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Hotel opens at Alberta’s U of Calgary: campus life gets an upgrade.

Debut marks first hotel ever built on a university campus in Canada.

by Debra Cummings

Just a Frisbee toss from the Olympic Oval is the University of Calgary’s latest innovation: the $57-million Hotel Alma. It’s the first full-service hotel ever to be built on a Canadian university campus and it opened its 100 swank rooms in October ‘09.

Shaped like a Y, you enter this retro-modern hotel at its critical bend. That’s when you step into a world so un-university-like you could be in boutique digs in Manhattan. No dark homey wood, no library stacks, no overstuffed couches, no posters of Ché.

Instead, you get ultra-modern, fully wireless chic. Simple grey tiles and stripe-y wood are offset with flashes of orange in the round set of stools in the lobby and the playful Verner Panton-designed chairs in the nearby bistro. There you’ll find a sparkly wall of silver beads, black chandeliers plus a white-hot menu of flatbreads, salads galore and a generous charcuterie board.

It’s not unusual for universities to open their residences to the public during summers. But the idea behind operating a full-time hotel on campus was to keep some of the $2-million that is lost to outside lodging when visiting faculty, guest speakers and even Olympic trainers visit U of C.

“The Alma is open to the public year-round, but part of that public may have ties to U of C,” explains Tarah Blum, Hotel Alma’s marketing sales manager.

On the top three floors, guests will find ultra-modern meeting rooms, laundry facilities and jaw-dropping views of the Rockies, the campus or Calgary’s spiky skyline. Flat-screen TVs, mp3 docking stations, mini-fridges, microwaves, queen-size beds and a funky desk space are the stuff of standard rooms. The one-bedroom suites on the seventh floor are fully appointed with king-size beds, roomy bathrooms and a separate TV-living space.
 
Hotel Alma will also act as a living lab for the Hotel and Resort Management program at U of C’s Haskayne School of Business once development of the program is complete. Some 40% to 50% of the hotel employees are university students and graduates.

“More programs, such as internships, are in the works, as are special packages that might combine a World Cup event or a world-class concert with a hotel stay,” adds Blum. “Eventually, we’ll also have web deals; but right now, our opening rates are a bargain… and our rates will always include access to U of C’s remarkable fitness facilities.”

www.travelalberta.com/en/Pages/default.aspx

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Usage guidelines

We welcome you to use these story ideas as inspiration for your own stories about Canada. The CTC owns all rights worldwide. (Our images are also royalty-free and available for editorial print, broadcast and electronic use.) If you choose to reproduce these texts for editorial use only, please include the author's byline and "courtesy of the Canadian Tourism Commission." If you cut, edit or modify the text in any way, please include this note: "The text has been modified from the original." Thank you.

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Photo credit : Victoria Island, Northwest Territories © NWTT/Terry Parker - Background Image