Who Runs Heart of the Village Inn?

Meet Rose & Anatoly

Resident Owner-Operators

Rose and Anatoly are the resident owner-operators of Heart of the Village Inn. They live here. They know every guest by first name before they arrive. When you check in, you're not handing your credit card to a rotating front desk - you're being welcomed into someone's home by the people who chose this building, this village, and this life deliberately.

That choice didn't happen overnight. After years of demanding careers in a large city - and an informal tradition of hosting friends and family that never really felt like work at all - they decided to find a different way to live. Over three years, they considered properties stretching from the Pacific Northwest to coastal Maine, looking for the right match. Vermont kept pulling them back: the outdoor culture, the farm-to-table food scene, the unhurried pace. Shelburne Village, with its historic charm and proximity to Burlington, was the answer.

The inn itself has history. Built in 1886 as a private residence by Cyrus Van Vliet - a prosperous local merchant - this Queen Anne Victorian stood as a family home for over a century before becoming a B&B in 1996. Rose and Anatoly are its fifth stewards, and the first to live on the property full time.

Eleven years of hosting has reinforced something we believed before we started: clarity is hospitality. Not just a warm welcome, but the kind of care that actually helps people have the stay they came for. The website, the reservation agreement, the pre-arrival emails - all of it exists to set accurate expectations before anyone arrives, so the experience can be exactly what it’s supposed to be. The guests who arrive having taken time with that information consistently have the smoothest, most enjoyable stays - which is reason enough for us to keep it thorough.

We are both foodies. We traveled widely before moving here and cooked extensively for family and friends long before we had a professional kitchen. When we built the breakfast program, we brought those recipes and that instinct with us - not a continental spread, not a set plate, but food that guests actually choose for themselves, prepared fresh every morning. That is not the norm among bed and breakfasts, and we think it should be.

What Resident Ownership Means for You

Most inns are managed. This one is lived in.

When Rose and Anatoly say they enjoy hosting guests, sharing breakfast, and pointing people toward experiences that build real memories - they mean it as a description of their days, not a mission statement. There's no management company, no absentee owner, no seasonal staff filling in. The people who greet you in the morning are the same people who chose every detail of what you're waking up to.