Holiday travelers fill beds

SUMMIT COUNTY — More holiday travelers this season are filling the bed base in Summit County, prompting property managers to predict the best December in two years.

Revenue is up 25 percent over last ski season at Key to the Rockies Lodging Company in Keystone.

“We’re having the best month ever in our company’s history,” said Linda Cahill, director of sales and marketing.

The 13-year-old company manages 100 properties that are located primarily in Keystone and in Dillon and Silverthorne.

Rooms started to fill on Dec. 18, the weekend before Christmas, then occupancy dropped to about 60 percent for the holiday, Cahill said, but picked right back up to 100 percent occupancy on Dec. 26.
The company’s properties were nearly booked through today but Cahill expected to be sold out on New Year’s Eve.

Many lodging companies expected 100 percent occupancy on New Year’s Eve.

In Frisco, occupancy at the Best Western Lake Dillon Lodge is up 14 percent this season over last, and rooms have been full for more than a week, general manager Scott Brunvand said.

Advanced reservations showed the lodge would be full into this week.
Brunvand said revenues would be “very good” this month, surpassing the last two years but still 11 percent down from record levels set before that.

Copper Mountain Resort was expected to be busy as well from New Year’s Eve into next week, said resort spokeswoman Katelin Hill.
“Our numbers typically pick up right after Christmas Day and this year has followed suit,” Hill said.

Based on lodging reservations that Hill would not disclose because of federal Security Exchange Commission regulations imposed on publicly traded companies, Hill said New Year’s Eve would be “huge” at Copper.

The Breckenridge Resort Chamber reported 95 to 100 percent occupancies throughout town until Monday, with only a few one-night rentals still available.

Both Christmas and New Year’s fell on Saturdays this season, which helped condense business on weekends and boosted revenues over last year for lodging members of the Summit County Chamber, executive director Constance Jones said.

Property managers reported 85-99 percent occupancies from Christmas through this weekend, Jones said.

The visitor information center in Silverthorne that is managed by the chamber saw 1,800 visitors and received more than 130 calls from Dec. 23-29.

Denver Public Schools are on break until Jan. 5, so property managers said they expected last-minute reservations until then.
Cahill was positive about advanced reservations in January. She said Key to the Rockies already booked strong group business in Keystone from Jan. 2-20.

Kim Marquis can be contacted at (970) 668-3998, ext. 249, or at kmarquis@summitdaily.com.