General Hotel News

[Harley613]

I guess that horrific ridiculously depressing charcoal paint job on the red brick of the ol' Capital Hill Hotel & Suites couldn't save it

[OTSkyline]

I have a boss who lives in Toronto and would always stay the Sonders while visiting. With the sudden closure of 3 hotels in Ottawa, it makes the hotel supply that much tighter. The next couple of weeks, many of the hotels downtown had now skyrocketed to $400-$700/night!

[J.OT13]

That hotel had a cool "rough mid-century" charm before the horrible paint job. Any plans for this one, or is it just abandoned? If so, such a waste considering the homeless crisis.

Other than this one and Sonder, what's the third that we lost?

Rimap should be replenishing the hotel stock with the recently opened AC, the Moxy and Renaissance. Of course those are all a few steps up from the ones we lost. We'll also get the Airport ALT.

Hoping Lansdowne gets a hotel component (the only thing that could actually add something new to this half billion plan) and CF proposes a hotel over the parking garage soon. Otherwise, the Sens will surely build a decently large hotel at LeBreton, and Brigil if they get approval for their Laurier (in Hull) proposal.

[J.OT13]

Just noticed the article rocketphish posted on the previous page. For one, didn't realize the old Capitol Hill was a Sonder. I knew the Sonder on Laurier closed for conversion to residential. Had no idea we had four of these at one point.

[rocketphish]

We go behind the scenes of Ottawa’s increasingly competitive hotel industry
With more players coming into the city, renos are key to attracting guests

Mia Jensen, OBJ
November 17, 2025

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of downtown Ottawa, the lobby of the Marriott Hotel on Kent Street is calm and quiet. Guests who pass through the rotating front door would have no idea that, behind the scenes, an overhaul of the entire building is underway. “It’s almost like showbiz,” said general manager Colin Morrison. “It’s the duck on the water: serene on top and paddling like hell below.” The Ottawa Marriott is one of many hotels across the city, including in the downtown, undergoing a major renovation to bring rooms and common areas in line with modern tastes and needs. Hotels regularly renovate to manage wear and tear, but every 12 to 15 years a full overhaul of rooms and public spaces is needed to keep up with changing trends, said Steve Ball, president of the Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association.

But, he told OBJ, it’s unusual to see so many hotels undertaking full renovations at once. “What the pandemic did do, is it delayed a lot of renovations that hotels had planned to do,” he explained. “They got delayed primarily because there were two years of very low occupancy, low revenue flow. So what we’re seeing now is a lot of those delayed, planned renovations starting to come into effect.” Each hotel renovation is different, Ball said, heavily influenced by brand identity, unique building and location factors, and the target guest base. But some trends are seen more widely, such as the move from carpeted floors to hardwood and a preference for cleaner, more modern lines.

“It’s not unlike businesses and restaurants,” he said. “Very few restaurants stay the same for 25 or 30 years. They update themselves or change their menu offering to stay relevant.” Now more than ever, he said it’s important for Ottawa’s older hotels to find ways to stay relevant. Over the next several years, he said, the city can expect an influx of new hotels, stirring up competition for customers. This year saw the opening of two new hotels: the AC Hotel by Marriott on Rideau Street, and the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel. The Alt Hotel Ottawa Airport and the Moxy Hotel Ottawa in the ByWard Market are also in the works and expected to open in early 2026. “A hotel makes a living based on their occupancy numbers, how full they are, but also what they can command as a room rate,” said Ball. “That’s driven by supply and demand. And we’ve got some great new brands coming. They’re going to attract interest from the travelling public. So (hotels) are absolutely correct to ensure that their product is something somebody wants to stay in. They have to stay in the game.” At the Kent Street Marriott, competitors new and old are always top of mind. “The Moxy, the AC, the Westin, the Delta — they’re all Marriott brands,” said Morrison. “We are absolutely in competition with all of them and we’re competing for the same customer. We are in a fortunate situation in Ottawa. While we are all fierce competitors, we all get along. So we know what’s going on in other properties and they’ve got a good idea of what’s going on with us.” But despite the camaraderie, he said there’s a certain peer pressure when it comes to upgrades. When shiny new hotels enter the market, he said that’s when an established hotel must get to work. And if one competitor decides it’s time for an update, others might follow. In his case, Morrison said the goal is to complete renovations as quickly as possible, not only to keep up with new entrants, but to pull ahead as the rest of the pack makes changes of their own. “If we’re first to the line with a renovated product, that will benefit us,” he said.

How to renovate a hotel from top to bottom

If you’ve ever renovated a kitchen or bathroom in your home, think of the logistical challenges and multiply them by 500. That’s what it’s like to renovate a hotel, according to Morrison.

“You’re only inconveniencing yourself when you’re doing your own bathroom,” he said. “In our case, we’re inconveniencing around 500 rooms worth of potential guests every day for the entire period that the renovation is happening.” Work began on the project at the beginning of this year, when Morrison said one floor was closed off to test the new designs. Once those were finalized, the work of flipping every room on site began over the summer.

The hope, Morrison said, is to have the rooms completed by mid-summer 2026. After that, the lobby, restaurant and other common areas will be closed to the public one at a time to be updated as well. Morrison said there is no timeline for that part of the project yet. “We want to get it done as quickly as possible,” he said. “You could equate it to getting your car repaired. You need to do it, but during that period of time where you don’t have your car, it hurts. But it’s something that we need to do and we will look to get that completed as quickly as possible.”

In total, the teams working on the Marriott renovations need four weeks to remove furniture, demolish, replace fixtures and lighting, install new flooring, paint walls, move in new furniture and accessorize the space with decor and artwork. Then, housekeeping must come in to wipe the dust away and lay out fresh linens for the first guests who will occupy the room just days after the work is complete.

At this point in the renovations, multiple floors are at different stages of the process and a few are already complete. Each team, from the demolition crew to the movers, works on two floors at a time with a buffer floor to minimize noise for guests.

“It’s a fair bit of coordination to ensure that no reservations are staying around those particular dates,” said Morrison. “We have alerted all our guests that there will be noise between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and we run the crews from Sunday through Friday.” But when you’re 25 storeys in the air, bathtubs and debris can’t be thrown out a window into a waiting dumpster. So some work, Morrison said, must take place under the cover of night.

“The challenge is removing all that material while we are still operating a hotel,” he said. “The elevators are in use during the day for housekeeping, for linen delivery and all other staff functions. So at night, they’re being used to remove all that rubble and waste to be taken down to the bins in our loading dock. The whole idea is that guests shouldn’t know that it’s happening.” Another factor to consider is what to do with the old furniture.

“This is my 22nd hotel that I’ve either renovated or opened, and it is a common problem for all properties,” said Morrison. “What do you do with all this perfectly good furniture when you no longer need it?” With so many hotels gearing up for renovations, the Ottawa Gatineau Hotel Association began running a furniture rescue program to donate items back into the community.

Ball said most of the items that are still in good condition will be used in community, immigrant and supportive housing projects across the city. It’s a logistics challenge of its own, to remove and store the furniture for future use. To handle the volume of items about to come in, Ball said the association is working with the local branch of moving company AMJ Campbell.

“It’s an incredible advancement,” said Morrison. “There is no benefit to anybody having it go to waste and it’s always difficult to find people who will take it. Organizations are looking for furniture for new housing, they don’t have the budget for it, and we have furniture. And it’s not Ikea furniture. It is well-built and sturdy.”

What do guests really want?

When it comes to guest needs, Morrison said not much has changed.

The business and political guests that frequent the Kent Street Marriott are still looking for in-room desk space and high-speed wifi, and other tech items like the televisions that have already been updated. In the conference rooms, the main change will be upgrading audio-visual equipment to accommodate the uptick in virtual attendees since the pandemic.

The rest is cosmetic. For the design of its downtown hotel, Morrison said Marriott used curving blue and green patterns, as well as rounded brass fixtures, all inspired by Ottawa’s waterways.

When the competition is stiff, Morrison said the little details can make a big difference.

“Even under the Marriott umbrella and that spectrum of properties, members have their favourites,” he said. “They will go for the brand or style that they prefer, so there’s a competition within for guests. I like the curling analogy. We’re fierce competitors on the ice, but we’ll all sit around and have a beer afterwards. We’re here to be of service to others and to make them comfortable in their home away from home.”

https://obj.ca/behind-scenes-ottawa-increase-competitive-hotel-industry/

[FutureWickedCity]

Can someone please post the content of the article for those of us who are paywalled?

[Ottawacurious]

Originally Posted by FutureWickedCity

Can someone please post the content of the article for those of us who are paywalled?

Hit the "show" above the link and it'll show the article text.

[J.OT13]

The Marriott's earth-toned pre-cast has been painted dark grey. According to hoggytime on Skyrise, the saucer (bands above and below the windows) has been painted burgundy and the mechanical penthouse reclad in silver/white panels.

[J.OT13]

hoggytime posted the Marriott's new look.

Before:



After:



https://ottawa.skyrisecities.com/forum/threads/general-update-rumour-thread.37271/page-12

[YOWflier]

Is the saucer used for anything anymore? I’d love to see the revolving dining room return.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by YOWflier

Is the saucer used for anything anymore? I’d love to see the revolving dining room return.

It's an event space, and still revolves. It's called the "Summit Revolving Room".



https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/yowmc-ottawa-marriott-hotel/events/meetings-and-events/

[phil235]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

The Marriott's earth-toned pre-cast has been painted dark grey. According to hoggytime on Skyrise, the saucer (bands above and below the windows) has been painted burgundy and the mechanical penthouse reclad in silver/white panels.

I walk by this literally every day and noticed none of this.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by phil235

I walk by this literally every day and noticed none of this.

I had noticed the painted pre-cast. A month or two ago, I noticed the burgundy on the saucer, but thought the cladding was off and steel exposed.

Never noticed the new cladding at the top, which is really quite different from what was there before.

[rocketphish]

U.S. hospitality businesses eyeing takeover of nearly 1,000 Sonder units across Canada

Mariya Postelnyak, The Globe and Mail
Nov 24, 2025

After the abrupt collapse of short-term rental company Sonder, the race has begun to take over nearly 1,000 of its units in Canada and get former staff working again.

Once valued at nearly US$2-billion and seen as a rival to Airbnb Inc., Canadian-founded Sonder promised the comforts of an apartment with the consistency of a hotel suite.

It folded earlier this month shortly after Marriott International Inc. suddenly ended its licensing deal with the company. Sonder then filed for bankruptcy after more than a decade in business, with a trail of court filings that hinted at years of financial strain.

Two U.S.-based companies, Kasa, Inc. and Lark, told The Globe and Mail they’re each actively pursuing opportunities to take over the management of Sonder units in various cities across Canada. Collectively, the two companies have already taken over about a dozen such sites across North America, but it would be their first foray into the management of properties in the Canadian market.

Roman Pedan, founder and chief executive officer of Kasa, said he’s been in talks with former Sonder landlords in Toronto and Montreal. While he declined to comment on the status of any potential deals, Mr. Pedan said he could reopen the units in as little as two weeks once a deal is signed.

“They kind of fit like a glove,” said Mr. Pedan of the compatibility between Sonder and Kasa properties. His business spans 85 short-term rental and boutique hotel properties across the U.S. that closely resemble the defunct units in terms of style, setup and self-serve check-in.

The goal is to repurpose as much from the existing property as possible and re-employ many of the former staff, said Mr. Pedan. “They know the property really well. They really care.”

Sharing Sonder’s digital-first operations and suite setup – lock systems, WiFi, room layout – helps Kasa speed up the transition process. But that’s where the similarities largely end.

Before its shutdown, Sonder employed a lease arbitrage model, which involved signing long-term rental agreements with owners before renovating and renting out the space. Kasa operates through management agreements, taking over day-to-day operations rather than leasing the properties themselves.

“It avoids the mismatch of fixed obligations and volatile demands,” said Mr. Pedan. As he sees it, the lease arbitrage model is “a weapon of financial destruction for companies.”

Selina and WeWork are just two examples of businesses that employed the model and filed for bankruptcy in the last five years.

Robert Blood, founder and chair at hospitality company Lark, said he is currently pursuing negotiations for Sonder units in the Vancouver area and has reached out to some property owners in Toronto and Montreal.

Similarly to Kasa, Lark offers third-party hotel management with independently branded properties. It operates about 75 properties across North America.

Mr. Blood’s team is also looking to re-employ former Sonder staff.

Lark has already transitioned one Sonder property in Cambridge, Mass., since the company’s collapse, and had earlier done so with a property in Mexico City.

But locating and connecting with owners amid bankruptcy proceedings has been a challenge, said Mr. Blood.

And not everyone is thrilled about the possibility of any new hospitality tenants taking over Sonder properties.

“Ideally, we would want these units to become part of non-market rentals, which would help the over 92,000 people on the waitlist for affordable, social housing in the City of Toronto,” said Yaroslava Montenegro, executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations.

With the fall of Sonder, “all levels of government should have jumped at the opportunity to acquire these rental units,” she said.

Mr. Pedan said he understands why people raise concerns around housing. But, he said, short-term rentals have “become a convenient scapegoat for a problem they simply don’t cause.”

Furnished and flexible rentals house travelling nurses, workers on corporate rotations and “thousands of others who don’t fit the traditional 12-month-lease mould,” said Mr. Pedan, adding that the stays generate taxes and fund city services.

While he is eager to launch his business in Canada, he said Kasa will only do so under the right circumstances.

Reopening a Sonder property involves securing new licences and clearing regulatory hurdles and, in Canada, there are additional language and legal requirements as well as currency considerations. But Mr. Pedan said these were “minor blockers.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business...own-us-hospitality-businesses-kasa-lark/

[J.OT13]

Some new architectural lighting on the Marriott. The top of the main tower and under the saucer.

I'd like some lighting on top as well, but I imagine the NCC's lighting guidelines don't allow for that.

[rocketphish]

The Holiday Inn Express hotel at 2055 Robertson Rd in Bells Corners, a six-storey hotel with 115 rooms, has filed a SPC application to construct a six-storey addition at the back of the existing hotel, adding 30 new guestrooms and 1,319.53 square metres of gross floor area (GFA), and proposing a total of 108 parking spaces.

https://devapps.ottawa.ca/en/applications/D07-12-25-0176/details

[Richard Eade]

Well, you know that EVERYONE wants to stay in Bells Corners. Besides the Holiday Inn Express & Suites which is expanding, there is a Best Western Plus, a Days Inn by Wyndham, and a relatively new Hyatt Place. I suspect that the Holiday Inn Express & Suites is just trying to capture the Biker Crowd that used to stop at the old Bel-Air Motel across the street (which, apparently, is now fully-booked emergency housing for the City of Ottawa – so, yes, there are places outside of downtown).

[rocketphish]

Ottawa outperformed other Canadian cities with hotel occupancy at 70% in 2025: report

Mia Jensen, OBJ
March 11, 2026

A strong winter season gave Ottawa the highest boost in hotel occupancy of any major Canadian city last year, according to a new report from Avison Young.

The report, which reviewed hotel industry performance in 2025 and provided predictions for 2026, found that the occupancy rate in the Ottawa-Gatineau region rose to 70.6 per cent, a 2.3 per cent increase year-over-year.

“Ottawa, of the major markets we’ve identified in our report, was the strongest in terms of occupancy growth, hitting that 70 per cent level,” Curtis Gallagher, partner and Canadian hospitality lead for Avison Young, told OBJ on Tuesday.

The Canadian average was 66.1 per cent occupancy, a 0.7 per cent increase year-over-year.

The occupancy bump in 2025, according to Gallagher, represented a continued slow return from record lows in the hospitality sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Ottawa, he said the factors that have always made the city a successful tourism destination have now fully or almost fully recovered.

<more>

https://obj.ca/ottawa-outperformed-other-cities-hotel-occupancy-report/

[J.OT13]

Laurier Sonder Hotel is now apartments. Can't really see any difference from the exterior.

[OTSkyline]

Speaking of hotels I saw a few posts online saying the Moxy in the Byward Market is supposed to open in June 2026 (in the coming weeks).