By the end of the month, that gap will only widen.
“Our businesses are really busy,” Park City Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jennifer Wesselhoff said. “They're going to be exhausted after this week.”
Hotel data can predict how busy other sectors, especially restaurants and bars, will be.
The chamber has data through Dec. 31, 2023, and will get this January’s final numbers next month.
Wesselhoff expects a reprieve for businesses between the end of Sundance through the first week of February. Then it ramps up for President’s Day weekend.
“Those couple of weeks in February, we’re already exceeding pace compared to last year, so really solid numbers,” Wesselhoff said.
That’s good news, Wesselhoff says, because the season started out slow with fewer visitors and less snow.
“There's a lot of season left,” she said. “And it seems like we're recovering, and we're coming out strong.”
The chamber predicts January 2024 hotel booking will be up by about 2% compared to last year, with booking rates remaining flat.
December 2023 finished down about 3% in terms of rooms filled, but those rooms were about 3% more expensive.
It was a slow summer in 2023, with hotel booking down about 7%, but Wesselhoff says the first six months of 2024 are on pace to have 6% more bookings than 2023.