West Virginia innkeepers launch Analog Escapes, a booking site for places to put your phone down
MARLINTON, W.Va. Rob and Caley Gonyea, who own the Moore House Inn & Cabins in Pocahontas County, have launched Analog Escapes (analogescapes.com), a booking site for stays that make it easy to unplug.
The idea came from watching their own guests. “The people who loved their stay most weren't the ones with the best room,” said Rob Gonyea. “They were the ones who stayed more than one night, ignored the TV, sat around the fire pit and played board games in the parlor with people they'd just met. On the first night they're on their phones. By the second day they're by the fire talking about real things.”
Analog Escapes lists cabins, small inns, lodges, farms and glamping sites chosen for what guests can do instead of scrolling: fire pits and fireplaces, hot tubs and saunas, creeks and lakes, nearby trails, books and games. Every stay is checked against our standards before it goes on the site and must be rated 4.5 stars or higher by guests. Stays have a two-night minimum.
Before buying the inn in 2024, Gonyea ran a creative agency and worked in technology, in front of a screen all day. “Now I split firewood and fix up rooms. I know what it takes to actually switch off, and it's not a no-wifi sign. It's having something better to do.”
The site also publishes free guides to quiet corners of the country, starting with West Virginia and the National Radio Quiet Zone around the Green Bank Observatory.
