Montreal hoteliers, restaurateurs and retail owners are revving up for their most lucrative weekend, as the Formula 1 Grand Prix race is set to roll into town next month.
The 2025 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, Canada’s largest annual tourism event, has taken place in Montreal since 1978 and routinely leads to near-full occupancy across Montreal-area hotels. This year's race is set for June 13-15.
An estimated 350,000 visitors gathered last year to watch the high-speed race, braving heavy rain to witness Dutchman Max Verstappen win his 16th title.
Last year, Montreal’s four-highest average daily hotel room rate dates occurred during the race weekend of June 6-9 and included a peak of $657.84 on June 8, an increase of 26.7% over the average daily rate for the Friday and 167.9% for the Saturday, according to Nick Minerd, a spokesperson at STR, a CoStar company.
For the race weekend next month, roughly three-quarters of the city's hotel rooms are already booked for Friday and Saturday. Those bookings are expected to rise to near full capacity closer to the date, according to STR data.
"The strong room rate performance suggests that leisure travelers continue to value high-end and unique experiences and are willing to pay for them. Hoteliers are able to capitalize on the trend," said Jan Freitag, CoStar's national director of hospitality analytics, in an email.
Three hotels open ahead of race
Hoteliers prepping for the big event include Toronto-based Knightstone Capital, a firm that launched its 124-room hotel rebranded as AC Hotel Old Montreal after five months of renovations. Knightstone is a self-described boutique real estate company founded by David Lehberg in Toronto in 2001 and now led by Alan Perlis.
The AC Old Montreal is one of 240 hotels managed by Urgo Hotels Canada in North America, including 17 in the province of Quebec under its partnership with Hersha Hospitality Management.
The AC Old Montreal is located a short distance from the Montreal courthouse and was previously named the Springhill Suites. Its new features include a new restaurant and a Spanish theme throughout the decor and food.
Other Montreal hotels opening their doors just in time for the race include the recently christened Moxy, with 215 rooms filling the first dozen floors of a new 63-floor tower in downtown Montreal.
Meanwhile, management and employees of the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel, one of the biggest hotels in downtown Montreal with 950 rooms, ended a 143-day labour dispute this week after the hotel closed on Dec. 21. The roughly 600 employees voted in favour of accepting a 21% wage hike over four years, along with other benefits.
Fears of missing out
Montrealers are accustomed to seeing city streets and restaurants jammed with tourists on the frantic spring weekend and have also become inured to the perennial handwringing over ensuring the event's future in the city. Canada’s various levels of government pay roughly $21 million to the race organizers, one of the lowest totals among the 24 cities in the global F1 Grand Prix circuit.
Government officials are now negotiating to extend the contract for the annual race past its 2029 end date. However, several other contenders, including Thailand, Argentina and possibly several African countries, have also shown interest in hosting the event.
Last year’s Montreal F1 race was plagued with challenges. Local fire inspectors were widely rebuked after shutting down some downtown restaurant terraces for being overcrowded, heavy rain flooded some race facilities and public transit services proved unreliable.
From 2026 onwards, the race will take place in May instead of June, according to an agreement made last November.
The race is by far Montreal's largest annual tourism event, followed by the 10-day Montreal Jazz Festival that begins on June 26 this year. The long-time Just for Laughs comedy festival, which had been the third-largest tourism-draw for Montreal, was discontinued one year ago after the management company went bankrupt.