Michael and Mary Hert are longtime Durango, CO residents and business owners. They met in high school, have been married since 1984, have raised 3 kids, Brandon, Brooke, and Matt, and have 6 grandchildren.
Since he was young, Michael has been in the hotel business helping his parents manage hotels and eventually he and Mary purchased their own. In their careers, the Herts have found, fixed, and sold 14 hotels in the Colorado and Utah area. They are currently the owner of one 49-room Quality Inn & Suites in Pueblo West Colorado.
The Herts have two family mottos:
1) Love what you do, and you never have to work a day in your life.
2) Where guests are family.
Living by these mottos enabled them to transform struggling hotels into success stories and they now want to share their hospitality with Durango drivers.
In 2020, the Herts started the process of building Durango’s first, automatic tunnel carwash—a state-of-the-art, 120-foot length, full service carwash—which opened in August of 2022.
Michael and Mary are the onsite owners and operators of Cascade Xpress Carwash and look forward to serving Durango residents.
A light at the end of the tunnel
You’ve been putting it off again, but it has to be done today.
The dirt, the mud, the caked-on layers have been building up and it’s bad.
It always feels cramped waiting in that parking lot as cars squeeze by to other establishments while you wait in line for the self-serve carwash.
“Which bay is going to open first?” you think to yourself as you pull up into a lane.
After 5 minutes you begin to doubt your lane choice. “This is the slow person.”
Eventually they finish up and pull away. “My turn,” you mention to yourself. You drive up and hop out.
You insert your credit card and flip the dial to the spray you want.
“Wait, does ‘Power Soap 3x’ come out of the pressure washer, the brush, or the other squirt-gun thing?”
The clock is ticking, but with some fumbling you figure it out.
You’re a madman as you sprint around your car with the pressure washer getting the first layer done.
Another delay as you try to find the brush option. You hesitate a moment as you look at the caked-on black something-or-other on the brush, “I’m going to scrub my car with this?”
No choice.
Gotta be fast. “Is it because the dollars are counting up the longer I take or is it because people are waiting?” you wonder. You put the thought out of your mind.
Soap’s done, back to the pressure washer to rinse.
You had made a mental note to yourself which option on the dial was the pressure rinse and flip right to it this time.
A small satisfaction washes over you, but…tick-tock, tick-tock.
You speed through another rinse as the person waiting in line behind you gives you a glare.
15 minutes of waiting, 15 minutes to wash, and a bit wet, which was to be expected.
$15?? That price was not expected…AND it took 30 minutes.
You remember why you always put off washing your car.
You pull out of the bay into the sunshine and that tingle hits. It always feels good driving a freshly washed car, but a moment later the feel-good tingle is driven away.
You had to rush it—you know there will be spots and streaks.
If only there was an easier way to get that feeling, any time you wanted, that it would only take a few minutes, and it wouldn’t cost you a tire and a wheel.
It’s here now.
Introducing Durango’s premier full-length, state-of-the-art, full-service, tunnel Carwash.
