hotelHotel Impossible · Season 8, Episode 3 · Aired November 7, 2016
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Still open. It kept its doors open after the show.
On the show
Season 8, Episode 3 · November 7, 2016 · wildlife refuge (atypical episode subject, not a hotel)
Atypical episode subject: a wildlife refuge, not a hotel/motel/inn, per Wikipedia episode list; kept as its own row since it was the featured rescue subject.
What happened after
Big-cat rescue refuge with lodging and guided tours; official site active selling tickets and overnight stays.
What happened on the show
One of the most unusual assignments the show ever aired, Melchiorri's Eureka Springs, Arkansas, episode was not about a hotel at all but a big-cat rescue, the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge, which offered lodging alongside its animal-rescue mission. The episode, Lions, Tigers and Wasps, Oh My!, framed owners who needed to bring in enough revenue from their lodging units to keep the refuge itself running. A nonprofit sanctuary that funds its animal care partly through overnight stays faces a genuine hospitality challenge on top of its rescue work. Anthony worked the lodging side and the guest experience, treating the refuge's unique draw as a marketable asset and pushing the owners to run the overnight-stay operation well enough to sustain the mission. His counsel adapted the show's hospitality playbook to an unconventional property, aiming to turn animal-loving visitors into paying guests whose stays could help keep the big cats fed.
After the cameras left
Turpentine Creek is thriving and still rescuing big cats. As of our 2026 verification the wildlife refuge at 239 Turpentine Creek Lane in Eureka Springs is open, with an active official site selling both tickets and overnight stays, exactly the lodging-funds-the-mission model the episode focused on. The most atypical property the show ever featured, a big-cat sanctuary rather than a hotel, has stayed very much in business more than a decade later. Confirmed operating as of 2026.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.