Company director Jacques Desbois offers guests a warm welcome

Twenty-two people booked in for the opening night, sleeping in sub-zero temperatures in ice-beds covered with animal skins and sleeping bags.

The managers of the hotel, which overlooks the St Lawrence river and Montmorency Falls, say 1,000 people have already signed up to stay in the hotel before it begins to melt in the April thaw.

The hotel is constructed like a huge igloo and is made of 4,500 tonnes of snow and 250 tonnes of ice.

All mod cons

The hotel's facilities include a cinema, two art galleries and a bar, where guests can drink vodka from an ice-glass.

The hotel contains two galleries, filled wth ice sculptures

All the furniture and decorations are sculpted from ice.

But there is one area which is ice-free - the bathroom is housed in a separate heated building.

Next year, the ice hotel plans to move to the Duchesnay resort west of Quebec city, where the new ice hotel should be able to accommodate 85 guests.

The first ice hotel was built around 10 years ago in Jukkasjarvi in Sweden.