Park City Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jennifer Wesselhoff said current hotel prices are likely the highest ever recorded.
However, that didn’t slow down guests from booking rooms. In January, occupancy was up over 20% compared to 2022.
“Normally you don’t see that, where both occupancy and average daily rates are up,” Wesselhoff said. “Normally you see maybe occupancy growing and rates lowering. So we’re really happy to see that recovery happening in January.”
That increase came in spite of fewer people coming to the Sundance Film Festival, which returned to Park City in late January for the first time since 2020. This year’s festival was hybrid, both in-person and online.
The chamber’s forecast for February, March, and April showed slight declines in occupancy, but Wesselhoff noted she expects that to change. She said average occupancy for those months is currently down 5% year over year.
“We anticipate that we’ll recover that. I think a lot of it is just the booking patterns of when people book their hotels and when they book their vacations. Those shorter booking windows have just collapsed since the pandemic.”
Wesselhoff said recent Summit County tax data shows year-over-year increases in sales tax at 7%, and restaurant taxes at 18%. However, local transient room taxes, which are collected from lodging properties, are down from last year roughly 12%.
On the first Wednesday of each month, the chamber hosts the Park City Business University at the Blair Education Center at the Park City Hospital. The event is always open to the public and focuses on professional development, with specific topics selected for each month. A link to register can be found here.