Despite market volatility, luxury travelers are sustaining Vail Valley lodging numbers
The challenge for the remainder of the ski season is how strong March will be

Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
The winter’s lodging picture so far is best summed up as “OK.”
The latest data from western mountain resorts from DestiMetrics, part of the Business Intelligence division of Inntopia, shows little movement from numbers posted last season.
After the regional numbers showed a dip in January, those numbers picked up during February. Once again, Vail and Beaver Creek have somewhat outperformed the competitive set.
Here’s some of the latest data for the entire mountain resort region from DestiMetrics:
- $727: February average daily rate, aggregated across all property types
- 2%: Increase in seasonal revenues
- 6.6%: Decline in February’s Consumer Confidence Index
- 4.1%: National unemployment rate in February, up from 4% in January
Source: DestiMetrics
Tom Foley, Inntopia’s senior vice president for business intelligence, said while regional revenue per available room is up 2% compared to last season, the challenge for this ski season will be a profitable March. That will depend largely on snow, of course. It will be hard for April revenues, even with Easter falling late on April 20, to catch up if March revenue falls short.
The good news is that snow’s been falling fairly steadily this month, and people come when that happens.

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But, Foley added, lodges’ pricing power has just about vanished over the past season or so.
Even with recent declines in the nation’s financial markets, the luxury end of the lodging markets is still doing well.
“That’s traditionally the case” during times of uncertainty, Foley said. People at that end of the market tend to be well insulated from the shocks of market declines, he noted.
Given the demographics of the Vail and Beaver Creek destination guests, that’s good news.
Local lodging consultant Mark Herron noted that luxury travelers are still spending, and are holding rates up at local lodges, where average daily rates are maintaining or increasing slightly. Even with economic uncertainty, it seems “every time we get a new (economic) report, it comes out good.”
What may have a bigger impact in the long run is the current tension between the United States and Canada. Foley, who lives in British Columbia, said there’s currently a lot of anger toward the U.S. on that side of the border, and that’s affecting travel from north to south.
Vail Valley Partnership President and CEO Chris Romer this week is at a national conference of chambers of commerce. He said he’s hearing from his counterparts in northern border areas that they’re feeling the effects of current and threatened tariffs on Canadian goods.
On the other hand, the Vail Valley’s primary international markets are from Mexico and Latin America. Herron said he isn’t seeing or hearing of any impacts from south of the border due to looming tariffs on goods from that direction.
Romer said he believes that’s a testament to the strength of the Vail brand and the fact that the Mexican and Latin American markets have been strong for decades.
Through the winter, “we’re more than holding our own,” Romer said. But, he added, the next big questions will come in the summer. That season is less dependent on luxury travelers. Currently, that season looks pretty comparable to the summer of 2024, he said.
But if the economy stays wobbly, it will be hard to tell what the next season will bring.
Foley noted that the economy’s fundamentals haven’t changed, but economic policies are uncertain right now. That means a lot of people have lost a lot of money in their retirement funds in the past few weeks. That means people may be using credit cards to travel, which is a more expensive way to vacation. How that might affect summer lodging remains to be seen.
