'LIGHTENING THE LOAD': Dillons sell two buildings at Crystal River Inn, set for tent sale

Cathy Dillon describes it as a sigh of relief. 

After years of placing the Crystal River Inn on and off the market, she and her husband Mike are selling two buildings while maintaining the Inn's main building and the spa located in the Thomas House adjacent to it. 

Cathy Dillon says her hopes for the property, which began with the Inn when it opened in 1984 and eventually blossomed into a six-building estate, was for it to continue to operate as a hotel. But as the Dillons placed the property on the market, Cathy realized her desires didn’t exactly align with developers wishing to purchase the property. 

“What never occurred to me back when we were doing all this was that the bigger the chuck of property, the less anyone was going to want to continue doing what we've been doing as in running it as a hotel and having it be historic and having gardens. I mean, who’s going to want to do that,” Dillon said. “In the end, the fellow that came along and offered an acceptable price for the two (buildings) in the back, said that’s exactly what he wants to do is leave them just like they are.”

Dillon says the sale will provide a load off of her and her husband’s shoulders. The hotel will slightly decrease in size with 10 rooms available, which she says is perfect. 

“I’m really, frankly, thrilled,” Dillon said. “It just, it feels like a much smaller load, a more manageable load. But also just kind of a nicer genre of things then what we’ve been kind of dealing with. So, we just decided to go ahead and sell it and I never would’ve dreamed that that would feel good.” 

Dillon said she has many memories during her time owning the Inn but she says the recent COVID-19 shutdowns stick out in her mind the most. 

“March the 17th, I’ll never forget that day,” Dillon said. “The phone started ringing and the entire year cleared out, everything, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, reservations. Just nothing, we had nothing at all on our schedule for the whole rest of the year, 2020 … And now, we’re coming back and beginning to find the weekends now are pretty full again, which is awesome.” 

Although Dillon isn’t calling it a retirement, she said the property sale will allow her and Mike the ability to travel more often. They just returned from a camping trip in the Midwest with plans for a cruise in the Caribbean next January. 

“It’s changing things up, lightening the load,” she said. “Because we have a good staff, we’re able to start traveling more.”

With the sale of the two back buildings, the Dillons are hosting a tent sale this weekend, beginning Saturday-Sunday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. 

“There’s a lot of furniture, secretaries, beds and linens and all of that kind of stuff,” Dillon said. “And our store rooms are full. So, it’s just time to downsize. Eight o’clock on Saturday morning, I’m hoping people will come and help us get rid of some of this stuff.”

As fall arrives, Dillon said they plan to resume Friday night dinners at Crystal River Inn as well as murder mystery dinners, which will take place on Oct. 17-18, Nov. 21-22 and New Years Eve.

As the Dillons embark on new changes to the Inn, Cathy expressed her gratitude toward the San Marcos community. 

“We’re not BISMs (Born in San Marcos), we were not born here but we got here as fast as we could,” Dillon said. “It’s just a wonderful town. It’s been a wonderful town to raise our children and we both enjoy the civic life in this town. The historic part of it. So, I’m just really grateful that we got this wonderful place and I really appreciate the town supporting us as much as they have all these years.”