Our Story

Made to be shared

On the edge of the Smokies

The Glenway is one family’s cabin in Maggie Valley. We run it ourselves, and we share it with the people who come to stay.

Ryan and Katie skiing at Cataloochee Ski Area near Maggie Valley NC

At Cataloochee Ski Area, Maggie Valley.

Your hosts

Run by the two of us

We’re Ryan and Katie. We live in the South Carolina Lowcountry with our daughters, and for years our favorite trips pointed northwest: weekends in Asheville, a log cabin outside Canton, a little more time in Maggie Valley every year. The Glenway is what we found when we went looking for a place of our own to share.

There’s no management company between you and us. A small team in Maggie Valley handles the turnovers, and we oversee the rest: questions before you arrive, repairs, restocking, and the ideas guests leave behind. One of us works in sustainability and continuous improvement and the other builds software, so we’re forever tinkering with how things could run a little better. The cabin gets the benefit.

What’s in a name

Two plain words

  • /ɡlen/ · noun

    GLEN

    A narrow, secluded valley, especially one between mountains.

  • /wā/ · noun

    WAY

    A path, road, route, or course of travel.

Glenway seems about right

Sometimes the right name finds you.

We meant to call it The Glenwood, a nod to the street where Ryan’s grandfather lived and to someone who helped make all of this possible. Somewhere between domain searches and a conversation with our designer, Ryan said Glenway instead, and it stuck. It turned out Glenway Avenue runs near where Katie grew up. Only later did we notice the two words describe Maggie Valley pretty well, too.

A little hygge goes a long way

The harbor in Ålesund, Norway, with Art Nouveau buildings under a storm sky

The harbor in Ålesund, August 2015.

Copenhagen and Norway · August 2015

Where the word came from

In 2015 we traveled through Copenhagen and along the Norwegian coast: Ålesund, Geiranger, Stavanger. What stuck with us wasn’t any single view. It was how easy everyday life felt, and how much of it happened around a table or outdoors.

Later we found the Danish word for it: hygge, the comfort of being somewhere warm with people you like and nowhere else to be. It became the name of our company, Hygge Hospitality, and it’s the feeling we want at The Glenway: a fire going, a card game half-finished, a morning with no plan.

How we run the place

What we stand by

  • 01

    Care in every detail

    Sharp knives, enough towels for everyone, batteries in the remote. Nobody books a cabin for those things, but everyone notices when they’re missing, so we work to make sure they never are.

  • 02

    People before processes

    Your door code and check-in reminders take care of themselves. That leaves us free for the part no system can do: helping you pick a trail, or a plan for a rainy afternoon.

  • 03

    Better is a direction, not a finish line

    We read every review and every passing comment, and we act on them. Come back next year and a few things will have changed for the better.

  • 04

    Trust through transparency

    We’ll tell you plainly what the cabin is and isn’t. If something goes wrong during your stay, you’ll get a straight answer and a plan, not an excuse.

Blue Ridge Mountains landscape with morning fog

Before us

Shaconage

Land of blue smoke.

Long before Maggie Valley had a name, these mountains were Cherokee homeland, and they still are. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is based just over Soco Gap, in the town of Cherokee.

We think that belongs on any list of things worth knowing about this place, right up there with the trails and the barbecue.

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A little welcome from us

10% off your first stay

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