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Utah seemed to buck a trend this winter that saw slightly lower visitation at Western mountain resorts.
While occupancy dipped 0.2 percent at Western resorts monitored by the Denver-based DestiMetrics, monthly figures from the Rocky Mountain Lodging Report showed that Utah mountain resorts experienced a 1.6 percent increase in visitors for the season's final four months.
The Lodging Report, also based in Denver, put occupancy at 61.1 percent nightly through the end of April compared with 59.5 percent for the same four-month period a year earlier.
Utah hoteliers and property managers also took in more money each night. Room rates rose roughly $12 a night to $304 this winter, it added.
A similar scenario unfolded across the West, said DestiMetrics Director Ralf Garrison.
Despite the small drop in occupancy, seasonal revenues jumped 7.2 percent among the lodging companies his group checks — 290 property-management companies overseeing 30,000 rooms in 20 communities in Utah and six other Western states.
"Our attention is now fully focused on summer and monitoring whether this pattern of weak occupancy gains, or even declines, will continue," Garrison said.
Bookings through October are up 1.2 percent over the same period a year ago, although neither June nor July is matching their 2016 predecessors. Like the winter, revenue from these bookings is up — by almost 9 percent.
Outside of the resort areas, Utah hotels had another solid month in April. Occupancy levels statewide reached 68.1 percent last month, up from 65.8 percent a year earlier.
Salt Lake County fared even better. Hotels filled 73 percent of their rooms nightly compared with 69.7 percent in April 2016. For the year's first four months, county hotels are 5 percent ahead of last year's occupancy levels, coming in at 75.5 percent.
Room rates in April were up $8 a night in Salt Lake County and $6.50 a night elsewhere in the state.
St. George hotels were the state's busiest last month, filling 84.3 percent of their rooms nightly. Cedar City, Ogden and other parts of Utah all had at least 71 percent occupancy nightly last month, while hotels in Davis, Utah and Cache counties ranged from 63 percent to 66 percent.