The Wake Robin:Old-style country inn brought into the 21st century

This is the second in a three-part series of articles on Salisbury inns and hotels that are popular with leaf-peeping visitors. The first article, on the Interlaken Inn, may be found online at tcextra.com.

LAKEVILLE — The Wake Robin Inn is perched on a hill in Lakeville, steps away from the town’s largest lake, and surrounded by 11 acres of woodland. It’s an idyllic setting that is perfect for corporate excursions, romantic wedding weekends and holiday get-aways for city dwellers who are looking for a dreamy old New England inn that feels like it comes from a 1940s film.

But this iconic inn wasn’t always an inn.

From 1899 to 1914, the Wake Robin was known as the Taconic School for Girls; it was the sister to the nearby Hotchkiss School, which at that time was only open to boys. In 1914, the school closed, and some of the teachers turned it into an inn.

Michael Loftus and Shaffin Shariff, who came to the Northwest Corner from Chicago, purchased the inn in April 2002.

Loftus has worked in the hospitality industry for decades. He was with Embassy Suites in the 1980s and the Hilton hotels for 10 years; he was manager of Hilton’s Palmer House, the legendary century-old Chicago hotel.

Shariff, originally from Canada, worked for many years for the Bank of Montreal or its subsidiaries, including Chicago’s Harris Bank.   

 The inn was not in good shape when the partners bought it and moved here.

“There was no return business year to year,† Loftus said. “It had a bad reputation and was generally at the bottom of anyone’s list.â€

Loftus and Shariff did a massive renovation of the main building and the smaller cabins at the bottom of the hill, and restored its old New England charm.

They also renovated the inn’s mission. Four years ago, they decided to no longer market to  the “leisure travelerâ€and to pursue, instead, groups: weddings, reunions, car groups, corporate groups.

“We market the inn as a place to hold functions that are completely covered in-house, which means our guests can arrive here and not have to go anywhere until their event is over,†Loftus explained.  

This doesn’t limit the guest list in any way.

“Our spaces are versatile and separated, so two functions can go on at the same time, with little or no intermingling of guests and services,†Loftus said.

The interior spaces are flexible and can be changed to suit many types of ceremonies and meetings. And the grounds offer opportunities for hiking and sitting out in the gardens and just relaxing.  

The inn is also now on three social networking sites, with a presence on Facebook, Twitter and foursquare.com.

The changes have added up to a new success for the Wake Robin.

“We’ve gone from being known as a place with questionable facilities to the highest-rated inn in the area,†Loftus said.

Business is up 16 percent from last year, and growing.  “We’re booked from mid-September almost through Christmas,†Loftus said.  “All the weekends are booked for Christmas parties in December and we have a New Year’s Eve wedding to look forward to.

“Our rates are lower than some of the other hotels and inns, and we provide what our guests are looking for and then some.â€

The downside is that the inn is no longer as much of a gathering place for the community. The restaurant and bar  are no longer open to the public, although local groups often use the inn for meetings and social events. And of course local organizations are glad to recommend the inn for their guests. The race track, for example, sends car owners and drivers there; schools send college recruiters who come for the annual college fairs. And then there are parents’ weekends at the area boarding schools, when it can be challenging for visitors to find lodging.

The Wake Robin and surrounding inns work together to keep the problems of over-lapping events to a minimum.  

“We’re very different from the other inns, but we all communicate with each other,†Loftus said. “And because our business is not the same as theirs in many ways, we don’t compete with each other.  But, we all help each other, and that’s essential in this area and economy.† 

To find out more about the Wake Robin go online to wakerobininn.com, call 860-435-2000 or go to facebook.com.Wake.Robin.Inn, twitter.com/WakeRobinInn or foursquare.com/user/wakerobininn.