So how does back to school effect a hotel chain like Accent Inns? Well the first thing we notice is the push for families to take that last minute getaway. Our Accent Inn Burnaby hotel gets overrun by folks booking our PNE hotel package or this year catching a BC Lions game at Empire Field. The Burnaby hotel also gets a big increase in traffic from guests doing that last minute back to school shopping trip. They target places like Metrotown or Ikea for supplies, desks and who knows what. We see the same push at our Accent Inn Kelowna Hotel and Kamloops hotel with folks from smaller communities coming to the big centers to shop. It’s fun to watch the kids try out their new laptops using our free wireless internet. The Accent Inn Kamloops also sees an increase from families taking advantage of our BC Wildlife park package while they are there.
The other big effect we see is all our wonderful Accent Inn team members that are students either leaving us for the season or asking for reduced hours. We are always sad to see some of these awesome team members leave us but wish them a great future in their careers. It’s been fun to see several return to us, not as staff but as business travelers as they now work for one of the many companies that book their staff at an Accent Inn hotel. We also see the effect this time has on our team members that have children. They are now running around getting registrations, books, planning child care and dealing with all the little issues that “back to school” brings out in children.
The other side to this story is all the folks out there that do not have children. For Accent Inns, after the first week of September, we see a huge influx of travelers staying with us and taking advantage of the smaller crowds at local attractions. Our Victoria hotel gets many folks taking advantage of visiting the Butchart Gardens. September is a wonderful time in Victoria and Vancouver. Although the nights may be a little cooler, there’s still lots of sunshine, flowers and fun. Whale watching trips are still fantastic. Golf packages at the Accent Inn Kelowna hotel are still really popular in September with easier to get tee times. One of the other fun things we all look forward to this time of the year is the coming of Hockey Season! Both our Burnaby hotel and Vancouver Airport hotel (YVR) gear up for hockey package guests. At the Accent Inns Victoria hotel we look forward participating in events at our local Victoria Salmon Kings games. We also start seeing all those bookings for the young hockey teams that take advantage of our sport team rates as they attend many local tournaments.
So for those of you that have been wondering… Back to school is also a big event for us here at Accent Inns!