A Lush Landscape

Saskatoon Inn & Conference Centre celebrates 40 years

The Saskatoon Inn & Conference Centre may have seen some changes over the past four decades, but one thing that has stayed the same is that they always find a way to ensure that their guests feel welcome.

The hotel and conference centre broke ground in March of 1980. It officially opened its doors on Valentine’s Day, in 1982 with just over 26,000 square feet of meeting place and 257 rooms, each equipped with a large desk (with office chair), flat screen TV, large armoire, microwave, fridge, make-up mirror and hair dryer. It features seven different room types designed to meet their guests’ needs.

One of the hotel’s greatest features is its courtyard.

“Our spectacular indoor tropical garden is sure to be one of the highlights of our guests’ stay. Nestled in the heart of the hotel this lush paradise is filled with hundreds of live tropical plants and flowers,” shares Alex Fleischhacker, area director of sales and marketing – Saskatchewan, Atlific Hotels. “Large skylights, babbling brooks and pleasant fountains add to the courtyard’s powerful allure. Take a relaxing stroll through the winding pathways that lead to the restaurant, lounge, swimming pool, meeting rooms, private dining areas and casual recreation areas. Pathways are lit with old fashioned lamp posts and graced with quaint park benches.”

The hotel was a Vollan Constructed Ltd. project that was designed as a luxury property featuring a 1,500 person banquet facility, restaurant, lounge, tavern and even a night club (Esmerelda’s), all surrounding this lush landscape teaming with vegetation.

Due to the culture and demographic change over the years the hotel has since removed the night club and tavern to offer more banquet event space. Today the hotel’s banquet space is now able to service 2,000 people.

It still offers services such as restaurant, lounge, coffee bar, guest market pantry area, pool and fitness facilities all surrounding the lush tropical vegetation including plants, flowers and trees.

Their most recent renovations were completed in the summer of 2015 and encompassed all their guest rooms, meeting spaces, lobby, and public areas. They have future plans to renovate the exterior of the building and the parking lot.

“As an established airport hotel, we happily welcome a wide variety of travellers. From overnighters catching a flight out of the city to conference goers attending an event in our building. We have found a way to ensure our guests feel welcome – no matter what their reason for staying.”

The hotel holds a 4 Green Key Rating.

“The Green Key is an initiative we brought to the hotel in order to help reduce our carbon footprint, as it is important to us to do our part in creating a sustainable future. This program involves an environmental audit of the property which supplies us with a list of measures that can be taken to help reduce our waste to the landfill and supply companies with our compostable materials. At the hotel we have taken measures to reduce the number of plastics we order or keep on site. We also order materials that include less packaging and we sort through all of our materials and separate out our recyclables and any compostable materials.”

The hotel was like many others that faced hard times when the pandemic struck. It made the difficult decision to close its doors in March of 2020 for three months.

Since then, business levels have been slowly trending upward with the hotel happily reaching pre-pandemic business levels as of April 2022.

Going into their 40th year of operation they look forward to once again hosting large conferences and events.

“The Saskatoon Inn & Conference Centre has become a staple for events and celebrations. It is our goal to welcome our guests for many years to come and for them to enjoy their stay and celebrate with us. We are proud and honoured that travellers and locals trust us for an excellent hotel experience.”

- Western Hotelier Magazine