I grew up in Carleton Place, and I watched this property change hands many, many times. It's a beautiful historic building, but it got bought and sold quite a bit over the years by different people who thought they could fix it up (especially the restaurant side). I came into town for a birthday party this weekend, and I'm honestly blown away by how beautifully the hotel has been restored. The atmosphere in the entryway is absolutely gorgeous, incredibly warm and welcoming, and the lady working the front desk was super friendly and helpful. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the building has an elevator (I forgot to check, walked in and saw the stairs and had a sinking feeling--but phew!), and even more pleasantly surprised when I got to my floor and saw that all the rooms are named after different authors, which is a really fun detail. Totally unexpected! The interiors of the rooms aren't actually themed or anything (unless there's a really sophisticated Oscar Wilde reference in the decor in here I'm missing) but it's a really nice touch. Perfectly clean, nothing negative to report--and the room even has a mini-fridge stocked with little milk and cream containers for coffee instead of just CoffeeMate packets. Around town we used to say there must be some kind of curse on this building because nobody who tried could seem to make it work, so I was a little apprehensive going in--but I'm happy to say I think the curse is broken!