No business like snow business in Vail as Thanksgiving lodging reservations surge
Late holiday, coming storm bringing visitors
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
The Thanksgiving holiday weekend has long been a bit of an odd duck on the ski season calendar. Winter isn’t yet in full swing, but it’s a long weekend with snow on the ground. But this weekend looks to be a pretty busy one.
Beaver Creek opens Wednesday, and Park Hyatt Beaver Creek general manager Herb Rackliff said that the property is set for a somewhat busier than normal holiday weekend this year.
Rackliff said the hotel won’t be sold out but will be mostly full, due perhaps to a later-than-usual Thanksgiving and a heavy storm that’s been in the forecast for several days.
The forecast may have had something to do with reservations coming in at the Antlers Vail. Assistant general manager Jeff Severini said that the property is “pretty busy” this weekend, with “more and more” arrivals through the week. Thursday and Friday are “pretty well occupied,” Severini said, adding that he believes both snow on the ground and snow in the forecast have something to do with those reservations. As of Monday, the smaller gaps in the reservation picture are also starting to fill in, he added.
Thanksgiving historically hasn’t been an all-hands-on-deck holiday in the Vail Valley, but the marketing team at the Four Seasons Vail decided this year to change that.
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Jonathan Reap, the director of sales and marketing at the hotel, said his team put together a plan to affect reservations for all of November, especially Thanksgiving. As a result, “We have very high occupancy this week — we’re convinced there’s an opportunity for the destination,” Reap said.
While Reap acknowledged that the Four Seasons is a relatively small property — with only 135 total keys between hotel rooms and condos — he said he’s pleasantly surprised how well the promotion came together for the holiday week.
Reap believes other members of the Vail Local Marketing District and its Advisory Council should also start pushing the holiday.
The winter in general is looking OK so far.
Vail Economic Development Director Mia Vlaar looks every Wednesday at a straw poll of several lodging properties. As of last week, Vlaar said Vail was seeing a “nice, gradual build” heading into December. Before this week and the results from the forecast snowstorms, the straw poll showed an overall forecast occupancy of just under 50%. Vlaar expected an uptick in reservations from the storm.
Based on numbers from Destimetrics, which tracks lodging numbers across the mountain resort region, this week is tracking ahead of the same period in 2023. On the other hand, Thanksgiving in 2023 was a week earlier than it is this year.
As you’d expect in the week following a holiday, reservation numbers drop the week following the holiday. And overall, reservations are just below those for the same period in 2023. Still, the numbers for February and March are tracking just ahead of the same period for the previous year.
Overall, Vlaar said, “I’m just happy we have the snow to meet the demand.”
