‘Bachelorette’ believed to be reason for 9-week booking at Jasper Park Lodge

If you were planning a getaway to Jasper and looking to stay at the iconic Jasper Park Lodge this spring, you will be out of luck.

All 446 rooms have been booked from Feb. 23 to April 29.

Officials confirmed the private booking but wouldn’t say who will be staying there.

Popular reality TV blogger Steve Carbone has a particular interest in The Bachelorette and The Bachelor, said he got a tip The Bachelorette is going to start filming its next season at JPL.

“I heard about a month ago it was going to be in Canada,” Carbone said.

“I thought well, I don’t know the resort just yet, but I will put it out there and I guarantee someone will just come to me with some tip.

“Within 10 minutes… someone came to me about it being at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.”

“I heard they are leaving for Canada the end of February, but I also know filming doesn’t start until mid-March, so that gives them the two-week grace period on the front end to get their quarantine done.”

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Carbone said an episode of The Bachelor was shot near Lake Louise for an episode a few years ago.

“It’s a bigger deal because they are filming the whole season there. There is no travel, obviously, because of COVID. No one is going in or out.

“So it’s going to get a lot more coverage than that one season when they went there for one episode.”

“It’s going to be interesting in the fact that they have never really had a cold season… I’m not too familiar with Canada but everyone that emailed me said these guys are going to be freezing the whole time,” Carbone said.

Alberta chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw was asked during the Tuesday COVID-19 briefing about how the province would make a decision to allow an American TV show to be shot in Alberta.

Hinshaw said the decision to have a production team and cast cross the border would be up to federal and provincial governments.  It would consider the risk to the public and also the broader public interest.

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Carbone said a season of The Bachelorette and The Bachelor have been filmed during the pandemic in the U.S.

“People are freaking out and saying: ‘Why are they coming to our country?’ It’s not like they are going to be interacting with the locals.

“This is a strict quarantine in a bubble situation,” Carbone said, “where the only people they are going to be interacting with are the people who are all negative and tested negative.”