I will get my friends to open up their homes but only the ones not fearful of a stranger dying to attend the celebrations. Guests get such a bad rap when in almost 2 1/2 years (OMG has it been that long?), I have only had one booking from hell and one potential booking, which I blew off, and all the other guests have been darned near perfect; some were indeed perfect.
2017, this year's 150th anniversary and events are starting to go crazy here in Ottawa. Sure, there’s Winterlude
starting shortly; everyone has heard about that, and the Gatineau Winter Beerfest, the Canadian ski Marathon,
The TD Ottawa Winter Jazz Festival, the Winter Brewfest, skating the Rideau Canal,
if it ever freezes and let’s not forget
Valentine’s day coming up. Before you
know it, we’ll be hauling out the tulips for the world famous Ottawa Tulip
festival. I can't even keep up with all that's going on in the capital. Ottawa tourism does a good job since there are so many festival and events and show stoppers to wow us. Check it out at www.ottawatourism.ca.
If you do check out Ottawa Tourism, you could also find my listing but I find it difficult to navigate but maybe I'm not so intuitive. You have to click on Stay, at the top, then Accommodation Members, then scroll down to find B&Bs, that's assuming you haven't lost complete interest by then.
If you do check out Ottawa Tourism, you could also find my listing but I find it difficult to navigate but maybe I'm not so intuitive. You have to click on Stay, at the top, then Accommodation Members, then scroll down to find B&Bs, that's assuming you haven't lost complete interest by then.
I rather suspect that most of this year will be almost
impossible to book reservations. Lucky
for me, I am in a quieter suburb and
often have at least one room available but I’m not sure that I will have that
claim to fame for long. Yesterday, the once silent phone started to ring off the hook. Ok, twice, but that's how the season starts. Once the rooms
and suites are all booked up, and downtown makes their coveted rooms
$400/night, my $117 in the Romance room, with a full breakfast, the possibility
of a massage or upgrade to a Romance Package and the ultimate of pampering will
look pretty.damn.good.
The late comers
and procrastinators will be booking in Gatineau and locales beyond. Strangers
will be opening up their homes to other strangers and capitalizing on their
ability to fulfill a need; many with greed, the sole incentive, getting the premium they demand. It's all about supply and demand. I'm willing to hazard a guess, I'm sorry to say, that if you haven't secured accommodations by now, you are probably going to be watching the Canada Day celebration on TV or sleeping in a tent. Those making a buck off a poor visitor to the city; deplorable! Hmmm. Maybe I can put up my tent in my backyard with a mattress and wine glasses and call it Glamping and make a fortune. That's huge overseas! I will be RICH. No wait, I'm already booked up. Maybe I will do it for Valentine's day. Build an igloo in the back and throw them a duvet and chocolates. Yes, I said throw them. I'm not going out in the snow. It's eight feet back there and oh wait, I already a have booking... but I digress.
Ottawa is proud to be preparing for a city wide metro but it
too comes with costs and disrupted traffic at our busiest time ever.
Lucky for my guest, the buses are still running and I can often drive them to and from the local
transitway and they can take only one bus downtown to see all the sites. No parking is necessary.
So my suggestion is stop procrastinating. You know your are coming this year for the events. Anybody who is anybody will be here. Check out which events interest you and drop me a line so we can let the pampering begin at Spoiled Rotten B&B.
