A picturesque hotel backdrop is seemingly de rigueur for holiday movies as of late. Lindsay Lohan recently made her much-heralded comeback via Netflix’s “Falling for Christmas,” a Yuletide-themed flick set at an idyllic inn. And now Freevee has released another seasonal film centered around a grand lodging. Titled “Hotel for the Holidays,” the sweet tale sees Georgia Clark (Madelaine Petsch), the zealous manager of New York’s fictional Hotel Fontaine (“Your home for the holidays!”), navigating her way through the hustle and bustle of the season while simultaneously attempting to secure funding from a visiting prince in order to get a hotel project of her own off the ground.
A true ensemble piece, Georgia’s dedicated staff, including event planner Kiki (Jamison Belushi, who just so happens to be Jim Belushi’s real-life daughter!) and executive chef Luke (Mena Massoud), as well as a slew of idiosyncratic guests, round out the charming cast of characters. While by no means a classic, “Hotel for the Holidays” (which marks Freevee’s first foray into the genre) is a heartwarming story that is sure to impart a little Noel magic to anyone who watches. Plus, what’s not to love about a grand old hotel at Christmastime?
Despite what the plethora of establishing shots showing a snowy Manhattan in all of its holiday glory would have you believe (not to mention a scene faked to be overlooking the Rink at Rockefeller Center), filming actually took place a good 400 miles outside of the Big Apple, in Ottawa, Canada, to be exact. Shot at a handful of area locales (including ONE60 Elgin, which plays Georgia’s proposed new hotel site, and Healthy Pets HQ on Bank St., which pops up as a tony pet shop), the vast majority of “Hotel for the Holidays” takes place at the Fontaine. As such, director Ron Oliver and his production team had to secure a lodging not only large enough to house all the trappings that come with the making of a film but one capable of promptly capturing audiences’ hearts. The massively large and exquisitely outfitted Fairmont Chateau Laurier, located centrally at 1 Rideau St. in downtown Ottawa, proved the ideal spot!
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The Government Conference Centre
Image Credit: Michel Rathwell from Cornwall, Canada - Fairmont Chateau Laurier, CC BY 2.0 Resembling a majestic European castle with a dramatic turreted copper roof, Chateau Laurier was the brainchild of Grand Trunk Railway titan Charles Melville Hays, who, as was customary at the time, set about commissioning a series of luxury hotels along his various routes in the hopes of boosting patronage. Construction on the lodging began in 1909, with architect Bradford Gilbert originally at the helm, though he was later fired with George Allen Ross and David Huron MacFarlane of the Montreal-based Ross and MacFarlane firm taking over the project.
Fashioned out of gorgeous Caen stone, granite blocks, Indiana limestone, elaborate decorative plaster, Tiffany stained glass and Belgian and Italian marble, the towering French Renaissance-style hotel was completed in 1912 at a cost of about $1.5 million USD (about $45 million today). Initially set to be unveiled to the public in April of that year, the grand opening was delayed when Hays tragically perished during the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Chateau Laurier finally made its debut in June, with the property’s namesake, then prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, on hand for the affair.
Attracting guests far and wide with room rates starting at $1.50 USD a night (only about $45 today!), the site did not take long to become the area’s premier destination! As The Ottawa Journal reported at the time, “It is one of the most substantial and beautiful buildings in the world, both from an outside and inside viewpoint. Some people have ventured the opinion that the Chateau Laurier will be one of the best advertisements Ottawa will have.” Indeed, offering 306 rooms and such modern amenities as indoor plumbing and private baths, the lodging became the place for well-heeled train travelers to see and be seen.
In 1929, the Archibald and Schofield architecture firm designed a new wing for the hotel, which added 240 more rooms to the premises, as well as new lobby space, a music room, a ballroom and a convention hall. An indoor pool outfitted with “pale pink Tennessee marble” was installed the following year.
Today, the massive property, which is a National Historic Site of Canada and the inspiration for Epcot Center’s Hotel du Canada, boasts an incredible 660,000 square feet, 429 finely-appointed rooms and suites, two signature restaurants, a lounge, a health club and 36,000 square feet of event space with 16 meeting rooms and ballrooms.
Fairmont Chateau Laurier’s designation as a resort destination has never waned throughout its 150-year history, with such luminaries as Queen Elizabeth II, Nelson Mandela, King George VI, Winston Churchill, Shirley Temple, Benny Goodman and Smokey Robinson all wandering its storied halls at various points in time. As noted by photographer Dustin Abbott, “The hotel is, outside of Canada’s Parliament buildings, the most recognized landmark in Canada’s capital city.”
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Fairmont Chateau Laurier, 3D Tour “Hotel for the Holidays” made copious use of the lodging throughout the multi-week shoot. While most of the story takes place in the Fontaine’s elegant reception area, the Fairmont’s actual lobby was not utilized to portray the space. Considering the vast number of scenes set there, doing so would have caused far too great an inconvenience to both guests and employees. So cast and crew instead descended upon the Drawing Room Foyer, a sprawling columned anteroom enveloped in shiny fine finishes, with production designer Graham Caswell thoroughly redressing it to appear as the Fontaine’s reception desk and lobby bar. Vast, cavernous and lined in gorgeous stone, the Foyer is extremely reminiscent of The Biltmore Los Angeles, one of L.A.’s most historic lodgings and oft-filmed spots.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Fairmont Chateau Laurier, 3D Tour “Hotel for the Holidays” features many other areas of the Fairmont, as well. The Drawing Room itself is the site of the big Jingle Mingle party scene at the end of the film.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Fairmont Chateau Laurier, 3D Tour Pulling double duty onscreen is the Tudor Room, a handsome wood-paneled banquet space complete with a stone fireplace that first pops up as Georgia’s executive office.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Fairmont Chateau Laurier, 3D Tour Outfitted with a bed, bureau and armchairs and shot from a slightly different angle, the enclave was cheated a bit to also portray the suite where bereft bachelor AJ (Morgan David Jones) and his beloved dog, Dickens, stay.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Fairmont Chateau Laurier, 3D Tour Last but definitely not least, the Quebec Suite Foyer, an expansive anteroom on the hotel’s first level, was transformed into the Fontaine’s plush Presidential Suite, where “Love, Love, Love Is All Couture to Me” singer Pandora (Kayleigh Shikanai) checks in at the behest of her life coach, who, as she explains, advised her to find “a simple zen space to ground myself for the holidays.”
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Image Credit: Amazon Freevee Caswell had his work cut out for him getting the ample spaces ready for their Christmas close-ups in the movie. Decked out in a profusion of holiday finery, the production designer did not leave one bough of holly unlit, one surface unornamented, nor one doorway sans garland. His efforts added up to a gloriously festive wintry backdrop.
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Image Credit: Amazon Freevee Interestingly, only the interior of the Fairmont was utilized in “Hotel for the Holidays.” Exteriors were filmed less than half a mile away at the 126 Sparks apartment complex, appropriately located at 126 Sparks St. The three-story building, which comprises 35 units, is relatively diminutive, which is ironic considering the staggering size of the Fairmont Chateau Laurier! Despite the obvious grandness of the interior spaces seen in the film, producers of “Hotel for the Holidays” apparently envisioned the Fontaine as a more intimate lodging.
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Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures The Freevee film is one of many to utilize the Fairmont Chateau Laurier. Way back in 1942, the hotel played itself in the war drama “Captains of the Clouds.”
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Image Credit: Hallmark Channel Yet again decked out in holiday décor, it appeared as the castle belonging to Prince Whitaker (Neal Bledsoe) and the rest of the Ancadian royal family in the Hallmark Channel’s 2020 movie “A Christmas Carousel.”
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Image Credit: Hallmark Channel The Fairmont Chateau Laurier is apparently something of a Hallmark go-to, as the site was also featured as the mansion where the ultra-wealthy Hamilton family lives in the channel’s 2021 romance “Fit for a Prince.” The title is certainly apt because the luxurious hotel is nothing if not fit for royalty!