Sponsor Spotlight: All About The Family
Originally printed in Sport Quarterly, September 2007

Experience counts, whether it is in building a winning sports team, or building success in the hotel business.

After well over 10 years of providing service to the Nova Scotia sport community, the folks at Comfort Inn hotels have that experience.

Owned and operated by the Westmont Hospitality Group, there are seven Comfort Inn hotels in Nova Scotia, and 15 across Atlantic Canada, with approximately 450 employees. As they offer full accommodations with a complimentary deluxe continental breakfast, Comfort Inn hotels are considered to be a mid-scale hotel chain. As a sponsor of Sport Nova Scotia, all Comfort Inn hotels in Atlantic Canada offer the same great rates for sports teams travelling to games or tournaments.

“Our overall philosophy toward sponsorships is that we focus on family-oriented projects or events, and we know that Sport Nova Scotia does as well, especially with things like youth sports,” explains Catherine Welland, senior sales manager for the Westmont Group in Atlantic Canada. “As far as the sport community goes, we’ve worked with all kinds of teams for years, right up to the university level.”

Welland says that familiarity has in a way carved out a niche for Comfort Inn.
“When we get sport organizations staying with us, the hotel mangers really know how to provide service for them, to the point you could say we almost specialize in it. It’s a different kind of market than the corporate market, in that when sports teams come in there are usually a lot of people coming in at once, not only the athletes, but the families as well.”

Welland says that over the years, the relationship with Sport Nova Scotia has been a smooth one, and that she’s found Sport Nova Scotia to be a very easy organization to work with.

“Sport Nova Scotia is a very reputable organization that gives back to the community, which is the kind of thing that is a very good fit for us,” she says. “One thing that makes them great to work with is the consistency, in that there are not changing faces all the time, and that allows us to build a personal relationship.”

At the same time, Welland says she likes the fact working with Sport Nova Scotia provides Comfort Inn with the opportunity to get involved in a variety of projects or events.

“As opportunities come up, Sport Nova Scotia will contact us and give us the chance to get involved—for example with things such as the Manulife Dragon Boat Festival—and they’re very open to new ideas that would be a benefit to both sides,” she says. “Another thing is that they invite us to events, such as the IKON Sport Awards, where we can meet with the athletes and sport officials as well as network with other companies that also are involved in sports in the province.

“It’s a sponsorship that really gives us a lot of good visibility,” Welland adds. “Over the years it has proven to work very well for us.”