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The winter was good for Western mountain resorts. And summer business looks better than ever, said DestiMetrics, a Denver-based company that monitors rental properties around resorts.
Its findings were supported by Rocky Mountain Lodging Report, also from Denver, which zeroes in more on the Utah market. That report showed that Utah mountain resorts filled 59.5 percent of their rooms nightly in the first four months of 2016, up from 56.1 percent the previous year.
Those rooms also brought in $292 per night this year compared to $280 in 2015.
Regionally, ski season occupancy at properties monitored by DestiMetrics went up 4.4 percent over the previous winter. Hoteliers' revenue went up 5.2 percent.
"While final results were positive," said DestiMetrics Director Ralf Garrison, "there were significant fluctuations and more inconsistencies between resorts than we've seen in the past several years when consistent, double-digit growth was the norm."
Ongoing worries about the economy notwithstanding, summer prospects are well ahead of last year. As of April 30, Garrison said, bookings for May through October were up 11.6 percent, with revenue projections climbing 18.9 percent compared to last summer.
"Mountain summer business continues to outperform on all fronts," Garrison said, "particularly in the late summer and fall months where growth has been noteworthy for several years."
The Rocky Mountain Lodging Report said Utah hotels statewide duplicated their performance of a year ago, filling 65.8 percent of rooms nightly in April. This year's business was a little better, taking in $105.49 a night compared to $104.20 a year earlier.
For the first four months of 2016, occupancy statewide was 67.3 percent, just off 67.8 percent last year.
In Salt Lake County, home to most of the state's hotel rooms, April's occupancy rate dropped to 69.7 percent last month from 70.4 percent the previous year. For the year, occupancy is down 2 percent nightly to 71 percent.