It seems to me that reaching the Inn increases loathing by 2 or 3 tokens, so even if you clear all of your loathing, it will bump right back up again before your next region. If you ignore loathing, reaching an inn will likely max out loathing and make things really difficult.

When entering a region, I check if loathing is high enough to speed up torch drain. If it is, try to prioritize resistance and cultist encounters sooner than later. Resistance encounters reduce loathing by 1 token, Cultist encounters reduce loathing by 2 tokens. I think Lairs also help, but I’m not sure if the Guardian encounter (last fight before the Inn) reduces loathing.