Monday, August 31, 2009

Doyle Hotel carves niche with hikers

They take their walk-in customers seriously at the Doyle Hotel in Duncannon.

You would, too, if half your business arrived on foot.

Appalachian Trail hikers make up almost half the hotel's business, say owners Pat and Vickey Kelly, who took over the 104-year-old establishment in 2001.

During prime through-hiking season -- mid-May to mid-July when the bulk of those trying to complete the 2,175-mile trail from Georgia to Maine pass through the midstate -- hikers account for more than 70 percent of the Doyle's sales.

More than 1,000 hikers last year spent at least a night in one of the 17 rooms the hotel rents to hikers for $25 a night. Several hundred more stopped in for food and beverages. This year's numbers are running slightly ahead of last year's pace.

Nearly all the hikers arrive at the Doyle hungry and thirsty, but few leave that way.

Pat Kelly's southern-influenced cooking is well-known on the trail. The Doyle's half-pound burgers and two-russet servings of fries share their near-legend status with the Doyle's cold pints of Yuengling Lager, the unofficial beer of AT hikers.

"We have hikers come in that tell us since North Carolina people have been telling them to be sure to stop at the Doyle," Pat Kelly said. "It's not like they walked across the street for a burger. They walked 1,200 miles to get here."

Located close to the geographic halfway point of the trail, the Doyle has helped make Duncannon a popular stop for hikers. In addition to cheap rooms, hot showers, meals and beverages, the Kellys try to offer additional services to the hikers.

"We tried to find out what they needed," said Vickey. "We're like concierges."

There is free Internet in the barroom, free Wi-Fi for hikers, cheap stove fuel and an in-house Laundromat. The Kellys made arrangements with a local doctor to see hikers who need treatment for minor ailments and got Mutzabaugh's, the local supermarket located a half-mile outside of Duncannon, to offer a shuttle for hikers needing to resupply. The Doyle also accepts mail drops for hikers receiving packages along the trail.

Vickey Kelly tracks the hikers who visit with her digital camera. Her cross-indexed (by real name and trail name) albums are considered one of the most comprehensive registries of AT hikers. Those who finish the trail send photos from atop Mount Katahdin in Maine for Vickey to post on the Doyle's lobby bulletin board.

"It's not just us," Vickey Kelly said. "It's the whole darned town."

It was not always that way. In the late '90s, Duncannon was wary of the hiking population after a murder at a nearby trail shelter on Cove Mountain. When Pat Kelly started cooking at the hotel in 2001, before taking it over, the owner used to turn away hikers seeking rooms.

By their second year as owners, the Kellys saw the impact hikers could have on their business. They sought to attract the trade by doing extensive cleaning in the upstairs hotel rooms. They bought new towels and linens and upgraded the menu in the dining room.

In addition to the busiest season, when the northbound through-hikers cross the Cumberland Valley in small herds, the Doyle also sees an influx in early fall of southbound hikers headed from Maine to Georgia. The winter sees the return of the locals, who flee the hiking throngs in the busy months.

"In the summer time, we lose a lot of our local business because of hikers filling up the bar," Pat Kelly said.

A group of about 50 hikers known as the "Billvilles" also gathers at the Doyle each March for its Winter Warmer event.

It's been a mutually beneficial relationship. The Kellys take good care of the hikers, and the hikers return the favor, spreading word of mouth about the Doyle on the trail and patronizing the hotel when they pass through Duncannon.

It goes beyond that, though. In June, when vandals covered the doors and windows of the Doyle with spray adhesive, it was a member of the Billvilles, in town to help prepare for the group's annual hiker feed, who came to the rescue, scraping clean the windows and helping replace damaged locks.

"He actually cleaned the whole outside of the hotel, and he did it for free. That was wonderful," Pat Kelly. "It's definitely been a two-way street. What we give to them, they give back."