Ottawa hotels set to sell out for Grey Cup weekend

With one month to go before the Grey Cup gamein Ottawa, local hotelierssay they're well on their way to a sellout for the Canadian Football League championship weekend.

"It's going to be a terrific week for us," said Steve Ball, president of the Ottawa-GatineauHotel Association. "Reservations so far have met all of our expectations."

Ball said while his association does not track data on existing bookings and occupancy ratesthat would present a problem in the eyes of the Competition Bureau he's hearing on the street that bookings are strong, andhotels are expected to befull for the weekend of Nov. 25-26.

CBC Ottawa contacted several hotels in downtown Ottawa Wednesday to inquire about occupancy rates.

AnnMeelker, director of director of sales and marketing at the Lord Elgin Hotel, said the hotel is sitting at 90per cent occupancy for the weekend.

"There's been lots of pickup. We expect we'll be full," Meelker said.

Nearing capacity

Over at theCapitalHill Hotel and Suites on Albert Street, general managerHume Rogers said his hotel is also 90-per-cent booked for theGrey Cup.

"It's much busier compared to this time last year, when we were at 70per cent occupancy," Rogers said.

As of Wednesday fewer than 500 tickets remained for the Grey Cup, which will be playedat a TD Place reconfigured to accommodate35,000 spectators.

The event comes near the end ofa busy 2017 inOttawa, as the city hosted several bigevents to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary.

"It's a terrific bookend," Ball said. "We started with Crashed Ice, we're ending with the NHL Classic."

Bookings for NHLClassic lagging

TheNational Hockey League's 100 Classicwill see the Ottawa Senators play the Montreal Canadiens to commemorate the league's opening night in 1917.

The game will be played on a temporary ice surface on the field of TD Place Dec.16, also in front of an anticipatedcrowd of 35,000.

But the NHL 100 Classicdoesn't seem to be the same draw for out-of-towners as the Grey Cup at least not yet.

"We're not seeing the pickup we expected, so we're adjusting our rates accordingly [for the NHL 100 Classic]," Meelkersaid.

"The Winter Classic weekend is not quite as strong as Grey Cup weekend," said Rogers. "But we think it will be as we get closer."