{"id":11680,"date":"2015-08-19T15:32:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T19:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11680"},"modified":"2015-08-26T17:03:02","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T21:03:02","slug":"inside-aurora-reality-check-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-reality-check-in\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Reality Check-In"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGood afternoon, and welcome to the new Hotel Aurora.”
\n“Thank you,\u201d said the man who had just walked up to the check-in counter. \u201cIt’s great that this town finally has a new hotel again after all these years.\u201d
\n\u201cYes, they just finished construction,\u201d smiled the clerk. \u201cWe\u2019ve only been open a short while. Now, how may I help you?\u201d
\nPutting his bag down, the man said, \u201cI have a reservation under the name of Smith.”
\n“Of course, Mr. Smith. Ah, here it is. We have one of our standard rooms ready for you. Four nights, was it?”
\n“Yes, thanks. And how much will that be?”
\n“Let’s see,\u201d said the clerk, referring to his computer. \u201cThat will be $600.”
\n“That\u2019s about $150 a night,\u201d said Mr. Smith, following a quick mental calculation. \u201cThat’s not too bad.”
\n“No, that’s per night.”
\n“Excuse me?”
\n“It’s $600 per night, so a total of $2,400 for your stay,” the clerk smiled again.
\n“That’s preposterous! I just want a basic room. This is Aurora. The fancy downtown hotels don’t even charge that much!”
\n“I’m sorry, sir, but those are our standard rates for Aurora.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy are they so high!?\u201d
\nThe clerk sighed. He\u2019d had to explain this several times already to other guests.
\n\u201cYou see, normally our rates would be much lower. However, the local council here has imposed very high municipal development charges on new hotel space – we hear they\u2019re the highest in the GTA.\u201d
\n\u201cUnfortunately, since it was extremely expensive to construct this hotel, we have had to adjust our room rates accordingly to recoup the cost. Even at these rates we’re barely breaking even.”
\n\u201cWell, I\u2019ll just go elsewhere then,\u201d said Mr. Smith, bending down to pick up his bag.
\n\u201cI\u2019m afraid you\u2019ll find we\u2019re the only hotel in town, sir. Despite the demand for rooms and the demonstrated interest in the private sector to build more accommodation here, no other hotel chain has been able to afford to do so.\u201d
\n“I\u2019ve had a long drive,\u201d said Mr. Smith, stretching his aching back, \u201cand I don\u2019t want to go traipsing all over York Region trying to find another hotel. Can I at least get a cheaper room?\u201d
\n“That is out lowest priced room. However,\u201d he looked around the lobby conspiratorially, \u201cwhile we don\u2019t advertise it, based on the sort of feedback we\u2019ve been receiving from our guests since we opened, we have set up a special budget option I can offer you at $200 a night.”
\n“That’s better,\u201d said Mr. Smith, perking up considerably. \u201cI’ll take that, and\u2026wait a minute,\u201d he said with suspicion. \u201cIf it\u2019s cheaper than the lowest price room, what exactly is it?”
\n“We set you up in a tent outside on the grass between the parking lot and Highway 404.”
\nSensing some hesitation, the hotelier continued; “It’s a very nice spot overlooking the off ramp. The traffic sounds are very soothing, and you\u2019ll get lots of fresh air.”
\nMr. Smith thought for a minute, then sighed.
\n“Well, if you\u2019re the only place in town, then I guess I don\u2019t have many options.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Excellent, but that rate is for a larger tent that you would share with up to three other guests. If you want your own tent, it will be an additional $25 a night.”
\nResigning himself to the new reality of hotel accommodation in Aurora, Mr. Smith reached for his wallet to place his deposit on the single tent option.
\nHe was just glad it wasn\u2019t winter.<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston \u201cGood afternoon, and welcome to the new Hotel Aurora.” “Thank you,\u201d said the man who had just walked up to the check-in counter. \u201cIt’s great that this town finally has a new hotel again after all these years.\u201d \u201cYes, they just finished construction,\u201d smiled the clerk. \u201cWe\u2019ve only been open a short […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-32o","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 06:14:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}