When Karen MacDonald saw a heat warning last week for Victoria, she decided to book a hotel room just minutes from her home in James Bay to escape the record-breaking temperatures.
Despite multiple fans going in her unit at an assisted-living home, she said it was unbearably hot inside. MacDonald said she’s particularly sensitive to heat and feared she might pass out at home alone.
So she booked a week at the Inn at Laurel Point to keep cool in the hotel’s air conditioning.
MacDonald is one of many locals who checked into nearby hotels to beat the heat. Calls came flooding in to the Inn at Laurel Point mostly from Victoria residents when the temperatures started to rise to extreme highs, said Brooke Harris, director of sales and marketing.
The hotel received 104 last-minute bookings over the weekend, 94 of which were guests with Victoria addresses, she said.
Harris said many locals are checking in with their cats and dogs to escape the heat, “so much so that we’ve run out of dog beds and had to nip out to purchase more.”
The weekend’s heat caused the hotel to close its patio over several days, but it has since reopened, Harris said.
Rooms sold out Monday night at the Magnolia Hotel and Spa, and the hotel is still seeing interest from locals for the coming weekend, said Hannah Arthurs, marketing and sales co-ordinator. “Mostly it opens with, ‘Do you have air conditioning?’ And then they make a reservation,” Arthurs said.
Ingrid Jarrett, CEO of the B.C. Hotel Association, said residents in parts of the Lower Mainland, Victoria and the Okanagan region have been booking air-conditioned rooms so they can continue working and also get some sleep.
A lack of staff is the biggest challenge for hotels, motels and resorts, she said.
“So many hotels have to limit their occupancy and reservations that they can take because they simply don’t have enough people working in order to clean the rooms,” said Jarrett.
Local hotel stays were just one way Victoria residents were trying to stay cool. Some dined out in air-conditioned restaurants, or ordered takeout to avoid cooking at home.
At Shiki Sushi in downtown Victoria, takeout orders doubled when the hot weather hit on Friday and the restaurant has been about 30 per cent busier with people dining in over the past few days, said manager Judy Chen.
People have been phoning in to ask if the restaurant has air conditioning, and they’ve had lineups out the door, with people waiting up to 45 minutes to get in, Chen said.
— with files from The Canadian Press
