Participant AccommodationParticipants of BIRS programmes are housed in Corbett Hall at the Banff Centre. 5-day workshop participants are expected to arrive on Sunday afternoon or evening (check-in is after 4 p.m.) and to depart Friday midday (check-out is at noon). Accommodation and meals are provided for the organizers and participants for this period. Check-in desk at the Banff Centre is located in the Professional Development Centre (PDC). The desk is open 24 hours* so participants can check in anytime. Here you will be given the key to your room in Corbett Hall as well as any information useful for BIRS participants. During your stay at BIRS, you can be contacted by telephone through The Banff Centre switchboard, which is open 24 hours, at +1-403-762-6100. For detailed information on the set up at BIRS please go to the Facilities section on the home page. Participants of BIRS programmes are housed in Corbett Hall, which has 50 rooms. Each room has one queen-sized bed, a telephone, a SunRay terminal connected to the BIRS computer system and the Internet, an ethernet port with a cable for laptops, and a desk. There are also wireless access points in some common areas. Most bedrooms share a bathroom with one other bedroom. Corbett Hall has 4 floors and is not equipped with an elevator. If you feel that this could be a physical challenge to you, please advise us and we will be happy to accommodate you on a lower floor. *However, public transportation from Calgary Airport is somewhat limited, so please refer to shuttle timings prior to booking your flight. Shuttle companies are listed under "Getting to BIRS".
Accompanying GuestYou are welcome to bring an adult guest while being aware that the bedrooms at BIRS (Corbett Hall) contain one queen size bed and that most bedrooms have a shared bathroom with one other participant. (A guest is considered "adult" if he or she can take care of him-or herself from 9am to 6pm while you are participating in workshop activities). Since the stay of your guest is not directly connected to a specific BIRS programme, you are urged to consider making a nominal contribution --of the order of $25 per night-- towards supporting the station’s infrastructure. Online payment can be made here. If your guest wishes to join you for meals at the Banff Centre, she/he will do this at her/his own expense.
Extended StayIf you are arriving before your workshop begins or staying after it ends, you will have to arrange and pay for your own accommodation for all nights outside of the workshop dates. Participants of 5-day workshops may however, request to stay at the BIRS facility for additional nights (strictly for scientific and/or logistic reasons and subject to room availability). Such a request, along with your reason for request, needs to be made directly to the BIRS Scientific Director, birs-director@birs.ca, and must be made at least 2 weeks prior to the start of your workshop. Since this part of your stay is not directly connected to a specific BIRS program, you are urged to consider making a nominal contribution --of the order of $25-$50 per night-- towards supporting the station’s infrastructure. Online payment can be made here. If you wish to book accommodation at the Banff Centre, we can give you a reservation code that, as a BIRS participant, will get you a specially negotiated BIRS rate on your room. Additional accommodation information can be found at www.discoverbanff.com/WheretoStay. When BIRS cannot accommodate your request, you may choose to be either at another building of the Banff Centre or at another hotel in the town of Banff. You will need to book and pay for your own accommodation for all additional nights in another building at the Banff Centre or at another hotel in the town of Banff. To contact the Banff Centre reservations office, call 1-800-884-7574 or email reservations@banffcentre.ca.
Family AccommodationTwo suites, suitable for participants with more than one accompanying guest, are available to participants of BIRS 5-day workshops. These suites have an independent bathroom and two queen beds. These two dwellings are suitable for participants who are bringing along non-adult guests. In this case, they are also expected to bring along an adult guest who will take care of the non-adults while you are away during the day at the workshop activities. These family suites are located and equipped so as to minimize interference with the research activities happening at the various BIRS lounges, reading areas and lecture rooms. Participants who are assigned family suites are expected to help maintain the integrity of the station's mission: to be a secluded, creative environment with uninterrupted research activities for all participants. Due to their very limited number, the requests for such suites should be made to the workshop contact organizer who will then submit a ranked list of such requests to the scientific director. You must clearly state the rationale behind your request for this family accommodation, in order for your request to be considered. Organizers are required to submit a ranked list of such requests to the scientific director birs-director@birs.ca. These submissions should be made at least 1 month prior to the date of your workshop. Workshop organizers are asked to be very careful in prioritizing their list because of the obviously limited amount of family housing available at BIRS. Caregiving needs and other human factors should be taken under consideration by the workshop organizers. Participants accompanied by family members are then urged to consider making a nominal contribution --of the order of $25 per night-- towards supporting the station’s infrastructure. Online payment can be made here.
If you are not approved for one of the suites in BIRS' residence Corbett Hall, if the accommodation is not suitable for your situation, or if you would simply prefer to book accommodation elsewhere, please see Alternative Family Housing information below.
Alternative Family Housing at Banff
In the case where --due to limited availability-- BIRS is unable to accommodate the family of a participant, he/she will need to arrange and pay for his/her own accommodation for the duration of your stay in Banff. There is a large selection of accommodation elsewhere at the Banff Centre or in the town of Banff ranging from cozy bed and breakfasts to five-star resorts. BIRS cannot provide financial reimbursement for such arrangements. Information on alternative accommodations can be found online. The following are some tourism websites: There is a useful map showing the location of the Banff Centre and some of the main hotels, restaurants, and attractions of Banff at: http://www.discoverbanff.com/Maps |
For Participants 
