Mystic — Hundreds of residents, business owners and officials packed the Mystic Hilton Thursday night to celebrate the completion of a dramatic top-to-bottom renovation of the 29-year-old hotel. 

The lobby features cascading water panels, a large, lighted column sign that spells out MYSTIC, and a glass enclosed sitting area with couches and gas-fueled fire pits.

There is also a large collage of historic shipbuilding photos from the collection of Mystic Seaport as well as other maritime art.

According to Lou Carrier — whose firm Distinctive Hospitality Group of Natick, Mass., purchased the hotel last year and undertook the renovation — no section of the hotel was left untouched.

All 189 guest rooms were renovated, a new bar, lobby and restaurant were created, and the ballrooms were renovated. There is new flooring, lighting, landscaping and parking.

And that’s just what the guests will see. All mechanical systems have been updated as well as kitchen and employee areas.

The hotel remained open during the renovation even though it took place during the height of the tourist season.

“We hoped we would get a good reaction from people, but this has been beyond our expectations,” Carrier said about the response of recent guests and others who have toured the hotel.

Carrier, whose firm spent $12.9 million to buy the hotel, declined to say how much the renovations costs but said it was one and one-half times what a typical renovation would cost.

“We want to be in Mystic for a very, very long time,” Carrier said about his firm’s commitment to the project,” which he added would not have been possible without the commitment from Hilton.

“Hilton really got behind this,” he said.

Carrier said booking and visits to the hotel website have greatly increased with October occupancy the best in seven years and November on track to be the best in the hotel’s history.

One of those on hand Thursday night was Stonington Selectman Rob Simmons who said that the fact that Hilton, one of the world’s largest and most prestigious hotel chains, decided to remain affiliated with the hotel after Carrier’s firm bought it and proposed the renovation, “is an awesome thing for us.”

j.wojtas@theday.com

Twitter: @joewojtas