Hoteliers waiting for the Olympic party to kick in

TORONTO—The pace of hotel bookings for the Olympic games in Vancouver and Whistler is very slow, Beth Walters, Vancouver director for PKF Canada told the 10th Annual PKF Outlook Forum held at the Hyatt Toronto on King October 8. Seattle had positive pre-event bookings, and Beijing had the desire of the world, but while some people still think the Olympic party atmosphere will kick in, so far it’s not happening.

“VANOC [the Vancouver Organizing Committee] has let the first hotels in the [Fraser] Valley go,” Walters said. Blocks of meeting space are also being let go, and some of the major sponsors are reneging on their commitments.

Ticket sales show a large component of international interest, but it’s not just the main Olympic impetus, but also the post Olympic booking that the hotel industry is looking for.  

Vancouver Airport, YVR, is still projecting 200,000 extra visitors. Seatac, the Seattle-Tacoma airport, says early projections for domestic air traffic are 100,000-plus, a 4.5 per cent increase for February and March.

In Whistler, Olympic guests are displacing guests who would normally be there, since winter is one of their best markets. It’s not a peak time of year for Vancouver.

And while there will be rate increases, they’re not the kinds of rate increases seen elsewhere.  The majority of hotels have blocked off 70 per cent of rooms in certain weeks and 92 per cent in others.