SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., Feb. 15, 2024—Hotel bookings at mountain destinations in the western U.S. have dropped to a 30-month low, while room rates remain stubbornly high despite a drop in guest interest in overnight stays, according to the latest monthly Market Briefing from DestiMetrics, the business intelligence division of Inntopia.

The report said that lack of snow and high rates combined to blunt a hoped-for rebound in bookings in January 2024, when occupancy ended up down 6.3 percent compared to the same month last year.

Even still, the average daily rate at DestiMetrics' 17 participating destinations in Colorado, Utah, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho was up 3.4 percent year-over-year for January, and 38 percent higher than in 2019-20, the last full ski season prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Following a disappointing December, hopes were high for a strong January with this year’s late school holiday breaks offering an opportunity to capture a strong post-holiday crowd, and snow in the first 10 days of the month boosted that optimism,” said Tom Foley, senior vice president of Business Intelligence for Inntopia. “But while there was a bump during that first week, the MLK weekend fizzled with the absence of big, newsworthy snowstorms in the West and as a result, the booking pace that has been cooling off for several months took an even bigger hit during January.”

There’s limited optimism about a change in trajectory for the rest of the 2023-24 ski season: DestiMetrics reported that bookings for arrivals at mountain destination hotels between January and June 2024 have declined 18.9 percent, the steepest drop since the pandemic.

“Snowfall is certainly a major factor in this drop, but the fact that we’ve seen the booking pace steadily dropping in recent months—before snow was an issue—strongly suggests that price sensitivity is also playing a part,” said Foley. “The unusual aspect about this year though is this mixed scenario with the slowest booking pace we’ve seen since 2020 and yet the strongest room rates ever recorded.”

Foley did offer a bit of hope to resort operators, noting, “Economic pressure on consumers is slowly easing, and if a few strong snowstorms move across the western region in the coming weeks, there is a possibility that the winter season can at least partially be turned around, particularly in March with both Spring Break and the Easter holiday breaks landing at the end of March this year.”

Mountain destination hotel occupancy for the full winter season (Nov.-April) was down 5.9 percent compared to last season as of Jan. 31, with declines in all six months, according to DestiMetrics. The drop-off in bookings is being partly offset by higher room rates, “but rate strength can’t fully compensate for the lower occupancy, and revenues for the season are down 2.9 percent from one year ago at this time,” the report noted.

Still, occupancy this season is only running 1.4 percent behind 2019-2020 levels, and higher room rates have translated into revenues that are 39.3 percent higher than four years ago, the report noted.

Report by Bob Curley