Sur­round­ed by glo­ri­ous moun­tain scenery in a pret­ty, Alpine town, Hotel Inter­lak­en offi­cial­ly start­ed its jour­ney into hos­pi­tal­i­ty in 1491, after the build­ing had been ren­o­vat­ed and approved by local gov­ern­ment. But the site held an inn before this, shown by local records that men­tion a guest house in 1323. In this ear­ly incar­na­tion, a court­room on the hotel’s first floor was used to sen­tence those found guilty of crimes. Thank­ful­ly, these areas have been down­grad­ed to con­fer­ence rooms today.