Rush to the hotels for the summit of G7

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Tourists looking for a hotel in Quebec city for the month of June 2018 are better do it fast because the rooms will fly away at the speed of lightning due to the holding of the summit of the G7 in Charlevoix.

Pierre-Paul Biron

Saturday, September 2, 2017 10:30

UPDATE
Saturday, September 2, 2017 10:38

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Tourists looking for a hotel in Quebec city for the month of June 2018 are better do it fast because the rooms will fly away at the speed of lightning due to the holding of the summit of the G7 in Charlevoix. Several hoteliers have already been sold and in other rooms are posted at$1000.

Even if the world leaders are not expected from us that in 10 months, the demand for accommodation has soared since the announcement of the dates there is a period of ten days. Hilton, Chateau Frontenac, Germain Charlevoix, most of the major hotels are full for the moment.

“The government has asked us to block all the rooms for a period of at least six days before this can be confirmed by the end of September. We do not yet know what form it will take and who will go where, but it is expected the very positive”, explains the general manager of the hotel Le Germain Charlevoix, Sylvie Dionne.

Full everywhere

The situation is similar in the large hotels of Québec, where it is not possible to make reservations for the weekend of the 8-9-10 June 2018. The director-general of the hotel Association of the region of Québec indicates that some of the hotels two stars have even been mobilized.

“We have been asked a lot of rooms. As it is in the season of the congress and school trips, it is a beautiful puzzle for the whole world. The organization has asked us to block a time slot of 15 days, so it goes well beyond the weekend of the event,” says Marjolaine to Her.

Without being able too move in because of safety issues related to the presence of world leaders, Ms. Her said that several delegations, should stay at Quebec. Impossible, however, to know what it will be heads of State. “There are still hotels in Charlevoix, but the majority of people will be here in Quebec city”, ahead of the general director of the AHRQ.

Soaring prices

A few rare hotels still have rooms available online, but more often than not, the prices inflate because of scarcity. At Delta Quebec, for example, a normal room with two queen beds was posted to 769$ / night yesterday. The price was around 1100$ for a junior suite with a single bed.

“It is the principle of supply and demand,” noted the marketing director of the Office of tourism of Québec, Éric Bilodeau. “Some will try to take advantage of the enthusiasm for the event and it is normal.”

Some rooms may become available over the next few weeks, the deployment of accurate and delegations should be organized. Global affairs in Canada, who takes care of the management office of the summit, says to be currently in discussion with hoteliers in order to “make the inventory of rooms available”.

“We are going to analyze the offers of services and make the appropriate choice to meet the operational needs of the summit”, ensures the spokesperson Jessica Seguin

The coaches also in demand

The companies coach in the region will benefit from the manna that will represent the G7 summit, as several members of the delegations settled in Quebec will need transport to make the shuttle up to La Malbaie.

Even if there are still 10 months before the opening of the G7, Pierre Tremblay Bus The Québec ensures that the impacts of the summit are already being felt and that the phone starts to ring. “It affects us a lot already. There is a lot of excitement since the release of dates last week,” explains the senior director of the company.

Shortage expected

At Autocar Excellence, plans are already a shortage of vehicles for the period from 8 to 10 June 2018, as opposed to hoteliers, carriers are already very busy at this time of the year.

“On the same dates last year, we were already at 75% usage of our vehicles, especially with the school trips. So we’ll probably go pick vehicle up in Ontario,” says the owner Réal Boissonneault.

Aware of the request that will be doubly strong, the owners advise organizations to take the earliest possible date to plan their trips. “There is a risk of closing the book reservation fast enough. Nobody is going to complain about it from our side, but it would be wise to plan ahead,” advises Mr. Tremblay.