We’ve been having some issues convincing our guests that our latest Holiday deal is legit. For those of you who might have missed it last week, for an extra $6 per room/night we’re giving away $75 Gift Certificates to the Core . It understandably sounds a little too good to be true, since it’s basically free money. And granted, if circumstances were different, and we had paid for all those Gift Certificates ourselves, we wouldn’t be able to afford to run this promotion without putting ourselves out of business.

After all, that is what the Holidays are for, right?

But, we DIDN’T pay for all those Core Gift Certificates ourselves. For the long version of this story, I’ll have to explain what the Destination Marketing Fund is, and how a small boutique hotel in downtown Calgary fits in with it. The Desination Marketing Fund (or DMF), is sort of a voluntary tax that hotels and other tourism-based businesses can opt into. Nuvo’s been a part of it since we opened up a few years ago. Essentially, they take a tiny percentage of our profits on a per-room/night basis and put it towards improving tourism to Alberta and Calgary. This year they made a bunch of videos, which are actually pretty great, but there was significant amount of money left over. So, the local affiliate of Travel Alberta, Tourism Calgary, decided to try and reinject that sweet, sweet tax money back into the local economy by producing these Gift Certificates.  Of which we were given many, which we can’t use ourselves (unfortunately).

Which brings me back to the Holiday Stay and Shop Deal. For a limited time (probably just the holiday season) you can get a $75 Gift Certificate towards shopping at the Core for very night you stay with us. The Deal’s Room Rates begin at $154 on weekdays, and $114 on weekends. You can book the deal through our online booking engine , or just ask for it over the phone. Seriously. We mean it.

Jonathan Meier is the Online Marketing and Social Media Coordinator for Nuvo Hotel Suites, a small boutique hotel in downtown Calgary, Alberta (to learn more about the Nuvo peruse the rest of the site, or check out our Facebook Page). When he’s not at his desk, he’s usually out in the mountains near his hometown of Canmore where he can be seen climbing, skiing, or doing anything at all that doesn’t involve computers.