Gearing up for Grey Cup? Expect to pay more for your hotel
As Grey Cup festival kicks off and fans begin to arrive, hotels are prepared for an onslaught of incoming visitors. But the high demand that the CFL final has created means room rates are going for a premium.
According to reservations.com, an on-line booking service, numerous hotels in the city are booked solid, including downtown locations like the Fairmont Winnipeg and Place Louis Riel. Even places around the airport are without rooms, like the Sandman Inn & Suites and The Victoria Inn.
But that weekend stay for the big game is going to cost you. Some premium rates are more than $250 higher than the rate for the following Saturday.
Kyne Hunt is the general manager at the Holiday Inn Downtown, which has been sold out for the last six months.
"The last couple of weeks have been kind of up and down, with a few people backing out of their reservations because of their team not getting in. But even those rooms were picked up very quickly as Edmonton and Ottawa got in," Hunt said.
Hunts says premium rates are standard during a big event.
"The same thing happened with FIFA [Women's World Cup] where the demand is very high. And so the hotels do raise the rates based on demand like they do across any hotel in any city."
As Grey Cup Festival gets underway, the Holiday Inn Downtown becomes ground zero for Calgary as "Stamps House." Hunt says fans are now checking in but Grey Cup fever is getting off to a slow start.
"I've been asked that actually by some of the tourists coming in, saying that they've noticed [many] banners put up even at the airport and that. So, the hope is that the hype grows over the next few days."
On Friday, the tradition of having the Stampeders' horse check into a hotel continues at the Holiday Inn Downtown. Hunt says guests are also getting gifts, such as Manitoba-only treats like Morden's Chocolates.
