Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

more to a season than just one week

Six months ago it looked like it could be the holiday season to beat all seasons — one in a millennium — but, although most hotels finally did sell out for the historic New Year’s Eve and Whistler’s First Night event attracted a crowd of over 20,000,

Six months ago it looked like it could be the holiday season to beat all seasons — one in a millennium — but, although most hotels finally did sell out for the historic New Year’s Eve and Whistler’s First Night event attracted a crowd of over 20,000, the numbers overall are far from record-breaking and, in some cases, do not come close to matching up to the 1998/99 holiday season which in itself was a hard act to follow.

Tourism Whistler statistics were not available at press time and the mountains were not ready to release their visitor numbers but several hotels reported business over the Christmas period and the traditionally solid lead-in to New Year was “significantly” lower than usual. Vacancy rates were hovering around 20 to 30 per cent for some properties all the way up to 60 per cent for others. To fill rooms on New Year’s Eve, minimum night stays were dropped from seven to five and then axed from three to two in some cases. Other properties even accepted bookings for the one night on New Year’s Eve. In many cases rates also softened considerably.

Although occupancy may have been lower for many properties the dip was offset for those that charged premiums over New Year’s leaving operators content with the overall results. “It was Swiss cheese,” said property manager Gord McKeever. “There were holes here and there where normally it would be full but the premiums associated with rates helped compensate.”

All properties, however, are reporting strong booking trends for the remainder of the winter season and expect end-of-season results could still match last year.

The Holiday Inn Sunspree sold out New Year’s Eve but occupancy averaged around 70 per cent for the holiday period, said general manager Anita McGee. “It was substantially below last year but I would rather not be specific.” McGee said, for example, the Holiday Inn sold out in the post Christmas period last year. “I wasn’t on site then but the numbers I have seen are considerably less than last year.”

McGee said about half of the bookings for this New Year’s Eve were made within the last three to four weeks preceding the event. Bookings were accepted up until the day of the 31st. McGee said the Holiday Inn ended up rolling rates back to last season’s prices but she would not say how much rooms went for. “I would rather not go into detail on that because some paid more than others. As with most hotels rates change throughout the year,” she said. “I think people were generally scared off by the millennium issues and a lot of middle and upper level management didn’t want to travel during that period. They would have been the normal clientele.”

The Delta Whistler Village Suites reported an average occupancy at around 80 per cent for the 10-day holiday period. They too sold out New Year’s Eve. “We were maybe slightly down over last year,” said director of sales and marketing, Glenn Isles. “The bookings were made somewhat later and we weren’t sold out as soon as we had hoped but we still sold out a couple of weeks prior to New Year’s.”

Iles said suites were initially priced higher than last year and rates did drop but he would not say by how much. “We have a wide range of customers and a wide range of rates so without a tremendous disclaimer I can’t give an average rate. That sort of thing could just cause concerns,” said Iles. “Within our yield management we did reduce rates somewhat but then when we recognized we were going to be sold out we increased them again. We were filling holes, so to speak.”

Iles said, overall, he is pleased with the results. “Of course with the growth we have seen in the resort everybody was looking for increased occupancy and rates and that, combined with a very special even this year... it was one where we all thought there would be significant demand and, world-wide, it fizzled. We are however pleased with the way December turned out.”

The Delta Whistler Resort was not ready to release their occupancy stats but director of marketing and sales, Carla Worcester, said although the Delta was not full they did sell out New Year’s Eve.

Camilla Say, marketing manager for Powder Resort Properties said occupancies at Powder “were definitely down for the Christmas period this year” but she did not want to talk specifics. “New Year’s we were pretty much full.” Powder Resorts dropped the minimum nights stay to three nights and rates did soften.

“The interesting thing was the pattern of booking for both New Year’s and Christmas,” said Say. “We had a big early surge up to a year ago and then there was a lull with nothing happening until six months out. Then there was a last-minute surge from people who were waiting to see what ski conditions were like and what the rates were going to be like. About a month out we saw things picking up for Christmas and New Year’s,” she said. “It was quite a different pattern.”

Say thinks regional travellers held off on making a decision while destination travellers booked early.

It was the regional guests, those from the Lower Mainland and Washington state areas, that did finally fill the rooms New Year’s. This is a similar pattern experienced by resorts in Colorado that compete with Whistler for destination skiers. In Colorado, the Vail Daily reported ski resorts there managed to fill their rooms with regional, or Front Range, guests at New Year’s by dropping rates to as low as $89 and taking reservations days and even hours before the event to fill “giant holes” in their bookings. The Daily reported, for example, Intrawest’s 3,000 hotel beds at Copper were still 50 per cent vacant two weeks prior to New Year’s Eve but was full the night of the 31st.

The Coast Whistler Hotel reported post-Christmas business as “significantly” down. “Typically you don’t sell out over the 24th, 25th and 26th,” said sales and marketing manager Stacey Manning. “But typically you do sell out the 27th through to the 1st.” The going rate for a room at the Coast Whistler was $375 per room.

The Pan Pacific rates were pricier and the hotel is proud they never had to reduce their $200-pus New Year’s premiums. “We established our rates in May and we never touched them at all,” said guest services manager Paul Scanlan. “The only thing we did was reduce our minimum nights stay.”

Scanlan said some bookings were taken for the night of the 31st only, depending on the suitability of guests. “Some people who came looking for rooms were not quite the clientele we wanted here. They were just looking for a place to booze it up and that would have been unfair to our clientele in-house,” he said. “We did have rooms available but we turned people away.”

Scanlan said the Pan Pacific wasn’t interested in selling out because they were already averaging rates of $725 per room — $590 per night for a studio suite; $800 for a one-bedroom and $1,100 for a two-bedroom. “We were making a boatload of money and we weren’t interested in making more at the expense of possibly some problems.”

The Pan Pacific ended up 97 per cent occupied for New Year’s but four days prior they had an occupancy rate of 75 per cent, which climbed slowly to 85 per cent by Dec. 30.

The family-oriented Whistler Resort and Club in Creekside which relies on regional guests over Christmas had a more challenging time. Property manager Gord McKeever said rooms were only 40.6 per cent occupied and the accommodation was not aggressively priced. “I think it is a reflection of the lack of action we got out of the regional market.”

By comparison, the properties McKeever manages in the Carleton Lodge were 94 per cent occupied over Christmas and 87 per over the New Year’s period, which included a premium. “They (the Carleton suites) have a more global destination draw and we managed to fill them quite well,” said McKeever. He said occupancy was also good at the chalet properties he manages but owner usage was down. “We had most difficulty booking the smaller units... and that is probably a reflection of the preponderance of one-bedroom suites on the market,” he said.

“The important thing is to put this period into perspective. It is two weeks out of how many decades? There is a lot of attention being paid to it but it’s not a big deal to be down for a week or two in what promises to be a healthy winter. By the end of April my goal is to be within 10 per cent of last winter.”

McKeever said last year was 20 per cent ahead of a normal year and even if business drops 10 per cent he will still be maintaining a 10 per cent increase over a normal healthy year.

The Chateau Whistler was one property with consistently healthy stats, although numbers for this special millennium year did dip marginally over the same period last year. The Chateau was 77 per cent booked for Christmas day. Occupancy jumped to 92 per cent the following day and increased steadily to 99 per cent New Year’s Eve. Those figures dropped to 58 per cent Jan. 1.

“We dipped marginally, literally by one or two per cent compared to last year,” said the Chateau’s Sonya Hwang. Chateau rates for the holidays ranged from $379 per night, per person to $1,399. Hwang said the rate increases this year were consistent with average annual increases.

Looking to the rest of the season, Hwang said bookings to date for January are not yet as strong as the previous year but February is already looking a lot healthier.

“February is actually stronger than last year at this point. It’s generally such a stellar month and we expect more business this year,” said Hwang. “There is no snow at other ski resorts in North America and from a PR perspective there is a lot of media interest in Whistler. I imagine January is going to pick up for the same reason.”

Most operators report similar expectations. McKeever said advance deposits already processed for January and February this year are superseding last year.

“Last year’s January was one of the star performers of the season. It’s looking like this January will be more normal than exceptional but, normal is still pretty good. That’s the thing. People will wait until April 30 to see what kind of a season it was. There is more to a season than just one week.”

Tourism Whistler director of media relations, Connie Rabold, said December occupancy stats would be available before the second week in January. She said — contrary to some of the accommodation sector reports — that the numbers are looking “very good” and “very strong” for the Christmas and New Year’s period. “We do know that early indications show it was very busy, very successful.”