How Alex Mengual and Mark Matula transformed a chance encounter into motel ownership

A young couple with a baby in tow is ‘rolling with the punches’ as they buy a country Qld motel, plan a massive refurb and become accidental TikTok stars along the way.

A couple doing markets as a side hustle have fallen into the tourism industry by chance and are documenting their journey of South Burnett motel ownership with one video going viral in days.

Alex Mengual, 28, and Mark Matula, 29, never planned to get into the hotel business but when an opportunity arose, the young Sydney couple jumped at the opportunity.

The couple is seizing opportunities and “rolling with the punches” in their new roles as motel owners.

Ms Mengual, who has a background in events co-ordination, said they fell into the industry “by chance”.

“I was travelling down the south coast (New South Wales) doing markets as my side hustle and I would always stay at this one motel and then the owner said they’re selling and the new investor who bought it wanted someone to run in and move in two weeks,” Ms Mengual said.

“I was just like ‘sure’, I put my hand up and two weeks later and five days after our wedding we moved down to run the motel. It was completely out of the blue,” she said.

Copper Country Motor Inn and Restaurant Nanango

After the lease expired the couple decided they wanted to run their own motel and began searching across Australia, which led them to the Copper Country Motor Inn in Nanango boasting 15 rooms, an outdoor pool and a sprawling five-acre expanse complete with a vineyard.

“I really thought it had a lot of potential and we just said let’s book a flight and have a look and it just went from there,” Ms Mengual said.

Before acquiring the Motor Inn, the couple welcomed their first child, a baby boy now 11 months old, adding an extra layer of excitement to their adventure.

“We’ve been together since we were 16, we’re married now and it just happened and we thought ‘cool’”, Mr Matula said.

Ms Mengual said having a baby and buying a new hotel wasn’t too stressful and they just like to “roll with the punches”.

“That’s what we do in life, just roll with it and make the best of what comes,” she said.

Mr Matula’s background is in landscaping and cabinet making and will also bring the pair’s other business into the region, a custom guitar company.

“We will be moving our workshop to the area and opening back up,” Ms Mengual said.

“Mark builds the guitars from scratch and they’re all made to order.”

Copper Country Motor Inn and Restaurant Nanango

Two weeks after arriving, the couple put up a post on their Facebook page asking the community what they would like to see done with the space they feel has been “under-utilised”.

“We received a lot of feedback, there was a lot more feedback that I was expecting my little post to get,” Ms Mengual said with a laugh.

“I also did a TikTok and overnight it got about 54,000 views, a bunch of followers in 48 hours, it was crazy. The daughter of the original owner found me on my TikTok.

“She was like, ‘no way I grew up there’ and then we started talking.

Copper Country Motor Inn and Restaurant Nanango

That TikTok post has now garnered more than 100,000 views.

Ideas from locals included an international food menu and a wine room or intimate bar.

Others asked for a venue for weddings and events.

“We’ve got the space out the back, the vineyard, a few acres and the restaurant so we’ve got everything here,” Mr Matula said.

“In the short term I think what we really want to do is just give the whole property a bit of a facelift.

“We want to modernise it a bit but keeping the country feel.

“The motel’s open, the restaurant has been closed for nearly two years.

We want to do the upgrades to the motel first and then fix up and stock the restaurant and we are still going to have to find staff as well.”