In the darkest days of the pandemic, Kelowna hotels could barely allocate a room.
Fast forward to the domestic travel boom this month and guests are clamoring to pay up to $ 750 a night.
“Peak summer prices are nothing new in Kelowna,” said Natalie Corbett, president of the Kelowna Hotel Motel Association.
“But what is making it worse this summer is that the demand for hotel rooms is even greater as people are allowed to travel again and there is a labor shortage, which means that some hotels only have 60% of their rooms open, which in turn is supply and demand Restricts journeys. ” Increase prices.”
A standard hotel room in Kelowna this summer will cost up to $ 750 a night, given the travel boom and staff shortage. “Class =” img-responsive “src =” https://www.kelownanow.com/files/ files / images /Delta%20double%20queen%20room.JPG “style =” margin: 5px; “/>
At another hotel on the lake, The Eldorado, a room is $ 470 tonight, $ 658 on Friday, and $ 750 on Saturday, July 24th.
Even that is for a nice room with two queen beds, not a fancy suite.
“Winter prices (when COVID drove average hotel occupancy down to a tiny 20%) were around $ 100 a night,” said Corbett.
“Now nothing is under $ 300.”
Corbett is the Kelowna-based Director of Continuous Improvement for the eight Accent Inns and Hotel Zeds in BC, including one of each of the Kelowna brands.
Accent and Zed are cheaper, so you can get a room tonight for $ 311 and $ 348, respectively.
The nightly rate increases to $ 429 at Accent on Saturday and there is no availability for this weekend at Zed.
In fact, in Kelowna it is difficult to book a room for weekends, especially on the Saturday night of a long weekend.
The Kelowna Hotel Motel Association represents 31 properties with a total of 3,200 rooms.
Not all of these rooms are currently bookable, however, as some hotels do not open all rooms because they cannot hire enough staff to achieve full capacity.
“In Kelowna we have 100 rooms at Accent Inns and we have 54 rooms at Hotel Zed,” said Corbett.
“We all have our rooms open, but we are at the limit with the staff. I know of some hotels that may only have 60% of their rooms open because they don’t have the staff to serve them. Or maybe you will have all of your rooms open on Fridays and Saturdays, but will have to close your rooms during the week to make up for that. “
For now, most hotels are saving staff and continuing to follow the COVID-inspired limited service by foregoing daily cleaning in favor of a thorough cleaning between bookings.
Many hospitality workers have been laid off for a year, meaning some of them have moved on and found other jobs or may move away.
This corresponds to a labor shortage that cannot currently be filled.
“It is wonderful to see such an amazing return to travel,” said Corbett.
“But it comes with its challenges.”
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