The hotel was owned by the trust of Adam Watt, who died in 1913, and the keeper was Barbara Younger, from Dunblane in Perthshire. Her husband David had also died in 1913, leaving her to run the hotel alone. David had been a hotel porter in Dunblane before he and Barbara moved to Langholm.

The Youngers had three sons and three daughters, with one son old enough to be of military age. George joined the Royal Highlanders (the Black Watch) and received a gunshot wound to the head in France in September 1915. After five weeks in an English hospital and other recuperation, he returned to France in March 1916 and survived the war, although he received another gunshot wound, this time to the hand. He died in Langholm, aged 40.

Barbara was still the hotelkeeper in 1920 but then handed over to William Cameron from Skipton in Yorkshire. By 1925 the hotel had been sold to Robert Kirkpatrick who was also the keeper.