As a disappointing winter season nears the end, western mountain lodging properties are now focused on bookings for the summer. A good sign is the emergence of some pent-up demand for a delayed mountain vacation, according to DestiMetrics monthly Market Briefing. The booking pace is weak, but th e summer average daily rate rose appreciably while winter rates during March held steady, the briefing says. “Occupancy on the books for May through October is continuing to see improved strength — up four percent compared to this time last year with increases in all six months,” the briefing says. “(Average daily rate) for the summer is up a strong 6.5 percent with increases in all months. Growth in occupancy and rates is currently driving an early revenue gain of 10.8 percent.” The briefing, which was issued by Inntopia on April 13, has data as of March 31 from properties in 17 resort destinations. The data is in two subsets, Colorado and Utah and the “rest of the West,” which is California, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.  Other data in the report include: Actual occupancy during March for the entire region dropped a significant 12% in a year-over-year comparison to last year, the average daily rate slipped down 2.2% and the combination led to a 13.9% decline in aggregated monthly revenue. Occupancy for the full winter season across the West is down 6.7% with declines in all six months, but the average daily rate had a 1.3% year-over-year increase. The slightly higher daily rates did not offset the lower occupancy, so aggregated seasonal revenues are down 5.6%. The occupancy booking pace decreased in the Colorado/Utah and the rest of the West regions during March. Bookings made for arrivals in March through August declined 17.9% compared to the same time last year.  The winter season is November through May. There is one more month of winter to include in the data, but “there is no hope for improved numbers as we run out the clock,” said Tom Foley, director of Business Intelligence for Inntopia and the author of the report. The consumer has to be incentivized to come when there’s a bad snow year, Foley said. “When there is economic uncertainty as there is now, rate is the first place to start,” he said. “The second beyond that is value added. What kind of packaging can you put together? Can you do some free meals? Are you pairing it with an off-mountain activity like mountain bike rentals?” Tom Foley is the director of Business Intelligence for Inntopia and the author of the report. Credit: Photo courtesy of Tom Foley Whether a destination replaces an event it loses, such as the Sundance Film Festival, depends on the period, Foley said.  “If it’s a shoulder season event outside of the peaks of summer and winter, then I think the need to replace it is probably greater,” he said. “But the festival happens during ski season, when there is a lot of incentive for people to already come to town because the product for skiing is so good. So I’m not sure whether or not it would fall into a priority.” Foley also said a lot of mountain towns have very big events, leading to “event fatigue.” Next January will be the first time the Sundance Film Festival, which moved to Boulder, Colorado, will not be held in Park City. Robbie Smoot, the city’s senior financial and data analyst, said he does not expect much, if any, decrease in sales tax revenue because of the loss, assuming otherwise normal winter conditions.  “During COVID, when Sundance was absent, demand shifted toward additional ski-related visitation instead,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there will be no effect at all, but we wouldn’t expect a major drop in overall sales tax solely because of the festival’s departure.” A report by city staffers says the January sales tax, excluding taxes on lodging, was down 0.8% compared to January 2025. However, quarterly revenue from November through January was up 2.6% from the previous year, and the year-to-date revenue from July to January was up 1.7%. “Given the exceptionally weak winter season and the subsequent disruption to typical visitation patterns, January’s results were comparatively respectable and suggest the local economy held up better than expected,” the report says. Several factors likely contributed to those results, Smoot said. He pointed out that January was not the weakest point of the winter from a snow conditions standpoint.  “More broadly, the results suggest the local economy held up better than weather alone would have implied, supported by a mix of winter visitation and relatively stable local and regional spending,” Smoot said. Lodging taxes, which are called the transient room tax, continue to show more noticeable weakness, the report says. Their revenue declined from the same period a year ago by 4.2% in January, 0.4% in the November-to-January quarter and 4.3% year-to-date. The report also says hotel occupancy declined in December, January and February compared to the same months a year ago, but the room rates have remained comparatively resilient.  “Taken together, current indicators point to softer destination travel and more pressure on overnight visitor spending than on the broader sales tax base,” the report says. “Those dynamics are likely to remain evident in the next two sales tax  distributions, with the clearest effects likely to appear in lodging-related revenues.” Smoot said fiscal 2026 revenues appear more likely to finish somewhat below fiscal 2025 than above it, mainly because this winter’s poor snow conditions put pressure on visitor-related spending.  “At the same time, the broader local economy has remained relatively resilient, so we expect modest softness rather than a sharp drop,” he said. The post After a warm winter, western resorts are hoping for a better summer appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less