Ottawa event organizers say a lack of hotel space in the city has become a challenge in their efforts to expand.

Tourists often time their vacations with local festivals, and when more than one event competes on the same week or weekend, vacancies can be hard to come by.

Daniel Trudeau, from Tremblant, Que., said it was difficult to find an affordable hotel in the city for the August long weekend.

"We don't find a hotel in Ottawa ... we just found one here in Gatineau," said Trudeau. "It was difficult to find something we could pay for, yes."

Kelly Neall, the Ottawa International Animation Festival's managing director, said the shortage of affordable hotels is a problem for her event because of an overlap with the Army Run.

The animation festival runs from Sept. 19 to 23, while the Army Run is on Sept. 23.

"Basically it totally wipes out the chance of booking people at the last minute, because sometimes two weeks before our event all the hotel rooms in town are gone or are going for outrageous rates," said Neall.

Neall said not only does the hotel room shortage hurt the festival, it also hurts the local economy, because festival goers are often in Ottawa the whole week and eat out every day.

Ottawa Tourism spokeswoman Janteen Van Kregten said the problem is just a sign that Ottawa's festival scene is growing, and said that once the city has year-round demand, the hotels needed to serve the city will meet the need.