Downton Valley provides a contemporary getaway for adult women

July 28, 2022 | Ryan Feyre
rfeyre@thereminder.com

Lisa Lippiello and Bonnie Sachs opened an exclusive getaway for women called Downton Valley in October 2021.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo

NORTHAMPTON – Ten minutes west of the Northampton center, and about a half mile up a spiraling road in Florence lies a contemporary bed and breakfast home for women who want to get away.

Downton Valley, named in reference to the show “Downton Abbey,” sits high a top a hill and overlooks the mountains and valleys of Western Massachusetts. For Lisa Lippiello and Bonnie Sachs, the innkeepers of the getaway, the sunrise and sunset outside the house is just enough to leave everyone in awe.

“We’re early risers, so watching the sun rise in the morning is just beautiful,” Sachs tells Reminder Publishing, as her and Lippiello provide a tour of the house and its many amenities.

Although watching a sunrise and sunset on a deck high a top a hill can be a breathtaking experience, the interior of the house itself on 1089 Westhampton Rd. is just as mesmerizing. There is everything from a continental breakfast, a masonry fireplace, an outdoor heated saltwater pool, a hot tub, a media room with a 75-inch LED television, rooms named after Downton Abbey characters, an indoor exercise pool, a game room with a ping pong table, pool table, and a puzzle/card table. The getaway also includes a fitness gym, two spacious guest rooms with queen beds, trails right in the backyard for hiking, mountain biking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and so much more.

“Even when we were building the house, we kept thinking, ‘oh we should make it a [bed and breakfast] someday,” Sachs told Reminder Publishing. “But during the [coronavirus] pandemic, it really started evolving.”

According to Lippiello, their initial reasoning for building a home was because they wanted to create a space for the four children between them to come by and congregate as a family.

“We wanted to feel like, ‘oh, if all the kids wanted to come home, this would be a good space for them and their families,” said Lippiello. “I think as we’re getting older though, we’re realizing that they love us very much but they have their own lives.”

As more of their friends came to the house and said how beautiful the location was, Lippiello and Sachs felt more of a need to welcome others in. “We really feel like we are in a vacation home, and we want to share it with others,” said Sachs.

The concept and background

Sachs, who works as an artist, moved to Northampton in 1993, while Lippiello, who used to be part of the New York Police Department and now serves as a lawyer, moved to Western Massachusetts in 2003, and moved to Northampton in 2006. After getting married in 2017, they finished building the house in 2018.

The concept of the bed and breakfast home, however, came from an evolution of different ideas and inspirations that eventually led them into the concept of creating a safe space for women to congregate.

Lippiello said she remembers how there was a lot of media attention several years ago around there being so few lesbian bars left in the United States. “I remember the lesbian bars, and even the gay bars for men, were so important to go too because you were accepted,” said Lippiello. “One of the best things about living in Northampton though, is you don’t need a lesbian or gay bar because it doesn’t matter. You just go wherever you want, and nothing is ever out of the ordinary.”

As accepting as Northampton is though, Lippiello and Sachs started to realize that there were not enough spaces for women in general, anymore. “Forget the bars, there’s no lesbian spaces anymore,” Lippiello said, regarding initial discussions about the vision of Downton. “So, Bonnie and I started talking about that, and then the truth is, it wasn’t just about lesbian space, it was, you know, how about women in general.”

As discussions evolved, Lippiello and Sachs found it important to open a safe space for all women, whether they want a break from the kids, their significant other, or just an opportunity to have an all-women retreat. This is essentially what Downton Valley became. “We figured, ‘hey, that’s a great niche,’” said Lippiello. “It’s important to find niches in small businesses, and we certainly found it.”

According to the couple, there was a lot of interest from people who wanted to stay at the bed and breakfast, but with COVID-19 ravaging the nation, Lippiello and Sachs wanted to make sure they had the proper guidelines to keep people safe when they did officially open in October.

“We wanted to be safe about it, and that’s why on our confirmation emails after people reserve it, one of things we write down is we want people to check periodically back on our policy page because it changes,” said Lippiello, adding that everyone who enters must be vaccinated and boosted. “We have a fairly strict policy right now.”

Since opening to the public in October, both Sachs and Lippiello said that business has been very busy. “We knew it was going to be good, but we didn’t expect it to go off as quick as it did,” said Lippiello. “This has taken off like a full-time job.”

The success is not something they like to complain about though. As two people who hate traveling, the bed and breakfast is an opportunity to meet people from all over and help out where they can. “We are as available as the guests want us to be,” said Sachs. “If some people want to have their private chill time, we disappear and we’re very respectful of that. But other people want to be more social, and we’re very much into that. We take a cue from our guests.”

The future

People can book their stay at Downton straight from the website, and according to Lippiello, guests usually do not stay for more than five days at a time. The home is not available every single week, but when it is this summer, it is pretty much booked.

As they continue to invite guests into the home, Lippiello and Sachs are also looking for different ways to increase their media presence. For example, they just received a $5,000 grant for social media from the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Additionally, they are looking to add a third guest room in a couple years, and once word of the home expands to the west coast, the couple will be more inclined to book for longer periods of time. On top of that, they are looking to continue the Downton Abbey theme by adding more character names to the trails outside where people can hike or snowshoe.

“I think we have a good business sense and a good business plan,” said Lippiello. “We’re trying to build this slowly until it becomes a full-time thing.”

People can learn more about the home, what it offers and how to book a stay, by visiting the website https://downtonvalley.com/.

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