A stay at 86 Cannon Charleston melds history, hospitality, and technology
The owners of 86 Cannon Charleston, a 10-room luxury inn in Charleston’s Cannonborough/Elliotborough neighborhood, have struck an unusual balance between the property’s historic past and the future of hospitality.
In 2015, Lori and Marion Hawkins opened the main inn house, built in the 1860s and previously owned by Peter T. Poinsette, the brother of Civil Rights leader Septima Poinsette Clark. Full restoration and renovation of the home with design direction from B. Berry Interiors provided the right environment for the couple to offer their guests modern Southern hospitality while maintaining the structural historic elements.
Their first foray into hotel management, 86 Cannon allowed the avid travelers to implement hospitality elements they personally appreciated while also recognizing the role technology would play in the success.
At the time, text communication between hotel staff and guests wasn’t unusual, but Marion intended to take the property’s technology stack further. His thoughtful application of technology allows the entire property—which includes a cafe, library, salon, piazzas, courtyard garden, and lushly landscaped heated and cooled saltwater pool—to be operated by a staff of five people.
Marion’s degree in architecture and 16 years spent in web development and hosting positioned him perfectly for the task of navigating the hundreds of property management systems and adjacent software programs that he hoped would allow their small team to balance efficiency and true Southern hospitality.
“Marion has spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours researching these apps,” Lori Hawkins says of her husband. “I don’t think he came up for air for two years.”
His goal was to integrate every bit of the property—from the lights, the HVAC, and the security system to the booking, concierge, and accounting programs—so that their small crew of highly skilled staff members could handle the varying needs while also offering guests the best possible experience.
“We leverage technology to enable and empower staff to give the highest level of service to guests,” Marion shares. “We can anticipate the guests’ needs and use that suite of technology to ensure guest experience.”
Innovative Hospitality at 86 Cannon
For example, the efficiency with which the innkeeper on duty can handle property or guest needs via apps on their company-issued iPhone allows them to focus the majority of their efforts on extending in-person hospitality to guests during breakfast in the cafe, happy hour in the library, and every moment in between.
They’re so efficient that guests often assume the text communication or chat window on the website are automated. “The biggest thing I really need to convey to people is, we don’t use AI,” Marion says. “You have the whole staff, and we all see the same text messages.”
The personal attention is essential to the 86 Cannon brand of hospitality. As they tell their staff, “You make the difference between a good stay and a great stay.”
The check-in process, for instance, isn’t dissimilar to that of many other hotels, but subtle differences, like using text communication beginning three days prior to a stay, have led to a surprisingly efficient touch point without losing the organic feel of a property welcome.
“We never wanted people to spend ten minutes at check-in,” Marion says, acknowledging that most people are arriving on vacation and would much rather get straight to their plans. “If I’m the guest, how do I want to be treated?”
Instead of belaboring paperwork and payment in the hotel lobby, guests are greeted in the main house, given a glass of champagne, handed an actual metal room key (an intentional choice to avoid a tech-driven keycard entry), and shown directly to their suite. By the time they arrive, they’ve received additional text messages with the Wi-Fi password, the times of daily breakfast and wine and cheese hour, nearby dining recommendations, and more.
Now that the full property has been developed across a total of four adjacent residences, the Hawkinses are turning their attention to creating a balance to the tech elements through custom in-room printed information.
“As much as I love technology, I still like a book and a printed piece of material,” Marion says. “The tech is just a tool to allow us to give people the best experience possible.”
Amenities and More
- Adults only (16+)
- Cafe with locally sourced breakfast items
- Complimentary wine and cheese from 5–6pm
- Third-floor library with vintage books, wine, and snacks
- Linus bicycles for complimentary use
- Five-minute walk to King Street
86 Cannon St., Charleston, South Carolina, 86cannon.com
