Now that a key travel booking period has passed, the Breckenridge Tourism Office has a more precise outlook on the ski season and staff members say the data is showing some unprecedented trends. 

Bill Wishowski, director of operations for the Breckenridge Tourism Office, told industry professionals during a Dec. 17 presentation that patterns in revenue and booking are unlike anything he’s seen in the past two decades. 

He said data indicates nights booked will be up during the ski season, travelers’ average length of stay will be down and so will revenue. The average length of stay was at 3.6 nights in 2024, which is down from 4.3 in 2023, and revenue is down 5% from 2023, despite a 2% increase year over year in guest nights booked. Additionally, the revenue per available unit is up.

“I’ve heard anecdotally, discounting is happening more on lesser quality, smaller units, but things that are kind of in that mid-to-upper range, quality wise, those rates are whole,” Wishowski said. 

He added this is particularly interesting because data shows the number of available lodging units is down 7% year over year.

While the Breckenridge Tourism Office doesn’t have data on every single lodging option, it has data on most through a database called Key Data. Around 3,200 properties both in and outside town limits are captured through Key Data and the boundary spans from the Hoosier Pass area to Farmer’s Korner near Frisco. The organization has tabs on around 2,900 of the approximate 4,100 licensed lodging units in town limits. 

Numerous factors such as how properties are managed and who manages them play a role in some lodging options not being accounted for in the database. Perhaps the most significant outlier is the lack of any Breckenridge Grand Vacations-owned properties in the data. Wishowski said he doesn’t think the trends in data would change that significantly if Breckenridge Grand Vacations were to be included because they have very consistent occupancy numbers year to year.

Wishowski estimated around 25% of winter bookings in Breckenridge are made during a six-week period starting before ski season at the beginning of November and ending halfway through December. Bookings made during this time trail behind last year’s. December nights booked during that period were down 36% year over year and January nights booked during that period were 18%. February bookings made during that time were down 5%, March was down 14% and April was down 30%.

 “This is a little bit of a trend,” he said. ” Obviously, we’ll be keeping an eye on it, but this is the opposite of what we want to see and expect to see.”

Despite bookings made during what is considered a crucial window being down across the board, all the bookings made so far are not down. Wishowsk said by mid-December, more than 60% of the season’s booking had been made. December and January nights booked will be 4% and 5% behind last year’s numbers, respectively. Things will seemingly take a turn for the better once February hits. 

“(For our) banner months in that February, March timeframe, we’re double digits ahead,” he said, noting February is up 11% year over year and March is 13% up year over year. 

He said while it’s still early to tell, April looks to be up nearly 50% year over year.

For the season at-large, the average daily rate visitors are paying for lodging is down 8% year over year and is currently at $501.

Wishowski alerted the group to a diminishing visitor demographic: college kids. 

“They are not returning to Breck, I think that (accounts) for somewhere around 4,000 nights,” he said. “So, for us to be 2% up with some of that group’s business not being in play, that is pretty favorable.”