THUNDER BAY - The general manager of the city's newest hotel believes nearly every room will be booked by the end of the day.
On Tuesday, the Hampton Inn on Arthur Street opened its doors, the first Hilton Hotel to open in Thunder Bay. While no guest has checked in just yet, general manager, Siva Kiruddinan, said they’ve already received calls from people looking for rooms.
“We get calls like crazy,” he said Tuesday morning just before opening.
“But we don’t want to take manual reservations right now because that can be detrimental. I’m sure that within two or three hours we will fill the hotel based on the number of calls we have received.”
Construction began on the hotel late last year and Kiruddinan said that there were some struggles early on, such as filling between 30 and 35 staff positions, but everything is moving smoothly now.
“There are a lot of things happening at the same time,” he said. “It is happening so fast, I’m so excited.”
The hotel boasts 78 regular rooms, 26 suites, 11 handicapped rooms, and eight joining rooms. The cost of an average room will run guests $169, with suites costing between $20 and $30 more.
“The Hilton brand is a gift for this community because Hilton is a top class hotel,” Kiruddinan said. “Especially Hampton, it is the best among the Hilton family of hotels. We have about 2,250 hotels worldwide out of 5,200 in the Hilton family. People love Hampton.”
Kiruddinan said the Hampton in Thunder Bay is one of the best he has ever seen.
“This is the only Hampton I have seen that is completely different from all the other Hamptons in Canada,” he said.
According to Kiruddinan, Thunder Bay provides an excellent market for the Hilton brand and he expects business to be booming.
“This market is so hot,” he said. “Every hotel in this city right now is sold out for the last couple of weeks.”
And while there is a lot of competition in the city, particularly for the Hampton Inn with the Valhalla Inn right next door, Kiruddinan doesn’t think any business will be lost for either hotel.
“Normally people think a hotel coming in is bad news,” he said.
“It is not. It’s actually helping both of us. We can help them and they can help us. But now people are looking for brand new hotels. You will see our occupancy will be number one and we will be number one. We are just starting today, but maybe in three months we will be leading all the hotels with 100 per cent capacity.”
