Vail Valley ‘ultra luxury’ properties offer guests ‘An amazing experience’

This story has been corrected to reflect Moving Mountains’ relationship with the Casteel Creek property. The property also has a new name: Chateau Grande at Casteel Creek.

Vail and the surrounding valley have long catered to the well-heeled. But a few properties attract the really, really well-off.

A couple of those properties have recently sent news of their availability. Near Edwards, the Casteel Creek property at the top of Lake Creek is available for nightly guest rentals. The property, now known as Chateau Grande at Casteel Creek, sold for $40 million late last year. It offers guests access to one of two large homes. A stay also includes access to the Coyote Lodge, a 28,000-square-foot sports and recreation facility. That facility includes a 60-foot lap pool, a game room, a full catering kitchen and more. Guests also have full access to rest of the more than 400-acre property, with trails and other amenities.

Nightly rentals start at $15,000.

The home is managed by Moving Mountains. In an emailed statement Moving Mountains co-founder and CEO Robin Craigen likened staying at the property to chartering a super yacht.

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That market currently has “robust and active demand for… ultra-luxurious experiences,” Craigen wrote.

For those who desire those experiences, “price is far less of a consideration when it comes to incomparable values like privacy (and) exclusivity.

Chateau Grande at Casteel Creek isn’t the only entrant into the valley’s super-luxury market.

At the Apex

Triumph Mountain Properties, a long-time property management firm for high-end rentals and property management, recently launched the Apex Collection. That collection consists of a small handful of very high-end homes available for nightly rentals.

The pinnacle of the Apex Collection is a pair of large homes at 99 and 100 Vail Road. The property is a pair of interconnected homes, called Ethos and Opus. The homes were once owned by the families of the Webster and McGraw-Hill publishing houses.

Those homes combine for nine bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, as well as two swimming pools, two hot tubs, “state of the art kitchens” and more. The property recently was subject to a $5 million renovation.

A stay at the home starts at $24,950 per night.

Triumph Mountain Properties General Manager Michael Connolly said the goal of the Apex Collection is “providing guests with an amazing experience … Our job is to make … their stay as spectacular as we can.”

Connolly said Triumph has a team member — Erin Ridgely — in a kind of concierge role.

An all-inclusive experience

Connolly said Ridgely has “done an amazing job of putting together fun experiences.” Those experiences include a champagne and caviar mountaintop apres — including opening bottles with a saber. Other activities include private shopping experiences.

From transportation to meals and more, “We handle every aspect” of a stay, Connolly said.

“They see (Ridgely) on a daily basis … she can really handle stuff on the fly,” Connolly said.

The ultra-luxury traveler is one Triumph has been working with for some time,” Connolly said. Based on feedback from guests, Triumph had a reason to “elevate” its experiences, he added.

Connolly noted that the global luxury market is estimated to be worth at least $20 billion per year. A number that’s expected to grow “substantially” over the next 20 years, Connolly said.

And that market is somewhat insulated from economic ups and downs, Connolly said.

Until the Great Recession, which began in 2008 and lasted into 2010, common wisdom around Vail was that some segments of guests always had money.

Connolly said that even during that serious downturn, there was a “sliver” of people who had money and were willing to spend it, but “didn’t want to appear ostentatious.”

While current economic conditions are uncertain, Connolly said he expects any downturn to be relatively short.

The current pattern seems similar to the months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the economy in March of 2020.

Those who spend five-figure sums for a night of luxury accommodations are paying for experiences, not just lodging, Connolly said.

“Thankfully, those people love to come here,” he added.