Hockey parents will want to check out the new Best Western Plus located on Portage Avenue in Headingley.

Manager Bob Fitchner expects that this brand new concept in hotel design will be a hit. Three rooms are special hockey storage areas. Your hockey players’ gear can be locked in this special room that can house all the team gear. Resembling a hockey locker area, there are hooks to hang clothes and hockey gear so it can dry. There is also under-bench storage for skates.

Built-in ozonators will take a mere four hours to dry and sanitize all the protective equipment hanging in the room. Coaches can use the space for their player meetings if they wish. Only the coach or team rep will have the key to this secure room.

"I anticipate as many as five teams on a weekend. That’s players, parents and coaches," Fitchner says.

The hotel is strategically built within close driving distance of the MTS Iceplex that hosts many minor hockey tournaments.

With as many as 350 guests at any given time, the hotel has expanded its breakfast area. Adjacent to the eating area are two meeting rooms where teams can be accommodated for breakfast.

The hotel also boasts a waterslide area enclosed in a Hawaiian lava rock theme, an extremely large hot tub where tired hockey parents can relax, and a vortex motion pool.
"I expect that teens will particularly enjoy the added swim action that the vortex motion pool offers," Fitchner adds.

Headingley hockey mom Leslie Henderson exclaimed: "It’s pretty cool not to have smelly hockey gear in the rooms!"

Her hockey family found that a similar, larger breakfast setup in a hotel in Duluth, Minn. "really built the team camaraderie. It would be a perk to have the hockey gear stored in a different area. As always, price has to be a consideration."

With up to seven different room options for parents to choose from in this new Best Western Plus, it sounds like the builders thought of pretty much everything to make those special hockey tournaments more stress-free for players and parents alike. The special hockey storage area will surely be a hit with coaches, players and parents.

Valerie Chatain-White is a community correspondent for Headingley. You can contact her at valerie@thenext30years.com.