Our History

The Avalon Inn (Motel) was one of the original motels in Osoyoos. Leon Hooenart, a Belgian immigrant, decided to diversify his farming business into the emerging tourism industry here in 1951. After WWII, veterans of the war were getting married and looking for new places to visit while on their honeymoons. Leon’s first building contained four fully modern motel rooms as shown in the following picture. The new business blossomed during the next decade with the development of two more motel buildings, a campground on Peanut Lake and the Avalon Dairy Bar (currently Smitty’s Restaurant).  Hooenart sold the business to the “Alexanders” whom ran the business from the 60’s into the 80’s. The Alexanders transformed the campground into a Mobile Home Park and sold the Avalon Dairy Bar land. Mrs. Alexander was well known in the community for her artistic talent. A few of her paintings still hang in some of the rooms.  Since 1991 the “Elliott” family have owned and operated the business. They redeveloped the motel portion of the property after tearing down the old farmhouse, and two of the original structures. The new buildings were designed to incorporate a south western theme which had been part of the community development plan at that time.