It’s still more than nine months away, but most hotels in Ottawa’s downtown core are already booked solid for the Canada Day long weekend next year, when the country will mark its 150th birthday.
And to snag one of the few remaining rooms, you’ll have to be willing to pay rates inflated by a somewhat more moderate version of the laws of supply and demand that kick in in other cities during the Super Bowl, the World Cup or the Olympics — with a standard room at the Château Laurier now going for $900 a night.
Of the 22 downtown hotels analyzed by Centretown News and iPolitics, only five showed any availability for a four-night stay for two guests from Thursday, June 29 to Monday, July 3—and the average rate for a standard room at those properties was a jaw-dropping $610 per night. The data was collected by visiting each hotel’s respective website and submitting a reservation form. The prices are listed in Canadian dollars and do not include applicable taxes and fees.
The quintet of hotels with rooms still up for grabs for Canada 150 is demanding a premium for those beds. The least expensive option was the Courtyard Marriott, located in the heart of the Byward Market, for a nightly rate of $379 – a staggering 120 per cent price increase from the previous week. The Fairmont Château Laurier — the capital’s landmark, century-old postcard star and the best situated for the celebrations, being right next to Parliament Hill — took the prize for the priciest selection. A basic room at the Château is listed for a whopping $900 per night – nearly two-and-a-half times the rate of $389 per night it’s charging the weekend prior.
The newest entrant to Ottawa’s hotel scene, the just-opened Andaz by Hyatt Ottawa Byward Market – billed as a luxurious, boutique property – is also demanding a pretty penny from guests. The cheapest room there is going for a cool $715 per night. Rounding out the list are the Delta Ottawa City Centre and the Ottawa Marriott, a pair of brands owned by the same company – Marriott International. The price tags for bottom-tier rooms at those locations are $569 and $489 per night respectively.
“Canada Day doesn’t usually sell out a year in advance, but there’s definitely hype and excitement around being in Ottawa for the celebration,” says Steve Ball, the president of the Ottawa-Gatineau Hotel Association.
But does the buzz justify the sky-high rates? And where might average Canadians – possibly lured to the capital by taxpayer-subsidized marketing campaigns touting Canada 150 as a patriot’s ultimate vacation – be expected to stay?
The Department of Canadian Heritage, which is responsible for organizing the $215-million extravaganza in Ottawa and other communities across the country, says it’s aware of “accommodation constraints” and is closely monitoring the situation.
Ball says he understands the current prices may be out of reach for the vast majority of Canadians, but maintains it’s a predictable market response to such a major spectacle.
“We call it ‘compression’, which is typical of any big event. It pushes a lot of visitors to the next ring of hotels towards the west, east and south. That’s just how the industry works – the downtown core filled up first and earlier this year,” says Ball, who also serves as co-chair of the Ottawa 2017 bureau, which is responsible for creating activities to complement the national celebrations.
“I know there’s still availability at certain outlying hotels and in a city like Ottawa, that’s not the end of the world. It’s not like New York or L.A.”
The outlandish hotel prices may also serve to scare away two key demographics Ball’s group is trying to target — millennials and new Canadians. But he says Ottawa is serving up a yearlong, buzzworthy slate of experiences to entice those visitors to the capital — and keep hotel rooms full — throughout 2017, not just during the July 1 weekend.
Those events include the Red Bull Crashed Ice championship in March, the Juno Awards in April, the Grey Cup in November and a state-of-the-art, underground multimedia experience set inside one of the new stations being built for Ottawa’s LRT expansion – a show Ball describes as “Disney-like”.
“If you miss Canada Day, it doesn’t mean you’ve missed the opportunity to celebrate our 150th anniversary in your capital,” Ball says. “There are lots of other opportunities to do that. The big party goes all year long, not just one day.”
According to internal research conducted by Ottawa 2017, as many as 80 per cent of Canadians expressed a desire to celebrate their country’s 150th birthday in Ottawa. Many of those people will now have to adjust their expectations to the costly reality – particularly when it comes to staying in the heart of the capital for the biggest national celebration since the Centennial in 1967.
Produced in collaboration with iPolitics.ca