TORONTO — Aspiring hotel developers from universities across Canada recently competed in #hotelNEXT at the annual Canadian Hotel Investment Conference (CHIC) in Toronto. The student teams pitched unique and feasible hotel concepts to a judging panel of Canadian investors and hotel owners in front of a live audience.
“The #hotelNEXT teams are to be congratulated on their creativity for their ideas and how they conveyed their concepts to the executive audience. Each team was full of confidence and shared their message with clarity and detail,” says Charles Suddaby, vice-president, Hospitality & Gaming, Practice Leader at Cushman & Wakefield, who led a group of industry representatives to create this contest.
Each team had 15 minutes to present their ideas for the hotel of the future using the criteria of creativity and return on investment. A panel of judges, includeding Billy Coles (BCP Construction/ CCR Hospitality), Brian Leon (Choice Hotels Canada Inc.), Minaz Rahemtulla (Jubilee Hospitality Association Canada), Fariyal Hasham (Jubilee Hospitality Association Canada) and the audience voted. Along with bragging rights, students were presented with cash prizes.
The winners of the #hotelNEXT competition were:
• First place: Team Limestone Group — Brittany Lee and Phil Smith (Queen’s University) created “Treehouse”, an inspired 84-room hotel concept for Toronto’s Liberty Village;
• Second place: Team Nomad Hotel Group — Christian Cross and Scott Forler (University of Guelph) created the “Nomad Hotel”, an 80-room limited-service hotel concept aimed at attracting millennials in Vancouver’s Gastown neighbourhood;
• Third place: Team The Quebecers — Laurence Bolduc, Felix-Emmanuel Cormier and Jacob Papillon (L’Université du Québec à Montréal) created “MUVO” mobile accommodations for towns, festivals, weddings and corporate events
