Victoria Hotel Deals With Deadbeat Guest

From time to time hotels are confronted with deadbeats who enjoy the hotel's services without payment. Victoria’s Fairmont Empress hotel, the iconic and historic structure that graces Victoria's inner harbour, is now in the midst of such a situation. The unwanted guest is believed to have hitched a ride into the city from Grand Forks in B.C.'c southeastern region, and spent all of last summer and fall at the hotel.

Hotel staff attempted to evict the deadbeat last winter but he disappeared before any action was possible. The hotel wrote off the loss and were just happy that the affair was resolved with the departure of the deadbeat. However, hotel staff were aghast to find that the deadbeat had secretly re-emerged on the grounds of the hotel some three weeks ago.

B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner, was on a lunch break on the grounds of the hotel when he spotted two women in conversation with the deadbeat, and also sharing their Rice Krispie squares with him.

“I expressed my opinion that Rice Krispie squares would not likely be part of its natural diet,” Penner said. “We then had quite a conversation about marmots.”

Yes, the dead beat was a yellow-bellied marmot, known locally as a hoary marmot. At one time on the verge of extinction, the animal's population is nicely recovering.

Environment staff have been instructed to reason the marmot into a cage for a return trip to Grand Forks. As yet, the one-way ticket home, courtesy of B.C.'s environment minister, is not enough to convince the marmot to leave the curious and generous food attention of locals and visitors alike.