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Park City hotel bookings down 20% in December

Main Street was busy on Monday afternoon.
Parker Malatesta
Main Street was poppin' on Monday afternoon. Despite the slowdown in bookings, the week heading into New Year's is expected to be a busy one in Park City.

Declines in the number of reservations on the books mirror trends in other ski towns around the country.

The Park City Chamber of Commerce publishes a daily occupancy report that shows current hotel bookings at 23 lodging properties, which represent the larger local nightly rental market.

For the month of December, reservations are down roughly 20% when compared to the same time last year. January bookings are largely flat outside of a boost from Sundance. The report currently shows declines in February and March.

Many have called last season an anomaly, given the pent-up demand for travel following pandemic shutdowns.

Booking levels this season are more in line with pre-COVID 2019 numbers, which was a record-breaking winter prior to the pandemic.

Park City Chamber/Bureau CEO Jennifer Wesselhoff said lodging prices are up, and other comparable ski towns are also seeing a lack of consumer confidence amid inflation.

“We’ve logged more snow than last year already, but those economic forces still have kept 2022 from full recovery," Wesselhoff said.

"And that’s across the board, we look at our competitive sets — Aspen, Vail, North Lake Tahoe, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Sun Valley — these are just a few of our competitive destinations that we’re looking at. And they’re all experiencing similar declines compared to last year.”

Wesselhoff said the reduced traffic has been a help to short-staffed restaurants and shops.

“Last year I think a lot of our employers and our employees were really overrun with the volume of visitation, and I think this year our businesses are doing a really good job of balancing all of that,” she said.

Despite the slight slowdown, Historic Park City Alliance Director Ginger Wicks said Monday that locals should expect town to be busy through New Year’s.

“This week is the week based on lodging check-in patterns that is really going to be the busier of the two weeks," Wicks said, noting the booking was rather calm the week ahead of Christmas.

"The trend is everyone will be checking in today and staying through the New Year.”

Peak season will also affect skiers and riders. Both Park City Mountain and Deer Valley black out Dec. 26 through 31 on their local passes.