The Mayton Inn, which opened on Valentine’s Day Weekend, is a cornerstone of the revitalization of downtown Cary, part of NC’s fashionable Triangle region. Set in a distinguished Georgian-style building, the $14.5 million property is the brainchild of husband-and-wife hoteliers Colin and Deanna Crossman, the people behind the acclaimed King’s Daughters Inn in nearby Durham.
The 45-room hotel, recognized in Condé-Nast’s Johansens Collection, includes a bar, restaurant and spa, and comes with a host of sustainable design features. And amongst the special touches in the guest rooms – which comprise 33 standard rooms and 11 deluxe suites – are state-of-the-art tablets provided by UK-based Crave Interactive.
“We really wanted to combine a sense of heritage with a cutting-edge hotel experience, and the in-room tablets fit that concept really well,” said Colin Crossman.
The tablets replace all printed in-room guest information and directories, and offer full menu and spa listings, instant room service ordering and guest-staff communications, and a host of other features. They also include a new edition of Crave’s acclaimed travel guide, exclusive to the Mayton Inn, covering the attractions of the Triangle.
Crave CEO Gareth Hughes said that the Mayton Inn installation would use the Crave T2, an upgraded version of the groundbreaking Crave Tablet, the first tablet specifically designed for use in a hotel setting. “Unlike other providers, we have our own custom tablets which have unique features appropriate for hotel settings,” he said.
The tablets come preloaded with Crave OS, a unique proprietary operating system which allows for instant remote changes to content. “One of the things that we really love about the tablets is the way the operating system lets us update the content instantly without staff having to go anywhere near the rooms. Guests are completely undisturbed, but they always have the latest information about our menus and services right at their fingertips,” Colin Crossman said.
Crave Commercial Director Tim Butterworth said that working with the Mayton Inn was in some ways a return to the company’s roots. “We first developed the Crave concept and finessed the tablets and the operating system while working with exclusive country house hotels in the UK, and the Mayton Inn has a lot of similarities to those properties, with its boutique heritage style. Our recent expansion in the North American market has largely involved working with big hotels and all-inclusive resorts, so it’s nice to now be able to bring our experience working smaller boutique properties to the fore Stateside too,” he said. Tim Butterworth added that the tablets’ potential for subtly crafted push-message promotions of dining and spa options, and for personal touches in digital guest communication, worked particularly well in boutique settings like the Mayton Inn.
