It was a great idea in theory, but the Westin Ottawa’s general manager Ross Meredith wasn’t sure if it would work in practice.
After all, it would only take one uncooperative guest to derail an ambitious plan to light up the side of the downtown hotel on New Year’s Eve with “150” as Canada kicked off its 150th birthday celebrations.
But in the end, everyone who checked into the Westin last weekend was happy to help. And the result was impressive:
“I’d say 99.9 per cent of the guests who stay at hotels, including ours, are good people that are keen,” Meredith said. “So we took a chance that they would play along with us.”
The logistics were daunting, to say the least.
Not only did staff have to figure out precisely which rooms would need to go ‘dark’ and which ones needed to be illuminated, but they had to ask the guests in those rooms to either open or close their blinds at just the right moment to produce the desired effect. (The blinds were enough to make it work, so nobody had to sit in the dark.)
It took six staff members to pull it off, Meredith said, including guest services director Brian O’Flaherty, who stood across the street in the frigid cold that night and used a portable radio to signal any rooms that needed to be adjusted.
“He’s calling ‘1226 lights on! 1307 lights off!'” Meredith recalled, laughing. “So we were then running around the building, knocking on doors.”
People outside the hotel, many of whom were downtown to watch a special ceremony where more than 400 young people formed an illuminated line from City Hall to Parliament Hill, were encouraged to snap a photo of the giant “150” and tag it on social media.
One lucky Twitter user was eventually gifted a free night at the hotel for her efforts:
The hotel, located right across the street from Parliament Hill the the iconic Fairmont Chateau Laurier, is in the midst of major renovations on the 22nd floor to create a 4,000 square-foot ballroom overlooking Parliament Hill.
Meredith said he is still working to finalize a booking for the new space for Canada Day.
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