Kingston, Ont. hotel rooms in high demand for summer season

Summer time is a busy time of the year in Kingston, Ont., as tourists come to explore the city’s history and waterfront.

But finding a place to stay has become more difficult.

With some downtown hotels undergoing renovations, like the Confederation Place Hotel, this puts a limit on the number of hotel rooms downtown, which are already in high demand.

“Usually every year, there are accommodations that are updating and renovating, and creating beautiful product for visitors,” says Krista LeClair, executive director of Kingston Accommodation Partners.

“There are still lots of rooms available in the city throughout the summer, but we do recommend you reach out early and plan your trips early.”

With Queen’s University convocation taking place this week, large events like these can put a strain on the city’s hotels.

There were only two rooms available in the entire downtown core across the six major hotels for Thursday night.

With many family members and friends coming from out of town to convocation, this has forced people to look outside of downtown for accommodations.

“I’m originally from Toronto, but we’re living down in Boston now, so we drove up yesterday,” says Claire Litt, a Queen’s graduate.

“We got an Airbnb actually because we couldn’t find any hotels available.”

“I pretty much just looked online, and I saw in the city, like down by here, it was all booked up,” says Joy Keegan, a Toronto resident.

“So we ended up close to the 401. It’s a bit more of a drive but it’s fine.”

With the summer tourism season kicking off, July and August are expected to be busy months in Kingston.

But LeClair is confident there will be enough space for all of the visitors.

“We definitely have capacity, with two new properties coming online, some renovations finishing up, some finishing up throughout the summer,” says LeClair.

“The variety across residences at Queen’s and St. Lawrence College, and all of our short-term rental, Airbnb and motel folks.”

One of the properties undergoing some serious renovation is the old Ambassador Hotel, which is slated to reopen in mid-August.

It will be adding over 250 rooms — a much-needed boost for Kingston’s hotel capacity.