Brent and Afni MacDonald’s Lakeview Hotel stayed open until late 2021, after which the hotel was sold to new owners.
Gordon Ramsay’s business-rescue show, Hotel Hell, ran for a total of three seasons between 2012 and 2016.
And although this accomplished celebrity chef and restaurateur helped dozens of lodging establishments in these four years, the Lakeview Hotel will go down in history as one of Ramsay’s biggest challenges.
Not only was the Lakeview Hotel so dirty when Ramsay arrived that he took to starting the cleaning work himself, right away, but the hotel’s owners, Brent and Afni MacDonald, had completely alienated themselves among the Chelan locals.
In the end, it took a heart-to-heart between Ramsay and Afni to open these stubborn owners eyes to what they needed to do to get their business back on track.
What happened at the Lakeview Hotel after Hotel Hell
And while the MacDonalds did not always see eye-to-eye with Ramsay, it seems like something turned the business around after Ramsay’s visit, as the Lakeview Hotel remained open until 2021.
However, the MacDonalds eventually decided to sell their hotel to new owners a few years after this episode premiered.
The new owners have now renamed the hotel The Landing and it has been operating quite successfully since November 2021.
The Lakeview Hotel’s Hotel Hell timeline
All in all, Brent and Afni owned and ran the Lakeview Hotel for more than two decades – and they even kept the hotel open for five years after Ramsay’s visit, as is outlined below:
| Date | Event |
| 2000 | The MacDonalds first open Lakeview Hotel |
| June 21, 2016 | The “Lakeview Hotel” Hotel Hell episode premieres |
| 2021 | The MacDonalds sell the property and the newly-renamed The Landing business opens |
Nothing at the Lakeview Hotel changed after Ramsay’s visit
There is no denying that Brent and Afni are some of the most stubborn owners ever to be featured on Hotel Hell.
But even though it seemed like Ramsay may have broken through to this couple about how their behavior was impacting their business by the end of the episode, the Lakeview Hotel’s reviews reveal that this business, and its owners, reverted back to their old ways pretty quickly after Ramsay left.
One Yelp review from March 2020 not only stated that “The room was dusty, areas were filthy. You can’t control the temperature and we were hot all evening,” but also that they witnessed Brent yelling at a child during their dinner.
This seems to align with Ramsay’s first impressions of the hotel during the episode.
And while one bad review is usually not cause for concern (considering all of the online trolls that like to target the Hotel Hell businesses), the Lakeview Hotel has a fairly low 2.4 out of 5-star rating on Yelp overall.
Many of the hotel’s 37 reviews sadly complain about the same filthy environment, poor service, the loud bar, and “rude” owners.
Moreover, Brent and Afni renamed the restaurant to ‘The Cock n’ Bull at B.C. MacDonald’s,’ despite Ramsay’s advice not to.
Lakeview Hotel and the Hotel Hell aftermath
While Brent’s and Afni’s decision to disregard so much of Ramsay’s advice may seem counterintuitive after they specifically requested the celebrity chef’s assistance.
However, Brent and Afni did explain some of their logic in a 2016 post-makeover interview with the Yakima Herald-Republic.
It turns out that the couple just did not trust that Ramsay knew what was best for their business.
Brent stated in this interview that, “Most of the ideas [Ramsay] came up with didn’t work,” and Afni doubled-down, saying “Gordon doesn’t understand this area.”
However, Brent did later admit that Ramsay did at least “open [their] eyes” to some of the changes that needed to be made. So it seems like Ramsay’s visit was not entirely fruitless after all.
What Brent and Afni are doing now
Brent and Afni are seemingly maintaining a fairly low profile after selling their old business.
In fact, not only did the MacDonalds never put out any kind of public statement as to why they decided to sell the Lakeview Hotel, but they also have not been active on any kind of public social media pages since this episode aired.
Therefore, there really has not been any official update about what these former hotel owners have been up to in the last few years.
However, the MacDonalds’ daughter, Azzia (who was one of very few children allowed at the hotel), eventually became a varsity-level volleyball player.
And while Azzia is no longer living at home with her parents, you can spot both Brent and Afni in the background of some of her TikTok videos.
