Vancouver’s Fairmont crowned best international hotel for business travel

Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel | BCBusiness
The Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel

THE#BCBIZDAILY
We’re No. 1, a hotel for long-term living and private schools gain steam

We’re the best! (And also second best!)
Vancouver may no longer be the best place to live (whatever, Economist), but we now have a new—if far less impressive—claim to fame: home of the best international hotel for business. Oh, yeah. Condé Nast Traveler magazine ranked 20 hotels as part of its Readers’ Choice Awards, published earlier this month, and topping the list of Best International Hotels for Business Travel (in other words, excluding America) was Vancouver’s Fairmont Pacific Rim. Traveler credited the hotel’s breathtaking views, rooftop patio and BMW house car service. Nice towels too, apparently. Two other Vancouver hotels made the list, Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver, at No. 2, and the Pan Pacific at No. 20.

Make yourself at home
On the subject of business hotels, a domain we’ve evidently mastered, a new Burnaby hotel opening this week is mixing up its professionally minded digs. The 169-room Element Vancouver Metrotown will not only offer competitive rates but also fully equipped kitchens in every suite. Thus, “this hotel’s core concept does tend to lean towards the business traveller,” says Ken Boyd, director of sales and marketing for Element. For more details, and a look inside the hotel, read our story here.

We don’t need no (public) education
Enrolment in B.C.’s private schools spiked this year, jumping 6.75 per cent, according to the Federation of Independent School Associations of B.C. “That’s the largest year-over-year increase in distributed learning education in this province since independent schools participated in 2002,” Peter Froese, executive director of FISA B.C., told the Globe and Mail. The group credits last year’s teacher strike as the main reason. For a deeper dive into why B.C. parents are increasingly abandoning our world-renowned public school system, read BCBusiness‘s recent feature on the growing shift. (via the Globe and Mail)