Warren Janes, the new general manager at the Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort and Spa, has been working in the hotel and hospitality industry for more than 25 years. He says he’s thrilled to have landed a job to help run what he considers to be one of B.C.’s finest luxury resorts and he’s looking forward to spending many productive years in Osoyoos. (Keith Lacey photo)
After living a nomadic existence in the hospitality industry for the past 25 years, Warren Janes says he enjoys Osoyoos and his new job as the general manager of Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort and Spa so much that he plans to set up roots here for many years to come.
“I’m thinking of burning my resume,” joked Janes, who was hired recently to take over the top job at one of Osoyoos’ most prestigious and well-respected resorts. “I’ve worked in many places and at many outstanding resorts, but this place is truly something special.
“I’ve worked in this industry for more than 25 years and I can honestly say that this place is a hidden gem that people in British Columbia and Alberta know about, but not many others do and I plan on changing that.”
Janes applied for the Spirit Ridge job while working in northern B.C., where he managed three hotels in Fort St. John, Fort Nelson and Chetwynd.
“To be honest, I read about the opening in Osoyoos online,” he said. “I had worked up north for several years and, although I really enjoyed it up there, I was looking for a change.”
With his extensive resume in the industry, management at Spirit Ridge hired Janes to take part in a “mystery shop” where he was invited to spend several days at the resort and point out what he liked and what he didn’t like about his experience.
“They wanted my opinion about the resort,” he said. “I mentioned to them during my visit that I had read about their position for a new general manager and they made me an offer a few days later.”
He told his wife about the offer and she was ecstatic and he handed in his resignation up north a few days later and planned the move to the South Okanagan just over one month ago.
Born and raised in Montreal until age 18, Janes moved to Nova Scotia, where his mother still lives, and decided as a teenager that he wanted to work in the hospitality industry.
“My mother still tells stories about me pulling up a chair and asked her how to make a good omelette as a very young child,” he said. “I knew at a very young age that I wanted to work in the hotel and food industry and I’ve been fortunate enough to carve out a long career in an industry that I still have a passion for.”
Janes moved to Toronto as a young man to study hotel management in college and landed his first job as the night auditor at a hotel in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
It was during those early years that Janes realized he enjoyed working in small hotels in small towns.
“I’ve spent virtually my entire career working in destination communities across this country,” he said. “I’ve always loved the idea of helping provide a memorable experience for people going on vacation to these destination resorts.”
Janes spent 12 years in Cape Breton.
With both his sons ready for college, Janes left Cape Breton for a job in Halifax as a hotel inspector.
With his two boys off to college, Janes and his wife decided they wanted to try living in western Canada and moved to Edmonton and he accepted a job managing a camp for oil workers 90 minutes north of Slave Lake.
“I spent one year up north … it was just me and 500 guys and our staff,” he said. “It was very challenging living up in the middle of nowhere.”
He then moved on to manage a resort in Tofino on Vancouver Island before taking a property management and hotel management job in Hinton and Jasper, where he lived and worked for seven years.
Because he and his wife are avid golfers and sailors and has sailed the Gulf Coast on their 38-foot sailboat on more than one occasion, they both decided B.C. is where they wanted to work and settle down, said Janes.
“We fell in love with the West Coast,” he said.
Now that they have landed in Osoyoos, there are no plans to leave for a long time, said Janes.
“I figured the Okanagan would be very nice, but I honestly had no idea it was this beautiful and the weather and scenery were this incredible,” he said.
His goal is to make Spirit Ridge the premier tourist destination in the South Okanagan, said Janes.
“This place is very prestigious and the bricks and mortar put it on the map with some of the best resorts in the province,” he said. “My job is to make the visitor experience and service on par with the amazing facilities and spectacular scenery we offer.
“My forte is leadership, mentoring and coaching skills and my goal is to ensure we have great people working here and to train them properly and let them do their jobs,” he said. “We’re very fortunate at Spirit Ridge to have several key management staff who have been here a long time and love their jobs and love this place and are committed to ensuring Spirit Ridge remains one of the best destination resorts in the province.”
Janes said landing this job is “the pinnacle of my career” and after a couple of months on the job, has no doubt he is going to be calling the Town of Osoyoos and Spirit Ridge resort home for many years to come.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
NOTE: An earlier version of this story has been corrected to indicate that Warren Janes is married. The previous version incorrectly referred to his wife as his long-time girlfriend. We apologize for the error.
