YOW Alt Hotel [1085 Airport Pkwy] | ?m | 7f | Completed

[Jay31]

As a recovering (just getting back at it post pandemic) frequent business traveller, I can understand the desire for a hotel at the airport that is directly connected to the terminal. This hotel would be a major step above the two existing ones - which are far enough from the airport that you'd need a shuttle or Uber/taxi to get to the terminal.

The fact that most routes out of Ottawa involve a connection at another airport means that 6am flights tend to be packed with people making such connections in YYZ/YUL/EWR/etc. Ottawa's airport serves a wide radius up the Ottawa Valley, south to Kingston and well into Quebec, and for people making an hour or more drive, it would make sense to overnight at such a hotel, and this one will be much more desirable.

Should tax payer money be used to subsidize it? You could reasonably argue that this would be a major upgrade for Ottawa's airport that may help encourage additional traffic and economic activity... particularly more US routes. I'm not sure how you'd quantify it though. I think this would be a better investment than the airport parkway updates which I don't understand (never encountered much traffic on that road).