The Fairfield by Marriott hotel on Mulcahy Court in west Orillia celebrated its grand opening Wednesday.
The 92-room hotel opened its doors to guests March 25, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a grand-opening celebration was put off.
General manager Michelle Weber says there is a lot to celebrate. The hotel has been successful since its opening.
“We can’t be happier with the performance of the hotel,” she said. “We’ve faced challenges that we’ve been going through to get it open, but we pushed through it.”
She noted the hotel was recognized by Marriott for having the best opening.
“That’s a huge award for us to be recognized for,” she said. “We opened with all the rooms, everything ready to go. Our guest services scores are awesome and our occupancy levels are great.”
The hotel is currently in first place for guest services scores in Canada and is in the top 10 per cent of guest services scores in the U.S. and Canada combined.
“We are pretty proud of where we are,” Weber said. “We just won an award for being within the top 10 per cent worldwide for reviews through Tripadvisor.”
Weber credits the hotel’s staff for the success and says everybody has been working hard through the pandemic.
“We have a lot of managers internally who have been in the market for quite a while,” she said. “Marriott itself has a great reputation by its name, which has made a huge impact coming into this market.”
The hotel’s location in the busiest part of Orillia has proven to be ideal.
“This is a big development area in Orillia,” Weber said. “We are right off the highway. We have Lakehead and Hydro One down the road. The owners really couldn’t have picked a better location to build a hotel.”
She says the goal is to continue to grow, and she expects the occupancy levels to keep increasing over time.
“Good is not good enough for me,” she said. “I want the hotel and my team to excel to different levels and categories with award winnings.”
