Great location, love the Anchor Inn:

WeBooked the Anchor Inn because I wanted to be near the water and restaurants. We planned on tripping around the Island. Here is my write up:

Accommodations: Staying on the 3rd floor of the Anchor Inn hotel - Apt. 5. This is an old building and full of rustic charm. Our suite was spacious and clean. Not sure about the previous woman's experience/standards. This suite was fine. It wasn't perfect, but I didn't expect it to be for the price. It had a renovated bathroom, lots of towels and a great view of the water. It was clean and spacious.

Restaurant: We stayed at the Anchor Inn and ate there too. On Tuesday we both ordered the White fish dinner. It came with perfectly steamed vegetables and a very nice salad. We ate here again tonight. The service and food are excellent.

The wings are one special Tues. & Wed. - very good wings, cooked to perfection.

We are from Toronto and we wanted to come and experience Manitoulin Island. We were not expecting downtown Hilton Hotel accommodations and we didn't even want that. What we got was a nice place, run by nice people in a nice town.

BTW: Got some nice tops at the clothing store beside the Anchor Inn.

And....when we got here we asked people on the boats where to eat - they all said "The Hotel .... aka Anchor Inn the only hotel

Well, what can I say about our one-night stay at the Anchor Inn?
I'm only going to speak about the room we rented, which was number 9 on the third floor.
My wife and I were making plans for a mini-vacation on Manitoulin Island, which is one of my favorite getaways. I was looking forward to showing her the sights, as she had only spent any time on the island once before in the Gore Bay area.
I know full well you can't expect a five-star facility on the island, which is a remote area that's a throwback to 25 or 50 years ago, and we were fine with that.
I was browsing through Trip Advisor looking for recommended accommodations at a good price, since we were planning on spending as little as possible while getting some good value.
We're not fussy, travelers - at all - considering we once rented a cabin in Killarney for a week that was infested by mice and didn't leave.
However, the room at the Anchor Inn proved to be our nemesis.
I knew the room was basic and had no air conditioning, and was on the third floor when I rented it.
I didn't anticipate it would be hotter than the gates of Hell and claustrophobic to boot.
After a while, the small tabletop fan in the room began to smell as if it were overheating but there was no way we were shutting it off and hope to still live through the night.
The floor was uneven, the bathroom lacked a towel rack for the bath towels. We found the rack in a desk drawer a little later.
The bathroom was tiny, as was the room.
The bed was one of the most uncomfortable we had ever slept on. It was jammed near the wall, leaving a gap of only a few inches to negotiate while dodging a baseboard heater that has seen better days. We continually woke each other up as we tossed and turned through the night in the sweltering heat.
The view out the window consisted of another wing of the building.
We had barely enough room to put our luggage down and still walk around the room.
When we checked in, (the front desk is at the bar), one of the co-owners quoted me $70 a night when I had reserved it for $60.
When I pointed that out, she said "I don't know why they quoted you the off-season rates when it's not off-season".
The website clearly states the room is $50 for the off-season and $60 in season, so I'm not quite sure what the confusion was about, although if I wanted to be cynical I'd have some suggestions.
When I checked out the next day, there was still some confusion about the rates. Another of the co-owners said to me "oh yes, you were the one who actually knew the rates."
I know you can't control the weather and couldn't predict a late-season heat wave, but still... there are lots of improvements to be made in this room, which is supposedly "one of the most popular."
All in all, I am perplexed as to how the Anchor Inn achieved the high rating it has on Trip Advisor. Perhaps the larger, apartment-sized rooms are nicer, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt.
I highly doubt I'll be returning to find out though.

Friendly check in, quick to grab the imprint of the credit card and given key for room. Instructed to just leave key in room when we leave in the moring.
Upon entry to "apartment", I walked further into the unit and was quickly disappointed and disgusted. The kitchen tap had a constant quick drip, ALL NIGHT LONG!, The pull out sofa couch was absolutely filthy, so didn't even go near it. I plugged the microwave into the electrical outlet, and it did not work, nor did it work in second outlet that I tried. I plugged the toaster into an outlet, it did not work, i tried another outlet it did not work. I was able to recharge a cell phone and camera battery using the bathroom outlet, BUT, when I removed these, the entire electrical outlet came out of the wall. I would not recommend thisplace to ANYONE! I kept my shoes on the hole time we were there, with the one exception when i was going to go use the shower, and then the bottom of my feet were sticky. Shower, NO HOT WATER! Bathroom sink, no hot water unless you ran the water for 5 minutes or so. I truly would consider this place a dive! Keep driving!

We're bikers and have stayed at the Anchor 3 times while riding across the Island. This year I was absolutely delighted that our room had been re-decorated. In prior years the decor left a little lacking in the imagination but this year we were absolutely 100% satisfied. The room was quite large and accommodated all 3 of us easily, the bathroom was large, clean and bright and all of this helped to make our stay even more memorable then in years passed.
We stayed over on a Saturday night and there was some noise from the bar downstairs (I was envious of the fun the patrons were having but too tired from biking all day to join them) but things quieted down shortly afterwards and we all enjoyed a great night's sleep.
Our thanks to Bruce and his staff for their genuine welcome and for ensuring that we will return again every year possible.