TORONTO — The Canadian Hotel Investment Conference (CHIC) announced its winners of the third-annual #hotelNEXT competition.
Aspiring hotel developers from universities across Canada pitched their unique and feasible hotel renovation ideas to a judging panel of Canadian investors and hotel owners in front of a live audience, at the recent CHIC conference.
Eleven submissions were received and each team was given 10 minutes to present their designs on an under-performing hotel that needed a face-lift. Students chose a market, reviewed the operating history, made renovation recommendations and presented a capital plan.
Their presentations were reviewed by a panel of judges that included Ray Halani and Shaheena Nanji of Jubilee Hospitality Association Canada, and Hugo Germain of Groupe Germain Hotels.
The winners of the #hotelNEXT competition were:
First place: Team Unity made up of Shannon Bahr, Amber Douel and Sahad Kassam of the University of Guelph.
Second place: Team Haly Hotel made up of Krystal Chen, Erica Huang and Hannah Fregin of Thompson Rivers University.
Third place: Team Tru Blu made up of Sara Mofford, Sohee Park, Hameed Mohamed and Dulendra Sonnadara of Mount Saint Vincent University.
The students were presented with cash prizes of $5,000 for first place, $3,000, for second place, and $2,000 for third place.
