SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., Aug. 17, 2023—Data from research firm DestiMetrics, a division of Inntopia, has revealed that travelers to the western United States are booking summer lodging closer to their planned arrival date this year compared to previous years, but they’re still booking. 

This was comforting news, after data in March showed summer occupancy down approximately 13.5 percent over the previous year’s bookings at that time. The findings are based on data from approximately 28,000 reporting lodging properties in seven western states. 

“We have been tracking the slow but continued improvement in overall lodging performance for the past several months,” said Tom Foley, senior vice president of business intelligence for Inntopia. “And while improvements in occupancy are good news for communities as a whole, the fact that room rates declined steadily in late winter and spring but didn’t decline any further in the past 45 days suggests that consumers may be emerging from the inflation doldrums.”  

In a year-over-year comparison, reservations made in July for July through January arrivals were up 8.4 percent, that increase driven primarily by July-September arrivals, with double-digit increases for July and August arrivals. Longer-lead bookings made in July for October through January stays, were all down compared to the same time last year (though overall on-the-books occupancy for winter months is trending slightly up—more on that later).

Occupancy on-the-books, which looks at actual occupancy for May through July and reservations for arrivals from August through October, is down 2.2 percent compared to last summer, with September and October showing the sharpest declines at this time.

However, visitors are paying more for lodging. Average daily rates (ADR) (room revenue divided by rooms sold) are up 2 percent, almost, but not quite, enough to offset the decrease in occupancy rates. For the second consecutive month, year-over-year ADR crept up during July and is now up 2 percent for the summer, although gains are marginal with August eking out only an 0.1 percent increase and October a moderate 1.5 percent increase over last year. 

“Even though ADR for the summer increased only slightly and revenue was nearly flat, it is a vast improvement from 90 days ago, and the brisk July booking pace helped fill in most of the year-over-year summer deficit with a healthy increase in arrivals for July and August,” said Foley. 

So far, upcoming winter reservations do not appear to be as last-minute as summer. While still early in the booking season, said Foley, on-the-books occupancy for November through January is up 3.2 percent compared to last year at this time, with varying gains in all winter months. November is currently leading the growth, with an encouraging 10.6 percent increase over November 2022. ADR is up a moderate 3.5 percent for those months, with January showing the largest gain in rates—up 6.7 percent.