This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Years don't get much flatter than 2016 was for Utah's hotel industry.
Hotels across the state filled 69.6 percent of their rooms on a nightly basis last year, the same percentage as in 2015, according to the year-end report from the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Lodging Report.
In both Salt Lake County, where the bulk of the state's hotel rooms are located, and in mountain resort lodging centers a slight decrease in visitation was offset by increases in nightly fees.
Salt Lake County hotels had a 73.7 percent occupancy rate nightly in 2016, down from 74.2 percent the previous year. But hoteliers were able to charge almost $4 more per night, the Lodging report said.
Similarly, mountain resort occupancy slipped from 51.1 percent in 2015 to 50.5 percent last year, although the average nightly room rate rose substantially more — from $206 to $219.
Lodging Report numbers showed Utah's larger metro areas all fit the overall pattern. Like the state, Logan did it precisely, filling 66.1 percent of its rooms nightly for both of the last two years. Cedar City was close, slipping from 68.3 percent to 68.1 percent.
Occupancy went up almost 3 percent in St. George, 2 percent at Ogden and 0.6 percent in Utah County. Davis County visitation fell 2.9 percent and other areas of Utah experienced a 1.7 percent dropoff.
Another Denver-based company that monitors lodging patterns, DestiMetrics, reported that mountain resorts across the West saw their nightly occupancy rates go up just 0.6 percent in December compared to the same month a year earlier.
But hoteliers were making more for each visitor, with monthly revenues rising 13.2 percent. For the season, bookings made already suggest property managers will earn 10.1 percent more this winter than last.
"Rates have been rising faster than occupancies for some time," said DestiMetrics Director Ralf Garrison, "creating overall higher revenues for lodging properties, but not many more visitors."