London hotels have few vacancies leading into Homecoming weekend (credit: Jack Sutton)
Local businesses expect large crowds
Besides hotels, other businesses are also expecting to see a steep increase in customers.
“Because of all the foot traffic, it does get really, really busy,” says Sian, owner of Plaza Sushi. “Usually we’ll have a waitlist because our facility here is a little small, but the turnover is good.”
She adds that a lot of students that do come to the restaurant are very respectful.
“Even if they are a little bit inebriated,” she says.
While their Richmond Street location has been around for multiple HOCOs, this year they opened a new location on Western Road, in the Barakat restaurant building.
“We’ve been told by our landlord, who owns the Barakat location, that it is very, very crazy,” says Sian.
“So, we’re like, oh okay, we can do this…we have lots of salmon.”
