What happens when two old hotels get much-needed facelifts from a competing husband and wife team? “Let’s just say our parents taught us to always leave something better than we found it,” says Brian Kleinschmidt, the winner of HGTV’s 100 Day Hotel Challenge. “We did that with these hotels, but we also left as better people. This experience has been incredible — win or lose.”

In the six-episode series, Brian and his wife Mika Kleinschmidt (co-hosts of 100 Day Dream Home) renovated two 70-year-old hotels in Salter Path on North Carolina’s Crystal Coast: The Beacon Hotel (formerly known as the Salter Path Inn) and the William & Garland Motel. With a budget of $225,000 each, and a three-month deadline, they transformed the two businesses with the help of fellow HGTV stars.

At the end of each episode, HGTV stars Drew and Jonathan Scott (Backed By The Bros and Celebrity IOU) chose the best renovation, basing their decisions on the overall guest experience; the hotel’s design and amenities; and who best fulfilled the owner’s wishes and increased room rates. The winning team for each individual challenge received $5,000 to donate to the charity of their choice. With the overall win, Brian (aka The Deacon of Beacon!) won bragging rights and a $50,000 donation to the Boys & Girls Club of the Coastal Plain.

Ahead, the couple share what it was like to face off against each other.

In Conversation With Brian and Mika

HGTV: What were your thoughts when HGTV first approached you both to do the show?

BRIAN: Originally, we thought it was a joke — competing against each other. This is the first time HGTV had ever done a show like this, and we were excited to be the ones to trailblaze this type of competition. We had just remodeled the Sunburst Inn as a team, so we were aware of what making over a hotel involved. As reality sank in, we thought, “OK, let’s double the hotel, double the stakes and double the fun!” Honestly, there were no losers in this competition. The goal was to make these hotels and the town of Salter Path, North Carolina, a better place in addition to raising money for some great causes. The truth is, everyone was a winner.

MIKA: When it was first pitched, we thought we were going to host the show, not be pitted against each other. There was a moment we had to ask ourselves, “Are we ready to do this in front of the whole world?” But we ultimately said yes because we were excited to help two businesses in the process. There are only a few people on this Earth I’m OK losing a competition to and Brian is one of them because I know his work ethic and how much he puts into every project. Brian is right: There are no losers when we know we helped these hotel owners and know we’ve created a great experience for anyone who stays at these two hotels in the future.

HGTV: How did you find two hotels next to each other?

BRIAN: We knew we wanted to be near the beach, so our production company did some scouting. Besides the hotels being physically close to each other, they had to be equal in their scope of work so the competition was fair. Not many people know this but the same family built both hotels. One brother managed the William & Garland, the other the Beacon. Mika’s motel is still in the family, my hotel was sold to a family of immigrants from India who were looking for the American dream. Mika’s owners wanted to honor the past and my owners wanted to begin a new future after a hurricane caused more than $1 million in damage to their property.

HGTV: Prior to the competition, did you share any notes?

BRIAN: The only person more competitive than me is Mika — neither of us like to lose. When we were in the preplanning stages, we would go into different rooms of our house and take calls from our design teams. We had no idea of each other’s game plan.

MIKA: Brian would lock himself in the bonus room in our house, and I’d often take calls with my teams from the road. We wanted to do this authentically. If we shared ideas or cheated behind the scenes, it wouldn’t have been as much fun.

HGTV: What was it like working with the hotel owners?

MIKA: I had more limitations with my motel owners given the property’s deep roots. There was a lot of emotional attachment to the furniture and color palettes. It was a challenge, but it also gave me a starting point in terms of the vibe I was going for. I had to run a lot of the design decisions by the owners first — including the exterior color and the moodiness of the rooms. Ultimately, I stayed true to what they wanted.

BRIAN: My situation was the complete opposite of Mika’s. My hotel owners didn’t give me a lot of guidance, they just wanted a complete transformation, a new look for the future of their hotel. They told me they loved the vibe of Tulum, Mexico, and the Caribbean and the colors blue and orange. I was really able to let our creativity run wild.

HGTV: How did you choose your teams?

BRIAN: We didn’t do a draft like you would on a playground for a kickball game. We worked with production to find great, available talent. In some cases, like with the single and double rooms, we needed teams of two because there was more work. In other cases, like the small lobby, one teammate was enough. Sarah and Bryan Baeumler were great because they’re the king and queen of the hospitality business — they own a very successful hotel. In the end, I wouldn’t change any of my teammates. The only person I wish I had on my team was Mika. I missed bouncing ideas off of her throughout the competition.

MIKA: I think they stacked the teams in a fair, strategic way. We worked with a couple of people we knew but plenty we didn’t. I missed working with Brian, but it was cool to see how other people’s perception of design translated.

HGTV: You juggled a lot of HGTV talent.

MIKA: One thing we said to each other going into this show was we weren’t going to be team captains. It was going to be 50/50 with our teammates. We wanted them to take ownership. There were a couple of things my teammates did I may have done differently, but I had to put my trust in them.

BRIAN: Collaborating with people we looked up to and whose shows we watched was one of our favorite parts. We learned so much from them, we laughed, we made memories. I compare it to the first day of summer camp. On day one everyone is kind of scared, but when it’s time to go home, nobody wants to leave. Everyone said they would do it again. That’s a win for us.

HGTV: How did this renovation compare to the Sunburst Inn?

MIKA: With the Sunburst Inn, we had zero buffer when it came to construction and production timelines so if something came in late, it was scary. The hotel owners kept telling us, “We are opening our doors on this date no matter what!”

BRIAN: The Sunburst Inn tripled their room rates, and now it’s more difficult to get a reservation. We’re friends with the hotel owners and the night the show aired the Sunburst Inn was the top Google search! Translating that success was our goal with these two properties in North Carolina.

HGTV: Did you make over all the rooms or just one in each category?

MIKA: With the Sunburst Inn, we actually renovated the entire hotel because the owners were able to match the financial contribution. The William & Garland and The Beacon are smaller mom-and-pop hotels. It would be economically overwhelming for them to do all the spaces at once so we strategically picked spaces so they could emulate them down the road.

HGTV: Brian, what was Jonathan and Drew’s hangup with the color cobalt?

BRIAN: At the end of the day, honoring the owner’s requests was one of the judging criteria. My owners didn’t just say they loved blue, they said they loved cobalt blue. So, I gave them what they wanted. This is not just a TV show for them, this is a living, breathing business. I respect Jonathan and Drew’s opinion, but the owners’ meant more to me.

HGTV: Mika, your favorite thing Brian made over?

MIKA: It’s kind of a tie. I loved Brian’s lobby and his outdoor space. Even though I won the outdoor competition, Brian transformed his space so beautifully, giving people staying at the hotel so much to do outside of the beach. How could you not love those swings at the bar?

HGTV: Brian, your favorite thing that Mika made over?

BRIAN: Her kitchenette room was perfection: the space planning, the trundle beds, the nostalgia you felt in that room.

HGTV: Mika, would you do anything differently?

MIKA: Nah, I did outspend Brian early on so he had more money left over, but I would spend the money the same way again. The two Kims did a great job on the luxury suite, but I may have jumped in on the layout. When I first saw it, I knew from a functionality standpoint we were going to get dinged. But it goes back to not bossing the teammates around. They’re very successful designers, I trusted them to take ownership, and the space still turned out beautiful

HGTV: When you got home at night, would you talk about how your day transpired?

BRIAN: There were no rules on how long you could work and I got back after midnight pretty much every night. Mika would always be asleep when I got home!

MIKA: I admit it: Brian always worked later than me, but I was well rested, my mental health was good, I didn’t make any wrinkles along the way so I’m OK with that. [Laughs]

HGTV: The weather often looked dicey!

BRIAN: We had to film during the hotels’ slowest season, which was January, February and March — when the temperatures were in the 30s and 40s. It was cold for talent, but it was also cold for production and construction. It was hard for things to dry so we had to put space heaters everywhere. On the day we painted the hotel exteriors, we had a monsoon. It looked like water colored paint running everywhere!

MIKA: It’s hard because you’re trying not to look cold on camera. All I can say is, production must have spent a ton of money on hand warmers. After a long day of production, I’d do my laundry and all these hand warmer packets would fall out of my clothes.

HGTV: The managing editor of The Points Guys was tasked with making the final decision after the Property Brothers each chose a different hotel as their winner. How did that go?

BRIAN: Clint Henderson was a tough judge. Nobody has stayed in more hotels than this guy so we definitely valued his opinion. We weren’t designing these spaces just to look good, they had to be functional. He focused on the design ideas he felt worked and didn’t work for a hotel.

MIKA: Clint is super experienced in terms of staying in hotels, but I would say if I had to do it again, I would have included someone who owns a hotel as a judge, because they’d understand the behind-the-scenes operations of running a hotel. I think it would be cool to have that perspective the next time around.

HGTV: Talk about judgment day.

BRIAN: The reveal was actually on Mika’s birthday. I woke up that morning and thought, what a great birthday gift for Mika if she wins. I was secretly hoping she would! When I saw “Team Brian” on the plane’s banner over the ocean, I was happy but I would rather it have said, “Team Mika” to make her birthday wish come true.

MIKA: Well, having the Property Brothers sing happy birthday to me on the beach made up for things. It was a birthday wish come true!

HGTV: You increased your hotels’ rates by 13% and 15%. Any idea how the hotels are doing?

MIKA: I pretty much message the owners after each episode. They’re just so grateful. They’re going to be thriving for a long time.

BRIAN: It wasn’t just about getting these hotels booked and increasing their room rates — we got people to stay longer. My owners told me in the past, hotel guests would stay for one night and then check out, and now they’re staying for three, four and five nights. Which is huge for the hotel’s long-term success. They also told me they’re going to pass this hotel down to future generations, which made me feel great.

HGTV: The Boys & Girls Club of the Coastal Plain received $50,000. How great is that?

BRIAN: They’re an amazing organization. I became familiar with them in our hometown of Tampa, but we wanted to make sure we impacted the community we were working in. We’re looking forward to the future success of the hotels in Salter Path and who better to invest in that future success than The Boys & Girls Club.

HGTV: It looks like you had a lot of fun making this show.

MIKA: When you’re with the same group of people for 12 hours a day, you undoubtedly get close. We would have dinners together, and Salter Path is such a small town, there were only so many restaurants you can go to. The look on the staff’s faces when the whole HGTV crew walked in! We ended the project with a wrap party that included the entire production team — the cameramen, audio folks, carpenters. It was great.

BRIAN: It requires hundreds of hours of work to create an hour episode, from preplanning to production to post production. I always say, if you’re not having fun, why do it? With this project, we worked harder than we’ve probably ever done, but we played a little harder, too.

HGTV: Brian, you would often kiss Mika after beating her in a competition. Sweet!

MIKA: Listen, at the end of the day Brian and I are going back to the same Airbnb. Don’t get me wrong, he rubs his win in every once in a while, but when we agreed to do this show, we had to make sure we were both grounded and level headed enough to survive this thing without it causing any trouble in our relationship.

BRIAN: This show proved we can do stuff apart, but I feel like we're strongest together. I missed working with her.

HGTV: Mika, looking for a rematch?

MIKA: Oh yeah, I’d love a round two. Maybe in another area of the United States with a different design aesthetic. All egos aside, it would be great to help out more hotel owners. We had so much fun. I wouldn’t call it a rematch, I’d call it a reunion.

BRIAN: I’m not sure, I may not want to risk my undefeated status! [Laughs] Yes, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Stream episodes of 100 Day Hotel Challenge on Max. Follow Brian and Mika on Instagram at @mrbreakinground and @mikamakesmoves.