Calgary’s Hotel Elan opened its doors in July 2013, mere days before the historic flooding that wreaked havoc in Calgary and across southern Alberta. Since this somewhat inauspicious opening, Hotel Elan has become a busy boutique hotel in the heart of the city, popular with both business travellers and families.

Hotel Elan actually started life as an apartment building. Because of its prime location just off of 17th Avenue SW, one of Calgary’s main dining-and-shopping hubs, Hotel Elan general manager Veronica Brenner says the owner saw an opportunity to completely overhaul the structure and turn it into a contemporary, upscale hotel. And so Hotel Elan was born. Because of these origins, of Hotel Elan’s 62 rooms, 41 are suites with separate bedrooms; fourteen of the rooms actually have two bedrooms.