Why the Calgary Games were as good as gold for hotels, homeowners
Demand for rooms during Games meant hotels, motels and homeowners had chance for an Olympic payday
Calgary's motel owners were planning to go for the gold when they set their prices for a certain high-profile sporting event.
As Nancy Rose reported on The National nearly a year ahead of the Calgary Games, some motels were expecting to charge five times their normal room rate when the event finally got underway.
Most of the city's hotels had publicly agreed to set their Olympic rates at something comparable to what they would charge during the CFL season.
But Rose reported that some were hoping to push their bookings to their limits in other ways.
"Some hotels have asked corporate and Olympic clients to book and pay for a minimum of 60 days, but the Olympics themselves are only a 16-day event," Rose reported to viewers on March 18, 1987.
That alleged podium-level greed had some Calgarians — including then-mayor Ralph Klein — concerned how such a go-for-it-all approach to bookings by hotels and motels would affect the city's reputation beyond the Games.
"If there is evidence of gouging, it's going to be exposed in the media, it's going to be exposed internationally," Klein said.
"And for a short-term gain...there's going to be long-term harm."
Possible payday for posh homes
Even regular non-hotelier Calgarians had the chance to get in on the accommodations-selling opportunities that the Olympics offered, as Rose had previously reported to CBC viewers five months earlier.
"For homeowners in posh neighbourhoods ... there's a number of local agencies offering as much as $7,000 a week to rent out the homes," Rose told viewers in a report that aired in October 1986. "The more rooms, Jacuzzis and bars, the higher the price."
It was then believed private corporations would rent out at least 500 homes during the games, Rose said.
Cash to be made outside of Calgary, too
Rose also filed a separate report that October on the fact that some people were starting to book rooms in places as far away as Edmonton in order to be assured they would have somewhere to stay during the Games.
While some rooms were still up for grabs in Calgary, Rose reported it was likely that "many out-of-town visitors will have to settle for out-of-town accommodations" when the Games rolled around.
