A historic downtown hotel is having a ‘lot’ of issues with limited waterfront parking options and the hotel’s management is calling on the city for a solution.
Sunray Group of Hotels, which operates the Champlain Waterfront Hotel and Fionn MacCool’s restaurant, has around 32 parking spaces for both locations, said regional general manager, Shan Wickremasinghe.
With 58 rooms at the hotel and shared lot usage with the restaurant. However, Wickremasinghe says parking is often scarce, particularly through the busy summer months.
As a solution, the hotel has offered to pay, when needed, for guest parking on off-site municipal lots — a move that has cost around $11,000 since 2020 and had a “significant impact” on the hotel.
“I've been trying to work with the city for (the) longest time to find a positive solution,” Wickremasinghe told OrilliaMatters. “We reimburse the parking fees because we don’t want the guests to pay. We will be the only hotel that’ll be charging for parking if we ask the guests to pay.”
Through the summer, Wickremasinghe said more than 50 guests per week require off-site parking, and even in the slow season, if a hockey team stays for a tournament, for example, the limited on-site parking can be filled quickly.
Earlier this summer, Wickremasinghe wrote city council requesting 10 municipal parking spots from Sunday through Thursday, and 15 on Friday and Saturday to help meet the demand for parking.
“I do understand that there’s a charge to do this, and I’m not asking for free,” he said, noting he proposed a figure of around $70 per spot each month.
On Aug. 29, Mayor Don McIsaac sent a letter to Wickremasinghe discussing potential options; the response was included in last week’s council information package.
“On July 17, 2023, council passed a bylaw implementing two permit types that are available for purchase for Municipal Parking Lot 15: a $70 standard permit and a $200 transferable permit,” the mayor wrote.
The transferable permit, McIsaac said, is meant for use by local businesses and their customers, and the newly created Lot 15 offers 50 permits on a first-come, first-served basis that may be renewed every month.
The permits are available between April 15 and Nov. 15 each year.
“I trust that the good news of monthly parking permits in Lot 15 will assist you with your parking needs,” the mayor wrote.
Wickremasinghe, however, said a cost of $200 per space each month would be prohibitively expensive for the hotel, given the amount of spaces the hotel needs.
“We can’t afford that. (There’s) no way; that would be very expensive for us,” he said. “As a business, we are just coming out COVID. We are still recovering. We have not recovered as of yet.”
Despite that, Wickremasinghe stressed he wants to foster a positive dialogue with the city to find a good solution.
Given the current circumstances, even with the hotel paying for off-site parking, Wickremasinghe said it has had an impact on guest experiences — whether they are frustrated with having to park off site, or feel unsafe walking from downtown lots late at night back to the hotel.
“If you go to social media, go to online travel agencies, go to Expedia … You may see tons of reviews about parking,” he said.
