The story behind Tony's Place
A Hostel in Memoriam
By Kyle Smith
BOISE, IDAHO – Nestled off the Vista Bench neighborhood, there rests a spacious two-story blue house. Inside, a remodel is turning this 1920s style home into a chic modern day hostel. For most people, a house from the 20s may not have seemed like the optimal choice for a hostel. But for 26-year-old Heather Welton, it was the perfect decision -- a place for travelers to call home even if it’s for a single night.
Walking in, there is a pile of recently torn up hardwood off to the side of the living room. There are paint cans stacked in the corner, the smell of fresh paint is faint in the air. Heather Welton has a dust mask on as she is tearing apart the backsplash on the wall of the kitchen when I arrived.
Heather Welton was born and raised in Marsing. Daughter of Brandy Schmidt and Tony Welton, a self-proclaimed “farm girl,” she lived out in Caldwell most of her life, helping change water in the fields, picking corn for dinner, feeding the animals, cleaning pens, the list goes on. But tragedy struck when Heather was 19-years old, her father Tony passed away. To remember her father, Welton named her hostel after him.
“Anyone who knew Tony knew that when they were around him they were gonna feel loved and be at ease,” said Welton.
She first left the country when she was a junior in high school. Welton went to college at Boise State and pursued a degree in Psychology. Soon after graduating college, Heather decided to move to Leeds, England to study for one year and get her Masters in Childhood Studies and Early Years.
Heather traveled around the US a lot with her father most often to the west coast. It “blew her mind” when she traveled overseas to the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, a small island off the philippines called Boracay with her friend Vicki and her family. Heather continued to fuel her love for travel during college and continually after. She most recently added Cuba to her travels this past January. And in these travels she found more about herself, a wanderlust at heart who is now settling down and yearns to hear the stories of other people. She figured opening a hostel was just the place to do that.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to travel quite extensively around the world,” said Welton, “And most of the highlights of those trips took place in hostels.” She explained how the environment encourages interaction between other travelers, and how it’s one of the best ways to make new friends and form timeless memories.
“She was a remarkable person to travel with, she constantly pushed us,” Said Kelsey Taylor, who traveled to Greece, Italy, Czech Repulic, Germany, Ireland, and Spain with Welton in 2013. “She kept pushing the boundaries and encouraged us to.” Taylor went on to explain how Heather constantly wanted to meet new people and hear their stories.
“My favorite memories with heather are the time we spent at hostels while traveling through over 20 Countries.” said Cheyanne Welton, Heather's sister. “She doesn't wait for others to do things for her, she has the ability to dive right in and tackle anything. I've seen her work 40 plus hours a week and come home and work on the hostel until she falls asleep”
Heather was at a hostel in Portugal when she first got the idea to start a hostel. In October of 2015 was when Heather started to put the pieces together to follow her new dream.
Despite getting a Masters, her heart didn’t want to pursue a career in her field of study quite yet. Welton decided to go forward with opening a hostel, which hasn’t required her to use either of her degrees. She felt pulled to follow her dreams and start this passion project in the memory of her dad passing. She wants to keep his legacy alive as well as star a new legacy.
“Boise doesn’t currently offer anything like this in the city, and Boise is a cool enough city that it should,” said Welton.
Welton believes she’s just the person for it, not viewing it as a means to become rich “but opening the business as a means to serve the backpacker community and "create that business in the city that I call home.” The last hostel that was in Boise was called Idahostel it was located in the Idaho building off 8th street in downtown Boise, but that had closed down in 2014 which left a void that Heather intends on filling. Heather is quitting her current full time job as a Marketing assistant at Bretz RV, to focus all her effort into getting this hostel up and running within the next month. “I want to put all my time and energy into this passion project. It’s been a dream of mine for the past several years and the end is in sight.”
For the future, Heather intends on having bike rentals, walking tours of Boise, and hopefully a pub crawl at some point “that’s all later down the line,” said Welton.
“I don’t foresee ever selling it because it’s a personal endeavor,” Welton mentioned the possibility of maybe handing it down to someone else in the family many years from now. “I see it becoming successful enough to open a second location, not sure where, but that’s far down the road”. Welton says she sees herself always having a hand in the business.
“This is exciting and symbolic to me in the sense that the house is from the 1920s and hasn’t seen any TLC in the past 20 years, I’m taking something old and giving it new beauty and life”. You can tell by the tone of voice that Welton is eager to start this new chapter of her life.
With prices starting at $35 a night this hostel will start to bring in a world of travelers and give another opportunity to those who’ve always wanted to check out Boise but never have, a place to stay. There will be 4 bedrooms, all bunk style accommodation. The hostel will have a kitchen, two common areas, outside gazebo, front yard, wifi, and some laundry services. Although the hostel was created for individual travellers and is set up as so, private parties will also be able to rent out the entire property for special events.
In memoriam of her father, Heather has turned her hostel remodel into a family affair. Her friends and family have been instrumental in bringing the project together.
With the warmth and the light that Tony Welton would bring into the room, his daughter, Heather Welton plans to bring that spirit into her hostel where he can continue to live through her and the legacy that will be ‘Tony’s Place’.