If you’re considering a “staycation” this year because you’re stretched for cash, you might have to save up for Tofino as a destination.
Accompanying the stunning scenery in the oceanside resort town are the highest hotel prices in Canada, according to the latest Hotel Price Index from Hotels.com.
Rooms in the Tofino area -which includes Ucluelet -averaged $230 a night in 2010, up seven per cent from a year earlier.
Tofino bumped out Lake Louise, home to the priciest rooms in 2009.
Lewis George, who runs Himwitsa Lodge in Tofino with his wife, Cathy, said the development and expansion of swank resorts is driving room prices in the area.
During storm season, rooms at Wickaninnish Inn range from $300 to $975, according to the firm’s website.
Several high-end bed-andbreakfasts have also opened recently in popular areas, such as along Chesterman Beach, George said.
“If you paid over a million dollars for the property and put a bed-and-breakfast there, you can’t be charging $60 a night for people to stay,” George said in an interview.
Rates for Himwitsa’s five suites range from $200 to $310.
In Vancouver, the average hotel room was $147 a night in the first half of 2010, the period covering the Olympic Games. But the yearly average was $140, meaning prices fell after Olympic visitors and athletes left town, said Taylor Cole, a spokeswoman for Hotels.com.
“When you average in the rates later in the year, they returned to pre-Olympic levels,” Cole said in a phone interview.
Last year marked the first time since the financial crisis that room rates rose globally, she said, suggesting an uptick in travel and a strengthening of the world economy.
Whistler hotel prices averaged $177 a night, up about 10 per cent from 2009, and Victoria booked in at $128.
Several Canadian cities had higher average prices than Vancouver, including Saskatoon ($152), Montreal ($147), Halifax ($143), Charlottetown ($152) and St. John’s ($151).
Hotel rooms are at a premium in Saskatchewan, which is enjoying a boom fuelled by potash, crops, and oil and gas. American author Bob Haber was recently in Regina promoting his investing book Go Canada and he found it hard to find a hotel room, which he took as a positive economic indicator.
“Things are really heating up here; business is quite good,” he said.
The hotel price index is based on 2010 prices paid by consumers who booked rooms through Hotels.com, a division of Expedia.
Other 2010 room rates for destinations in western North America (all figures Canadian) averaged $136 in Calgary, $123 in Edmonton, $124 in Seattle, $102 in Portland, $127 in San Francisco, $90 in Las Vegas and $96 in Phoenix.
As for Tofino, the town maintains its character and smalltown charm despite the rapid growth, George said. And the natural beauty and spiritual serenity of Tofino continues to be a huge draw for tourists around the world, particularly Europeans.
“We have trees that are 800 years old that have been protected,” he said.
“You have these old-growth trees that have never been touched. That’s the beauty of Tofino.”
Europeans and Canadians are increasingly filling the void left by Americans, who are staying home because of the weak U.S. dollar, George said.
Sales last year were up compared with 2009 at the firstnations-run lodge.
“We’re back on the upswing, even though the [weak] American dollar has really hurt us,” he said.
jkwantes@vancouversun.com Blog: vancouversun.com/yourmoney Twitter.com/jameskwantes
From www.vancouversun.com
