Hotel Hell: Where is Robert Dean II now?

The Juniper Hill Inn closed down years ago, and its owners pretty much disappeared from the internet soon thereafter.

At this point, no restaurant owner, hotel owner (or even chef) should go onto one of Gordon Ramsay’s ever-popular television shows expecting to come out at the other end portraying the best possible version of themselves.

But some owners still stand out as being among the worst in the Gordon Ramsay cinematic universe’s history.

One such owner, who has had fans’ blood boiling since his lodging establishment was featured in the two-part opening episodes of Hotel Hell back in 2012, is Robert Dean II from the Juniper Hill Inn.

Despite Robert’s outwardly opulent lifestyle, Ramsay’s visit to this inn quickly uncovered that the Juniper Hill Inn’s staff were at their wits end when it came to not being paid or even being denied their tips.

And that the so-called collection of rare artifacts that Robert had stored all throughout this building were not actually worth all that much after all.

The Juniper Hill Inn owners have dropped off the map

Unsurprisingly, all Ramsay’s efforts to show Robert and his partner, Ari Nikki, the error of their past ways and to save this failing business, ultimately failed and Juniper Hill Inn went into foreclosure in 2014.

And even now, almost a decade later, it seems like the backlash from this episode is still following this former inn-owning couple around and they have largely stayed away from public social media.

As a result, not much is known about where Robert Dean II is now, besides some already debunked rumors that he moved to Australia and some other unconfirmed rumors that he may have moved to Palm Beach.

What really happened after Ramsay and the Hotel Hell team left the Juniper Hill Inn

Robert and Ari were some of the first lodging establishment owners who had to learn to deal with the backlash that often comes with starring in a reality television show.

And although they admitted that they had mixed feelings about the episode in a lengthy post-premiere Facebook post, they also said, “the shows phenomenal ratings (highest premier ratings for the summer) have further filled our phones lines”.

However, while the additional Hotel Hell publicity may have helped to fill the inn’s rooms, the reviews suggest that nothing had really changed.

Before its closure, Juniper Hill Inn only had a fairly poor 2.8 out of 5-star rating on Yelp, with the 20 reviews distributed as follows:

What happened to the Juniper Hill Inn’s staff?

When Robert and Ari posted about their appearance on Kitchen Nightmares back in August of 2012, they mentioned that “Several of our staff members have moved on to what we hope is better and brighter things for them and we have added some wonderful new staff in every department.”

And while many of these staff members have proved just as difficult to track down as Robert and Ari, the inn’s former chef, Giulian Jones, still maintains an active social media presence to this day.

It seems like the chef went on to become the executive chef at a restaurant called Soul Hollywood after leaving the Juniper Hill Inn.

A recent Instagram post from this now-accomplished chef’s personal account seems to insinuate that he even cooked for Beyonce on her most recent tour.

The real reason why the Juniper Hill Inn closed down

Unfortunately, the staff that jumped ship shortly after Ramsay’s visit to the Juniper Hill Inn, may have just had the right idea, as the inn’s financial troubles seemingly continued even with the influx of new business.

By 2013, the Juniper Hill Inn had been placed under foreclosure after Robert’s debt to the bank started exceeding $1.1 million dollars.

Though it is worth noting that Robert told Valley News that Nikki’s continued health struggles distracted him from running the inn for quite some time before its eventual closure.

The business that has replace Juniper Hill Inn

Although the Juniper Hill Inn (at least in the state that fans got to know it in the Hotel Hell episode) is now officially closed, this historic Windsor property has been revived and is currently operating as the Windsor Mansion Inn.

According to the inn’s website, the new owners, Kenni Lucci and Brenda Bradley, restored the property (which had reportedly been left in disrepair after being foreclosed) in 2017.

The Windsor Mansion Inn boasts a wide variety of amenities and it even took home a TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice award in 2022.