New trend effective, according to two of Whistler’s newest batch of seasonal workers

Tim Page knew that it was going to be almost impossible to find accommodation in Whistler.

House Hunter Kristian Waller takes out an ad for accommodation on a stroll last week, and finds a place to live. Photo by Erin Littlewood

For the past two years, the Australian citizen heard rumours about Whistler’s difficult housing market. People worldwide were talking about it. If you are going to come to Whistler, he was told, you’ve got to be really lucky.

So when he finally arrived in Whistler two weeks ago, he decided to get creative with his housing search. Instead using more traditional venues — local newspapers and Craigslist listings — Page made a “seeking accommodation” ad out of cardboard, taped it to his body, and began walking through Whistler Village.

“I was originally going to use (the cardboard sign) as a last resort, but then I thought ‘Why?’ so I put it on straight away,” said Page, 23.

Even though Page was a bit embarrassed about the sign, his unusual method worked. Within one day, he and his girlfriend had a found a place to lay their head for the winter season, for about $1,100 a month.

“I went to a notice board at a café, and I was standing looking at it, when someone saw my sign and approached me,” recounts Page.

“He said ‘Are you looking for a room?’ and I said ‘Yes’, so I sat down and had breakfast with him. He told me to come up and see the room at four o’clock that afternoon. I did, and he said yes straight away.” (more…)

Location, location, location! Ever taken a vacation or rented an accommodation that you later found was not the ideal location and not exactly as it had seem in the travel brochure? We have, and now you can find and view your Whistler and 2010 Olympic accommodation before you book.

Whistler-Accommodations.org offers an cool Web 2.0 for the Whistler rental accommodation market for owners who rent their homes, condos and trophy cottages to the public or corporations. Through this website, you can view the actual location of the accommodation through Google Maps. This cool little feature allows you to not just view the location, but also zoom in/out to see whats around the area, but also pan around the city of Whistler and view a real satellite view of the city and the accommodation.
Once you’ve played around a little, click on an accommodation and you’ll get a snap shot view and details of the accommodation, including rental costs, photos and more.

Tools like this will help save the headaches travelers the trouble of guestimating their rental location to the area they’re staying. And with the Whistler 2010 winter Olympics approaching, this way of searching for an accommodations by location will help you find the perfect place close to your favourite Olympic events…who knows, maybe even close enough to watch the event from your rental’s patio while lounging in the hot tub.

Already we’re 1 1/2 years away from the monumental 2010 Olympic winter games in Whistler and Vancouver and the locals are finally waking up to vacate their homes over the Olympic weeks and put their accommodations up for rent to the vast number of foreign travellers anticipated to visit the city.

Speaking with a few locals in Vancouver and Whistler, its not too surprising to hear individuals wanting to position their vacations around the time of the Olympics. They general consensious is they just don’t want to deal with the crowds and traffic during this time…and hey, why not make a buck while I’m at it.

2010 Olympic accommodations in Whistler and Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics are now ranging on the market from three to (more…)

WHISTLER – Owners of luxury homes in Whistler are looking for rents in the $100,000-a-month range for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

“I would say we are looking at $8,000 to $15,000 per bedroom for a 31-day period,” said Sylvia Koltzenburg, who is running an Olympic accommodation matchmaking service.

(*see Whistler Olympic 2010 accommodation services) 

“We’ve certainly got homes over $100,000. It all depends on the number of bedrooms. It’s easy to get $90,000 if you have a fairly high-end home here.”

Koltzenburg has been fielding scores of calls and e-mails since she started advertising earlier this year. (more…)

The rumour-ville is buzzing of a potential Whistler accommodation rental shortages for the 2010 Whistler Vancouver winter Olympic games. Bamja.com, one of Whistler Blackcombs major rental accommodation online community’s of privately owned accommodations and lodging for rent by owners in Whistler, BC, Canada, offers the the solution to help owners help fill their rental property vacanies leading up to, during and after the 2010 Olympics, hosted in Vancouver and Whistler.

A year or two ago when Vancouver and Whistler won the Olympic bid, the Olympic organizers allotted an est. ~1,800 Whistler hotel accommodations, +750 condominiums for officials, sponsors and media, and +1,600 lodging and accommodation rooms under development leading up to the 2010 Olympics.

There is large speculation that far greater lodging and accommodations in Whistler will be required to host the games and all the tourists and travellers visiting the city over the 2 week Olympic period.

While alternative options will be to rent an accommodation in nearby Squamish and Pemberton, and of course Vancouver, anyone travelling to one of North America’s best luxury ski resorts will have a eagerness to take advantage of the opportunity of the Olympic activities and settle their vacation stay right in the city of Whistler and Whistler Village. (more…)