Today I wanted to go around town and learn a little more about hotels near by. I set up a time to meet with an intern at Hotel Indigo and we showed each other our hotels. It was nice to see the difference between my environment compared to theirs. Hotel Indigo was lovely and it was great to get my own personal tour and learn about the history of the hotel. I had the chance to meet the sales team and other staff around the hotel.

Blaize Shaw, who is another public relations student and who is doing the same placement as I am but at Hotel Indigo, showed me some rooms, the fitness centre and the spa which was apart of another hotel. Hotel Indigo has other hotels attached in it so it made it a little confusing to get around but we managed. It was nice to be able to see a few hotels in one.

I got the chance to show The Lord Elgin as well and it was a good experience to teach someone about a hotel and its history… even though I am still learning. I enjoyed looking at other hotels and seeing the different between them all. It was a fun experience and was nice to catch up with a classmate.

Charities, non-profits and associations face unique challenges when booking hotels for meetings. As the Senior Sales Manager for the Lord Elgin Hotel, the question I get asked most by associations and non-profits organizations is how they can save money without compromising the success of their event. The answer is always the same; be flexible. The more a meeting planner knows about the busy and slow times for a hotel, the more they can tailor their event to fit into the slow periods. It’s all about supply and demand. By booking your conference into the slow periods, you will save enormous amounts of money.

So the next question is always “so when are the slow periods?” It’s not always what you think. For our hotel, the slowest period is the summer. As a downtown hotel, we rely primarily on business, government and association travel. Even though tourism travel goes up in the summer, it is not large enough to compensate for the drop in regular business-type travel. Organizations do less travel in the summer because their staff is on vacation. So, if you can plan your meeting July or August, we can offer you a lower rate.
But many organizations feel they can’t meet in summer for the same reason. So what’s next? If you can’t meet in summer, try to meet during the “shoulder months.” These are the months that aren’t as busy as the prime months but not as slow as the summer. Generally, the busiest months are May, June, September, October and November. That means January, February March, April, and December are slower. However, February can still be quite busy with Winterlude so which days you plan to stay are critical. Finally, at any time of the year, a city-wide conference can fill the downtown core for a short time and drive the rates through the roof. Just think about the NHL All-Star game scheduled for January 27/28-2012.

So just remember that off-season is best to save money with an understanding that at any time, a hotel might be sold out for special event. Be flexible with your dates. Ask your sales manager if there is any need periods that come with a discount. They will gladly share that information with you and you both will come out a winner.
Next blog will be about which days of the week can save you money as well.

Andrew Horsfield
Senior Sales Manager
Associations, Non-profits

Winterlude is just around the corner and I don’t know how everyone else feels about it but I love this time of year. Last year was my first time going to Winterlude and seeing it up-close. I never knew what it was really about or what happened at it, all I knew was there were neat ice sculptures and beavertails!

Last year my friends and I decided to go downtown and check it out and boy am I glad we did. We were shocked that there were so many sculptures and since we went at night we saw the fantastic lights. It was absolutely amazing and despite the cold we stayed far longer than we expected.

A few days later in photography class our teacher decided that we should go on a field trip to do an assignment on Winterlude. We went during the day to take photos and skate on the canal. That was the first time I saw The Lord Elgin Hotel and to be honest I thought it resembled a castle. I imagined that it was an upper class hotel and you had to be somebody big to be able to stay there…. It’s nice that I get the chance to have my placement here.

Winterlude has many events that bring the city together for the winter season. It makes families and friends spend time together, whether it be skating on the canal, eating beavertails, shopping or taking part in Winterlude, it’s amazing that Ottawa holds these events to keep everyone together and take part in community events. This is one reason why I love Ottawa. Ottawa always has something going on that brings tourists from around Canada to gather in our capital for one reason or another and most continuously return.

I would recommend checking out Winterlude this season because last year was amazing and I can feel this year will be even more excellent. From the Lord Elgin Hotel I can simply walk over the Confederation Park where the Ice Carving Competition is held…, which means each day I’m at my internship while Winterlude is going on I will be able to look out the window and keep everyone updated.

Keep updated with me on Twitter @lordelginhotel and like our Facebook page for more photos and posts with information on the hotel and Winterlude.

Hi, my name is Katrina Kamstra and I am an Algonquin College public relations student who will be doing a 7-week internship/placement at The Lord Elgin Hotel. I will be working on social media while at the hotel and I guess you could say I’m starting where Taylor Lachance left off last year. Taylor did an amazing job last year which mean big shoes to fill but I hope to keep up with her amazing work.

I had always passed The Lord Elgin hotel and the restaurant while walking downtown with friends or going to the Rideau Centre but I never had the chance to go inside or eat at the restaurant. I finally got my chance that’s for sure. My first impression was amazing! The hotel is beautiful and has a lot of history and character to it. My supervisor who is the Director of Sales and Marketing, Ann Meelker told me a lot about the hotel and showed me around. She even showed me the Starbucks that was attached! She introduced me to most staff and showed me a few of the rooms they offer. With the new mattresses and a flat screen TV’s they just replaced I wanted to curl up in bed and watch a movie….but I did my best to resist.

After meeting staff and touring the hotel we decided to go to Grill 41, which is the restaurant in the hotel. My first impression was that it looked very fancy and it would be out of my budget but I thought it would be nice to try it out anyways. They had an amazing lunch menu for Winterbites, which included a 3-course meal for only $15…Score! I had a beautiful ceaser salad for an appetizer and salmon for my main course and it was to die for. The salmon came with red peppers and cut potatoes and was served like you were in Paris… très excellent.

I knew The Lord Elgin was an upscale hotel but I wasn’t expecting to be blown away like this. I was so impressed with how friendly all the staff was in welcoming me to the hotel and making me feel at home for my first day.

I am very excited to be doing my placement at The Lord Elgin Hotel and I hope I can do as well as Taylor did last year.

The energy of summer is so palpable here at the Lord Elgin…one of the many reasons I love working here. Yesterday was the first day of summer and you can feel the excitement build around us daily as we approach Canada Day.
I am so pumped about this summer in particular!! This Thursday (June 23rd), Robert Plante is playing in Confederation Park to kick of what’s going to be an awesome Jazz Festival. Friday, the Ceremonial Guard do their inaugural march up to Parliament Hill and we always go out and cheer them on. They are young guys who do this for their summer job and I can’t help but think of my sons, who are about their age. It is such a fabulous tradition and for me, it signals the official kick off of our summer season.
And of course – the really big ‘shew’ – Canada Day, is just around the corner and this year promises to be an absolutely phenomenal day. Prince William and his lovely bride are arriving in Ottawa on June 30th and the city is preparing in earnest for this special visit – pulling out all the stops. We are serving up a wedding cake that is designed to look very similar to Kate and Will’s. We will serve up the cake and iced tea at 2pm to passersby. We will also be preparing some fabulous grilled fare – barbequing on our patio outside Grill 41. As is tradition, the Ceremonial Guard will march by at 9:30am and of course the Jazz Festival provides free concerts all day in Confederation Park. It’s going to be a crazy fun day, as the city is expecting to see double the usual number of people and our hotel will be bursting with guests. We have been full for some time!! I will be here serving up cake and wouldn’t miss it for the world.
This July marks our 70th birthday (July 19th) and I cannot think of a better way to celebrate!! We are named after Lord Elgin – who stays in touch with us regularly and visits occasionally; Winston Churchill visited in 1941, the year we were built. It is only fitting that Will and Kate visit on our 70th… great timing!!
Here’s to a great summer! Bring it on!

By- Taylor Lachance

Today marks my last week as a social media intern for the Lord Elgin Hotel. It’s very much a bittersweet ending, as I am excited to be finishing up my college degree but sad to leave the friends, experiences and memories I made during my time at the hotel.

Working with the sales team at the Lord Elgin was absolutely amazing. Each member brought something special towards the team, whether it was Shannon’s baked goods, Tessa’s warm smile, or Andrew’s theoretical passages on life. The team was like a big happy family, and they always made me feel like not only was I part of the team, but an employee too.

My daily routine at the hotel ranged from a number of tasks. I was of course in charge of the social media aspect, working with different social media tools, creating blog posts, posting videos and pictures, and establishing online connections with bloggers and professionals. I performed daily checks on hotel review sites, like Trip Advisor and Review Analysis. I also promoted the hotel’s restaurant, Grill 41, over social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

I also assisted my fellow coworkers when they needed a helping hand. I performed administration work, such as filing, writing email messages, and setting up meeting rooms for clients.

At the Lord Elgin, I always felt like part of the team. My first day of work, I was politely greeted by my fellow employers and department heads, and everyone was always eager to assist me when needed. I was always given lots of appealing work to do, and both my professional and personal skills improved immensely. I am now a stronger writer, more confident when presenting my work, and feel like I can truly succeed in my field of business.

Thank you sales team, department heads, restaurant team and the front desk employees. You have made my time here at the Lord Elgin one I will cherish for time to come.

By- Taylor Lachance

Spring has finally arrived in our capital, and you know what that means? Festivals, events and happenings galore! We here at the Lord Elgin are looking forward to the major launch of the festivals. The line-up for all the major festival are being announced, and what a summer it will be – Robert Plant, KD Lang, Elvis Costello and more…

Every year, our friends over at Ottawa Festivals throw a start up of the festivals shindig, in May. CEO’S, managers and other very important people are invited to the rather posh event. Last year I had the opportunity of volunteering for the party, and what an experience it was. The event featured food, beverages, entertainment of all sorts and speeches from local celebrities. You couldn’t ask for a better way to bring festival season to life.

My fellow employers at the hotel work closely with a few of the biggest festivals in Ottawa. Bluesfest, Jazz Festival, the Folk Festival and the Tulip Festival are our main partners this season.

Ottawa’s Bluesfest is the largest Blues festival in Canada, and attracts music lovers from all over the world. Artists from diverse genres make their way to Lebreton Flats to perform to fans, and of course the Bluesfest volunteers. Each year fans anticipate the launch of the line-up, which is due out later this month.

Ottawa’s Folk Festival is another main addition to the festivals. This not-for- profit, volunteer based event now run by Mark Monahan of Bluesfest, celebrates the creative side of dancers, artists, musicians, and storytellers at Hog’s Back Park in Ottawa. It’s sure to bring its own unique zest to our city this summer.

And last but not least, the one and only Tulip Festival. As a prestige partner, the Lord Elgin has a long-standing partnership with this festival. In it’s early years the founder of the Festival, Malak Karsh and Don Blakslee, the General Manager of the hotel at that time, worked together year after year locally and at international trade shows to promote the Tulip Festival as Ottawa’s biggest tourism event of the year. It continues to be known internationally as the main draw for Ottawa. 300,000 tulips will be on display at this festival! It’s a spectacle of nature’s you won’t want to miss.

Even if you don’t receive a handwritten invite to the launch of the festivals, you are welcome to take part in the events that each festival has in store. Whether you’re into flowers, volunteering or music: there’s something for everyone.

By-Taylor Lachance

Big things are happening for us down here at the Lord Elgin this April. Our partners, the Ottawa Convention Centre, have just hosted their grand opening of the newly renovated building. Ottawa’s Bluesfest, Folkfest, Capital Hoedown, and the Tulip Festival are all just around the corner. And, we cannot forget one of the highlight events of the century … we are proud to say the Royal couple are paying our city a visit!

I think it’s safe to say we are ecstatic about Kate and William coming to Canada. Our hotel is almost booked solid, the inquiries for this much anticipated visit are creating such excitement and demand for our Canada Day weekend. Everyone, including residents and out of towners, are making sure they get a room reserved for the festivities.

Down here on Elgin Street, we ourselves are getting involved in the celebrations! We are setting up a special wedding package for a ‘royal’ stay at the hotel and are also presenting our own giant wedding cake right on Elgin Street! We are secretly hoping the newlyweds stop by for a slice.

During their stay in Canada, the couple will be nothing but busy. On Canada Day, they will be visiting Parliament Hill, and say hello to our Governor General David Johnston. After departing from Ottawa, they have a few other stops in store. William and Kate will make their way to the Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island and Quebec.

Canadians everywhere are preparing themselves for the April 29th wedding and the special visit. The wedding is set to air at 3 A.M. Eastern time.

We are hoping the Royal pair enjoys their time here in Canada. We want them to enjoy everything our country has to offer- beautiful sights, lovely people, and of course, poutine.

By- Taylor Lachance

The day we have all been waiting for, has finally arrived folks. The brand new Ottawa Convention Centre is due to open its doors on April 13th. We have been watching out our windows with anticipation as they put the finishing touches on this remarkable building – so great to have exciting architecture such as this in our city!

The former Ottawa Congress Centre suited Ottawa’s needs in its early years, however Ottawa’s needs outgrew its capacity very quickly. The new centre will almost triple its hosting capacity, and draw delegates from all over the world to the nation’s capital. We are finally on the radar for those large conventions and can showcase our great city to groups that we could not accommodate before.

The centre will have four different levels and we hear the view from the top floor is sensational – overlooking the Rideau Canal with sensational views of the Parliament Buildings and downtown Ottawa. They also have turbo speed elevators to get you to your meeting in record time… they have not overlooked anything. They worked very hard to incorporate the latest in ‘green’ technologies and practices and will be a model for the rest of us to follow – kudos’ to them!!

We are so excited to finally have a world class facility on our doorstep! Let’s celebrate the opening together and let the new Convention Centre take us for a ride!

Every important monument or landmark is unique and treasured in its own way. Our canal is the largest outdoor skating rink in the world and we can proudly say we started the Beavertail craze.

Ottawa hotels are also up there on the landmark list, especially the Lord Elgin. And what makes this hotel so exclusive? Its two vital trademark pieces: the busts.

The busts of Lord and Lady Elgin (Governor General of British North America from 1847 – 1854) were shipped to the hotel from Lord Elgin in Scotland in 1941 on a warship as a gift. McKenzie King wrote in his letter to Lord Elgin in April 1941:

“I need not tell you that personally I experienced a feeling of real delight when I received your letter. The more I have thought of its generous proposal, and the singular appropriateness of such a gift, the greater has been my feeling of pleasure.”

The Lord Elgin busts sat in this hotel, as intended, from the time of the hotel’s opening in July 1941, until they were lent to the NCC in 2003 and remain there to this day. They were borrowed by the NCC for an exhibit, with the promise of returning them to the hotel, but were never returned. Instead, the NCC had replicas made that now stand in our lobby.

Everyone, including Lord Elgin himself, feel the busts should be returned to the hotel – their intended home. NCC maintains that Rideau Hall is a safer and more secure location where they will be viewed by many. Realistically, the traffic through the hotel far exceeds that through Rideau Hall. Our guests have loved hearing this story through the years. It is part of our identity – our history.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Bring back the busts, or have them stay at Rideau Hall?