Hotel opens on University of Calgary campus

The University of Calgary has opened a small hotel, partly to save the cost of hosting guests off-campus.

The Hotel Alma, which has 100 rooms, a bistro and conference facilities, opened Tuesday on the top three floors of the new international residence.

"We have thousands of visitors to the campus each year, and right now we estimate that we're spending about $1.5 million a year putting those people up in various places around Calgary," said president Harvey Weingarten. "So now some of that business, of course, will be redirected to the hotel on campus."

Weingarten, who announced this summer up to 200 job cuts to reduce an estimated $14-million budget shortfall, said no public money was used to build the hotel.

The construction was paid for with a loan and through private donations, but the hotel is fully owned by the university. The hotel will run as part of a co-op program for tourism management students at the Haskayne School of Business.

Any profit generated will be reinvested into the international residence, called Global Village, which occupies the bottom three floors of the building.