With months still left in the May to October “offseason,” revenues for ski-oriented properties in Colorado and other states have already reached 90 percent of the total collected during all of the same period a year ago. The robust year-round activity is also reflected by major resort operators’ multimillion-dollar commitments to build more workforce housing.
Ski-oriented resorts in Coiorado and other states are closing in on another record summer season (defined as May through October), the Vail (Colo.) Daily News reported, even though, according to the most recent figures available, it was still only halfway over.
A report from Inntopia Business Intelligence, a Denver, Colo.-based market-research company that is hired by a number of resorts, mountain communities and chambers of commerce to collect lodging information on a confidential and bundled basis, showed that aggregated revenues at participating mountain resorts had, by the end of July, already reached 90 percent of the total that was collected throughout all of the summer of 2016, the Daily News reported.
The report for 20 mountain destinations across eight states, with all Vail Resorts’ properties, Aspen, Copper Mountain Resort and Winter Park in Colorado in the mix. reflected all monies collected through July, in addition to early reservations made through December, the Daily News reported.
That data leaves little doubt that summer revenue will be at an all-time high when the season comes to an end in October, Ralf Garrison, an advisor with Inntopia, told the Daily News.
Projections suggest the trend of rising revenues will continue, at least through Christmas, the Daily News reported.
Spikes such as those now being seen aren’t always tied to increases in occupancy, Garrison told the Daily News. The increase in summer revenue seen this year, he said, can be explained as a simple supply-and-demand correction.
When the recession hit about a decade ago, Garrison said, resorts saw declines in both occupancy rates and in their average daily rates, or the price of a room.
As the economy rebounded, he continued, both of those figures shot back up, and that’s been true for about the last five years.
“But this summer is markedly different,” Garrison added, noting that “occupancy figures have remained essentially flat while revenue figures continue to climb.”
For Garrison, this likely means that the supply of lodging accommodations—the actual number of rooms and beds—at these resorts over the summer months is just now starting to approach capacity and, as a result, prices are rising, the Daily News reported.
“Even though wages and earnings continue to remain mostly stagnant,” said Tom Foley, Vice President of Business Intelligence for Inntopia, in a prepared statement, “mountain visitors this summer have shown remarkable tolerance for steadily increasing rates.”
This year’s numbers also suggest that many resorts are starting to see a “second summer season,” Garrison told the Daily News, which comes after schools get back in session but before the snow really starts to fall.
As another reflection of the robust year-round business that has been seen by Colorado resorts this year, the Daily News also reported that Colorado Mountain Express, a subsidiary of Vail Resorts, has been granted a permit to convert a mixed-use property the company now owns in Silverthorne, Colo. into workforce housing.
In a news release issued on September 5th, Vail Resorts touted the $440,000 it’s spending through its subsidiary on the Silverthorne project as part of the company’s $30 million commitment to workforce housing for all of its properties that it first announced in 2015, the Daily News reported.
Vail Resorts employs more than 26,000 people across all of its many assets, the Daily News reported, and according to the company, more than half of those employees are millennials, putting them under the age of 40 and in a demographic that’s often sorely in need of housing at high-priced resort communities.
Since its 2015 announcement, the Daily News reported, Vail Resorts has started building a $6 million workforce housing project in Keystone, Colo. and the company is working on another large-scale housing project on 23 acres of land off the East Vail exit of Interstate 70 in Eagle County, Colo.
The company says it now owns or leases about 3,000 beds just in two Colorado counties (Eagle and Summit), the Daily News reported.
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