done by a calendar book.

“The training was very easy for the new leasehold owners.

“But guests seem to love it. They include all the visiting politicians such as Bob Katter who is a regular at the property.

“The Cairns Motor Inn has  a very good reputation with the RACQ and all the major road clubs who’ve been recommending it for years. It also has a good rating with booking.com and the other directories.”

Mr Curulli said Ross and Magdalena had moved into one of the houses at the back of the property while continuing to rent out the other two.

“It was a very emotional time for them when they finally moved out,” Mr Curulli said. “Ross and Magdalena became my friends though the whole sale process.

“The downturn from COVID signaled to them that it might be time to retire and that’s when they contacted me.

“But what really convinced them to step aside was the last couple of months when the market started to really pump up again.

“Ross and Magdalena realised that with so many bookings coming through that they were now at an age when they couldn’t cope with the place being fully occupied all the time.

“Magdalena’s son was certainly relieved when they finally made the decision to move out. Every time there was a medical issue he had to fly up from Townsville to look after the place.

“But they are really to be congratulated for their astonishing time running the property. Almost 50 years at the one motel – that surely must be some sort of record.”

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