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

[YOWflier]

A couple from today.

[AuxTown]

This is awesome! I remember like 15 years ago going to Halifax and thinking "how come they get an airport hotel?". It seems like something all "big cities" have. Looking forward to seeing this one completed.

Halifax YHZ Alt Hotel

[pattherat]

Originally Posted by YOWflier

A couple from today.

Awesome, thanks for providing another angle!

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

This is awesome! I remember like 15 years ago going to Halifax and thinking "how come they get an airport hotel?". It seems like something all "big cities" have. Looking forward to seeing this one completed.

Halifax YHZ Alt Hotel

Not that it's substantially different from the one at YHZ, but that's the Alt Hotel at Toronto Pearson (notice the GTAA logo on the AirTrain station at the bottom right).

Oddly enough, while the YOW and YHZ Alt Hotels feature direct ped bridges from the hotels to their respective airport terminals, the one at YYZ does not. It's adjacent, but not directly connected to, an AirTrain station (the bridge you see in the photo you posted connects the station to a parking garage).

Side note - having stayed at the YYZ Alt Hotel on an overnight layover many years ago, I can tell you the location is possibly one of the most depressing environments I've found myself in in my life. I'll give it some grace because there's only so much you can expect of a major airport, but have a look for yourself. The fact that I was there in January didn't help either - nothing but grey skies, and slushy, mucky parking lots, highway ramps and warehouses for as far as the eye could see. Didn't even get any apron views as is usually a consolation for airport hotels.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by pattherat

Ignore please, I see a bunch on the first page of this thread.

New question: are there any renderings of the pedway design that will be connected tot the airport or parking structure?

Note that the renderings on the first page are no longer accurate. After Council rejected the CIP application (after approving the CIP program less than a year earlier), Germain and YOW had to dumb down the design and remove the top floor banquet, so we have a dumbed down design.

Original design:



Value engineered design:

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

Not that it's substantially different from the one at YHZ, but that's the Alt Hotel at Toronto Pearson (notice the GTAA logo on the AirTrain station at the bottom right).

Oddly enough, while the YOW and YHZ Alt Hotels feature direct ped bridges from the hotels to their respective airport terminals, the one at YYZ does not. It's adjacent, but not directly connected to, an AirTrain station (the bridge you see in the photo you posted connects the station to a parking garage).

Side note - having stayed at the YYZ Alt Hotel on an overnight layover many years ago, I can tell you the location is possibly one of the most depressing environments I've found myself in in my life. I'll give it some grace because there's only so much you can expect of a major airport, but have a look for yourself. The fact that I was there in January didn't help either - nothing but grey skies, and slushy, mucky parking lots, highway ramps and warehouses for as far as the eye could see. Didn't even get any apron views as is usually a consolation for airport hotels.

There are no airport hotels with particularly nice environments. Airports and their surroundings are depressing by nature unless the airport happens to be right Downtown with a skyline or waterfront view.

I've said it before, but I wish Line 4 had kept its original Airport Station location in the parking garage to preserve the possibility of a Line 4 loop back to South Keys, adding more stops at parking lots and other hotels.

[pattherat]

Is there still a connected pedway then?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by pattherat

Is there still a connected pedway then?

The hotel has a pedway to the parking garage which has a pedway to the airport terminal, so guests can walk between the two without being exposed to the elements. Unclear how the path within the parking garage will be improved for hotel guests.

[OTownandDown]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

Side note - having stayed at the YYZ Alt Hotel on an overnight layover many years ago, I can tell you the location is possibly one of the most depressing environments I've found myself in in my life. I'll give it some grace because there's only so much you can expect of a major airport, but have a look for yourself. The fact that I was there in January didn't help either - nothing but grey skies, and slushy, mucky parking lots, highway ramps and warehouses for as far as the eye could see. Didn't even get any apron views as is usually a consolation for airport hotels.

I mean, is any airport hotel nice ever? ALL of the s*tty YYZ hotels in that hellhole of a monster off-ramp for the highway is as bad as it gets. You get to sleep, wake up, jump in a rickety sheet metal van and blast around ramps to get to your gate at a godawful time in the morning. Staff don't care, people are there just for like 8 hours, they're pissed off, hours are weird, food is worse. Blech. It's not like a vacation destination.

I'm surprised that the six hotels within a 4 minute drive weren't enough: two hotels that already exist at the end of the runway, the three at the Park'n'Fly, and the one at the end of Paul Benoit Way.

[AuxTown]

Originally Posted by OTownandDown

I'm surprised that the six hotels within a 4 minute drive weren't enough: two hotels that already exist at the end of the runway, the three at the Park'n'Fly, and the one at the end of Paul Benoit Way.

I suspect with all of our new (and coming) Porter flights combined with two transatlantic flights now make this justified. We will see more people using Ottawa as a connection than ever. I wonder if we could ever justify a flight to Africa or India??Would increase our traffic from all over NA and take some pressure off of some of the bigger hubs.

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by OTownandDown

I mean, is any airport hotel nice ever? ALL of the s*tty YYZ hotels in that hellhole of a monster off-ramp for the highway is as bad as it gets. You get to sleep, wake up, jump in a rickety sheet metal van and blast around ramps to get to your gate at a godawful time in the morning. Staff don't care, people are there just for like 8 hours, they're pissed off, hours are weird, food is worse. Blech. It's not like a vacation destination.

I'm surprised that the six hotels within a 4 minute drive weren't enough: two hotels that already exist at the end of the runway, the three at the Park'n'Fly, and the one at the end of Paul Benoit Way.

| I mean, is any airport hotel nice ever?

In my opinion, folks will pay a premium for a terminal connected airport. This means you don't have to rely on any transportation service to get you to/from the airport. The timeline decisions are all in your hands.

In July I stayed at the Sheraton YYZ in-terminal airport and even thought I didn't arrive until after 21:00 and had to leave by 08:00, it was 100% worth the premium cost of being attached to the terminal.

Also, you might get some avgeeks booking the "terminal views" just because.

I also stayed at the Alt Hotel in YHZ back in 2019 when my connection (YYT-YHZ-YOW) went tech and it was very nice and convenient.

I think the Alt YOW will be placed in an "upper mid scale" above the Days Inn, Holiday Inn, and Hampton Inn on Hunt Club for example.

[HighwayStar]

Originally Posted by MountainView

|

I think I've stayed in exactly that room at YYZ Sheraton

[OTSkyline]

Airport hotels are also incredibly useful for connecting flights with long or overnight layovers.

As example, we were recently looking at options to fly to Hawaii from Ottawa. Options leaving on Saturday were sporadic and more expensive whereas there was an option to Vancouver (leaving at 6pm arriving around 9:30) and then leaving for Hawaii the next morning at 8am. Better timing for us, get there earlier, and cheaper (or same price when considering the price of hotel), but it was our preferred option. With that being said, we didn't want to take the skytrain in the city etc.. so an airport hotel exactly solves this problem.

More connections through YOW will make this hotel more and more valuable.

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by MountainView

| I mean, is any airport hotel nice ever?

In my opinion, folks will pay a premium for a terminal connected airport. This means you don't have to rely on any transportation service to get you to/from the airport. The timeline decisions are all in your hands.

In July I stayed at the Sheraton YYZ in-terminal airport and even thought I didn't arrive until after 21:00 and had to leave by 08:00, it was 100% worth the premium cost of being attached to the terminal.

Also, you might get some avgeeks booking the "terminal views" just because.

I also stayed at the Alt Hotel in YHZ back in 2019 when my connection (YYT-YHZ-YOW) went tech and it was very nice and convenient.

I think the Alt YOW will be placed in an "upper mid scale" above the Days Inn, Holiday Inn, and Hampton Inn on Hunt Club for example.

Have stayed at some of those YYZ airport hotels on the strip. Not the best. Much better option to stay at the Sheraton in T3. Did stay at the YHZ ALT this August. It was a great experience. The convenience of the covered walkway into the terminal cannot be beat. The room was stylish and the food in the hotel's restaurant was quite good.

[J.OT13]

Hoping that they're building the hotel in a way that the glassed in top floor banquet hall can be added on later, and that the hotel does well enough to justify the expansion sooner rather than later.

[Tariq20]

crane taken down

[J.OT13]

From thenewguy on Skyrise earlier this month.


https://ottawa.skyrisecities.com/forum/t...-lemaymichaud-architecture-design.37633/

[SL123]

Ok!! that surprisingly looks pretty good actually.

[rocketphish]

Ottawa Airport eyes expansion as YOW becomes ‘more of a hub’: CEO

David Sali, OBJ
May 8, 2025

<snip>

In other news, the airport said the 178-room Alt Hotel that is connected to the terminal building is on track for completion by the end of this year.

<snip>

https://obj.ca/ottawa-airport-eyes-expansion/

[SL123]

The Bridge between parking garage ad Hotel is now up

[rocketphish]

Alt Hotel Ottawa Airport to open next year with construction complete by end of 2025

Mia Jensen, OBJ
September 23, 2025

Group Germain Hotels’ new hotel at the Ottawa International Airport is on track to be completed by the end of the year, a company spokesperson told OBJ on Monday.

“The project is moving along very well and is now in its final phase,” spokesperson France Savard said in an email to OBJ. “We are still aiming to deliver the building by the end of the year, and we look forward to opening the hotel as soon as possible afterwards. We will be pleased to share an official opening date once it is confirmed.”

According to the company’s website, the Alt Hotel Ottawa Airport, which will be attached to the airport terminal, will have seven storeys and 180 rooms. In 2023, the company said the project would cost an estimated $55 million.

Last week, the Alt Hotel announced on its Instagram page that booking for the hotel is now available, with opening expected in 2026.

The new hotel, which will operate under the Alt banner, will be the company’s third property in the Ottawa area after its Alt Hotel on Slater Street and the recently opened Le Germain at the redeveloped Arts Court complex near the Rideau Centre.

It will be the third airport location for Group Germain Hotels, which also runs Alt-branded properties at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. Similar to the buildings in Toronto and Halifax, the Ottawa hotel will offer direct entry to the terminal through an indoor skywalk.

“For us it’s extremely important because it’s a nice way to differentiate ourselves, to be able to have our guests stay in the hotel and basically pack their stuff and literally go to their plane in winter in their flip-flops and their shorts,” Hugo Germain, the family-owned firm’s director of development, told OBJ in 2023.

“For us to be able to be connected to a terminal like this is really a unique opportunity. Each airport probably has one terminal hotel, and after that usually it’s not something they develop anymore.”

Group Germain announced plans to build the hotel in early 2019 and initially hoped to complete the project by the end of the following year. However, the pandemic delayed construction.

As passenger volumes approach pre-pandemic levels, efforts are underway to increase the airport’s capacity. In addition to new international routes from Air Canada and Air France, as well as a push by Porter Airlines to grow its Ottawa presence, the airport has been working on a number of projects to expand its footprint and become “more of a hub,” airport authority president and CEO Susan Margles told OBJ last May.

Earlier this year, the airport’s LRT station opened, connecting passengers to the transit system via Line 4, a spur to the airport, which branches off from the re-opened and extended north-south Line 2 from South Keys station.

On the concession front, Starbucks reopened earlier this year. The existing D’Arcy McGee’s Irish Pub, located across from Starbucks, will be demolished to make way for a new Zak’s Diner.

With files from David Sali

https://obj.ca/alt-hotel-ottawa-airport-next-year-complete-end-of-2025/