Although winter is peak season at many Western mountain resorts, there promises to be plenty of enticing deals for groups heading to the ski slopes this year.
From California to Colorado, new and renovated resort properties are readying for a winter debut, keeping rates competitive. Groups will also find a host of new amenities at many mountain resorts, including new gondolas, restaurants, shops, venues and activity options involving snow vehicles and zip lines.
"There isn’t a better time to book a winter meeting in the Rockies," says Brandon Bang, director of sales at Montana’s Blue Sky Resort. "Pricing has become very aggressive. Everyone is going gangbusters to try to lock in groups for the winter."
Colorado
Vail’s $2.5 billion renaissance continues, with more upscale resorts on the way.
The 121-room Four Seasons Resort Vail, with condos, residences and conference space, is expected to open late this year at Vail Village’s main entry. By late 2010, the 71-unit Ritz-Carlton Residences is scheduled to debut in Lionshead Village, adjacent to Vail Resorts’ proposed new $1.5 billion Ever Vail village.
Lionshead’s newest property, RockResorts’Arrabelle at Vail Square, opened early last year with 86 rooms, a spa and conference space. In the valley, Avon welcomed the new 218-room Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa, which has a 3,800-square-foot ballroom, last fall.
Vail’s construction boom saw its first new hotel opening in decades in December 2007 with the debut of Vail Village’s 138-room Vail Plaza Hotel & Club, which has 7,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space.
Many renovations have also been taking place in the area. Last December, the 292-room Vail Cascade Resort & Spa completed a $30 million renovation that included new meeting rooms, bringing function space to 45,000 square feet. At Beaver Creek, after a $7 million transformation, RockResorts relaunched the former 45-room Inn at Beaver Creek as The Osprey at Beaver Creek, which has a 1,200-square-foot meeting room.
Last November, the 140-unit Manor Vail Lodge reopened with more than 7,500 square feet of meeting space after a renovation and expansion.
"Vail and Beaver Creek are both very accessible in terms of rates and concessions and group packages. Bookings are more short term, and both groups and leisure-guests are looking for added value opportunities," says Chris Romer, Vail Valley Partnership’s director of sales and marketing.
Summer business, he adds, has been satisfactory, although Eagle County Airport, where seven carriers provide winter nonstop jet service to 13 major airports, had been closed since April 15 before reopening Sept. 1 with an expanded runway.
This summer marked the 60th anniversary of Aspen’s history as a cultural destination. The Aspen Institute and Aspen Music Festival and School were started in 1949, and Aspen is now home to 10 internationally known cultural organizations.
After a two-year redevelopment, the new family-owned, 126-room Limelight Lodge, with a 1,776-square-foot conference room, opened in downtown Aspen, replacing the 50-year-old property of the same name.
Aspen Skiing Co. invested $35 million in on-mountain improvements for its four locations—Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass—for the 2008-2009 winter season, including $9 million on a new Sam’s Smokehouse restaurant in Snowmass.
Located 10 miles from Aspen, Snowmass has 2,000 lodging units and the Snowmass Conference Center, with a capacity for 2,000 people. It will host the 2010 Governor’s Colorado Tourism Conference next fall.
Close to Snowmass Village, the new $1 billion, 80-acre Snowmass Base Village has taken shape. The 25,000-square-foot Treehouse Kids’ Adventure Center opened in 2007. The village’s first 90 condo units opened for the 2008-2009 winter season, along with the new Capitol Peak Conference Center, which has 8,620 square feet of rentable space.
With them came new shopping and such dining and entertainment venues as Junk and Liquid Sky, which joined Sneaky’s Tavern and The Sweet Life restaurants. Another restaurant, Buchi, opens this winter.
In December, the 267-room, ski-in/ski-out Viceroy Snowmass opens in the new village. Managed by Kor Hotel Group, the hotel will include 9,000 square feet of conference space.
Kristi Kavanaugh-Bradley, director of sales for Snowmass Tourism, says that planners need creative solutions from their hotel partners, particularly in today’s economy.
"We’ve created many tools to aid planners in promoting association and continuing education attendance," she says. "For board or executive retreats we have programs that combine such local resources as the Rocky Mountain Institute, Anderson Ranch Arts Center and the Aspen Institute with the splendor of our outdoor environment."
Located in southwest Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, Telluride offers a historic town and the neighboring Mountain Village ski headquarters.
Mountain Village has two new boutique hotels: the 168-unit Capella Hotel, with 5,000-square feet of meeting space, which opened in February and is the first U.S. property of Capella Hotels and Resorts; and lumière Telluride, with 30 residences, which opened last Thanksgiving. Both are close to the Telluride Conference Center, which offers 22,000 square feet of indoor meeting space.
The 149-room Peaks Resort & Golden Door Spa, the area’s largest full-service hotel, is wrapping up an $11 million renovation, including a new event deck accommodating 200 diners. Adjacent to the conference center, the property has 5,200 square feet of meeting space.
"Our ability to bring in corporate groups in the 300-person range has increased tremendously, and the new properties and the newly remodeled Peaks ups the ante in customer service and quality of product, and increases breakout space and catering abilities," says Sandy Chio, director of marketing and communications for the Telluride Tourism Board.
"Our group room rates have never been better," she says, adding that special offers include daily free morning and afternoon breaks for conference center bookings.
In southwest Colorado in the Gunnison National Forest, Crested Butte Mountain Resort, three miles from historic Crested Butte town, has 25,000 square feet of meeting space.
The Lodge and Conference Center at Mountaineer Square, with 9,000 square feet of meeting space, opened before the 2007-2008 ski season. Following a renovation completed in December, the former Club Med reopened as the 240-room Elevation Hotel, which includes 11,000 square feet of meeting space.
In March, the resort launched the "Snowcat Driving Experience" in which participants learn the basics of snowcat driving and snow pushing and grooming. On July 4 it held the grand opening of a new adventure park that features year-round skating on synthetic ice, bungee trampolines and a 28-foot climbing wall.
According to resort spokesperson Emily McCormack, the new park has areas for outdoor winter parties, and the snowcat activity is available for groups.
"Combined with the Subaru Snow and Ice Driving School, the snowcat will make for a nice incentive or team-building experience," she says.
Utah
Park City boasts three ski resorts: The Canyons, Park City and Deer Park. According to the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau, the destination serves groups with 3,000 committable rooms at more than 25 meetings and conventions properties.
With new upscale resorts opening, Park City gained valuable exposure in July when nearby Salt Lake City hosted MPI’s World Education Congress. Park City held an evening event attended by 375 delegates.
July also saw the opening of the Dakota Mountain Lodge & Golden Door Spa, a Waldorf=Astoria Collection property. Located at the base of The Canyons, the ski-in/ski-out resort features 201 guest rooms, condo units, a 20,000-square-foot spa and a 15,000-square-foot ballroom. For groups, it is currently offering a complimentary welcome reception attended by a member of the Flying Ace All-Stars, an Olympic champions group.
In Deer Valley, the 181-room St. Regis Deer Crest Resort & Residences, which will feature a spa and a 2,868-square-foot ballroom, opens Oct. 1. Under construction for a late 2010 opening is the nearby 173-room luxury Montage Deer Valley, which will have ski-in/ski-out access, a spa and 14,000 square feet of meeting space.
"We are thrilled with the new upscale lodging and meeting space inventory coming on-line. It complements our existing inventory and provides meeting planners with more great options," says Tonya Sweeten, the bureau’s meeting and convention sales manager.
The new Swaner EcoCenter, a 10,000-square-foot environmental facility, debuted last fall. Overlooking the 1,200-acre Swaner Nature Preserve, it can handle groups of up to 150.
Stein Eriksen Lodge, located mid-mountain in Deer Valley, will complete an expansion and remodeling of its spa in December, increasing its size from 4,300 to 20,000 square feet. Meeting space at the 180-room luxury resort includes a 4,500-square-foot ballroom.
Located between Park City and Sundance in Midway, the 3-year-old 345-room Zermatt Resort and Spa features 38,000 square feet of function space, including an IACC–approved conference center. The resort has an attrition offer for groups booked through 2010 where 100 percent of attrition realized can be applied to future bookings through 2010.
Located 30 miles from Salt Lake International Airport, Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest has over 800 rooms and, with more than 50,000 square feet of meeting space, can host groups of up to 900 people.
New attractions at the resort include a 24-foot, four-station climbing wall, a 1.2-mile mountain bike trail and a mining history attraction where guests can pan for gemstones.
In addition to skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and snowmobiling, popular winter group activities include snow volleyball, on-mountain scavenger hunts and ski races. Discount coupon booklets for savings throughout the resort are available for groups.
Idaho
Sun Valley’s major destination, Sun Valley Resort, has 540 rooms and lodging units and the area’s largest meeting space, including a convention center with a capacity for groups of up to 1,200.
According to Jack Sibbach, the resort’s director of marketing, meetings and conventions account for 65 percent of business in summer and 35 percent in winter.
In August last year, the resort unveiled an additional nine holes of golf, bringing the total to 27; a new golf clubhouse featuring a restaurant and bar, pro shop and year-round, indoor driving range; and the $11 million, 1,500-seat Sun Valley Music Pavilion. The clubhouse becomes the Nordic Center in ski season.
"The clubhouse has gone over terrific, and has become popular with families as well as golfers," Sibbach says, adding that the new music pavilion has allowed several large groups to bring in entertainment that they could not otherwise afford and open it up to the public.
For this winter season, the resort will open the Roundhouse Gondola. It will carry 1,800 passengers per hour in eight-passenger cabins, climbing 2,000 vertical feet in eight minutes from River Run Plaza to the Roundhouse restaurant on Bald Mountain.
The Sun Valley/Ketchum CVB launched a revamped website at www.visitsunvalley.com in December that includes a meetings section with an online RFP. In addition to Sun Valley Resort, seven other hotels and resorts have meeting space.
Montana
Bordering Yellowstone National Park, Big Sky Resort, one of North America’s largest ski resorts, can handle groups of up to 750 people.
Its Yellowstone Conference Center, which underwent upgrades last year, and other venues in its mountain village provide over 55,000 square feet of meeting space. A dozen lodging choices range from a luxury hotel to townhouses and condos.
Among incentives for new groups are complimentary Yellowstone entrance fees for all meeting attendees through summer 2010. For winter groups, complimentary wine and cheese welcome receptions are offered.
According to resort spokesman Dax Schieffer, there is usually plenty of group space available even during the winter peak season.
"We manage all the mountain operations so we’re able to provide extremely attractive total packages that include lift tickets at unbeatable group rates," he says.
Last winter Blue Sky unveiled a zipline attraction.
"It really took off in summer. We aggressively expanded the schedule and are confident the momentum will keep up in winter. The winter experience is unique—you ski to the starting point with a guide. It’s a lot of fun zipping through the tree-tops," Schieffer says.
Whitefish Mountain Resort, 30 miles from Glacier National Park, also added zip lines, together with a new alpine slide, for the summer.
"The new zip line tour and alpine slide are proving popular beyond expectations. The slide will be covered in snow this winter, but we are considering operating the zip lines and they will definitely be available for groups," says Donnie Clapp, Whitefish’s public relations manager.
Whitefish invested $20 million on mountain upgrades for the 2007-2008 winter season, which included a new 35,000-square-foot Base Lodge with event space for up to 300 people. Several other Whitefish venues offer meeting space; lodging options range from budget hotel rooms to luxury condos.
For the winter peak season, Whitefish has a range of incentives for group bookings of 20 or more, including discounts off lodging and lift tickets, plus free lodging nights for bookings made by Nov. 1 for various winter dates.
The 320 Guest Ranch, along the Gallatin River five miles from the Yellowstone boundary and 12 miles from Big Sky, has 87 guest rooms and meeting space that includes a 2,400-square-foot ballroom.
Winter activities include sleigh rides, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. Summer is peak season, when activities include fly-fishing, horseback riding, hiking, rafting, sightseeing and mountain climbing.
In July, the property completed a renovation and technology upgrade, investing more than $1 million. Included were wireless Internet in all guest rooms and public spaces, new soft goods in all guest accommodations, new conference center furnishings and a new 1,800-square-foot tented pavilion accommodating up to 200 people.
"The 320 Guest Ranch has been receiving guests for well over a century. We pride ourselves on delivering the most authentic Western guest ranch experience and we’re pleased that we can also provide guests with 21st century technology and comfort," says John Richardson, general manager.
Meetings packages include the Back to Basics program, available through next March for groups of 10 or more. The program features two nights of accommodations and three days of meetings and add-on components ranging from meals to activities and team building.
California/Nevada
With a dozen ski resort areas, North Lake Tahoe serves up 200,000 square feet of space at more than 30 meeting sites and 7,000 guest rooms. The area includes several casinos on the Nevada side, including the 422-room Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa & Casino at Incline Village, with 50,000 square feet of function space.
Under construction at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort, within 15 minutes of Lake Tahoe and Truckee, Calif., the new $300 million, 170-room Ritz-Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe is readying to open Dec. 9.
The area’s first new-build resort in decades, the ski-in/ski-out property will feature a 17,000-square-foot spa and 15,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, including a 6,600-square-foot ballroom. San Francisco chef Traci Des Jardins is creating Manzanita, its signature restaurant
The resort has partnered with local nonprofit organizations for full- and half-day group volunteer activities.
A gondola will connect guests to the Village-at-Northstar, which features shops, restaurants, lodging and a conference center accommodating groups of up to 200.
A 20-minute drive from the Ritz-Carlton is Squaw Valley USA, site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, which recently added a 2,000-square-foot room to its existing 5,500 square feet of meeting space.
Two ski resorts under the same ownership, Alpine Meadows Ski Resort and Homewood Mountain Resort, have new day group packages.
Alpine Meadows in the Tahoe National Forest launched the Mountainside Dining Experience for the 2009-2010 winter season. Up to 20 guests travel by snowcat to the resort’s mid-mountain restaurant for a gourmet dinner and an evening of stargazing.
Last winter, Homewood on Tahoe’s west shore introduced the Private Mountain Experience, giving groups exclusive use of the mountain’s South Lodge and Quail triple chair lift for activities. The program can be customized and can include hotel shuttles.
Tahoe’s South Shore has Vail Resorts’ Heavenly, a 4,800-acre ski resort spanning two states that in the last two winter seasons has added a new chair lift, six new trails, a zip line and tubing lift.
The area has 4,000 hotel rooms. Four casino resorts in Stateline, Nev.—MontBleu, Harveys, Harrah’s and Horizon—together account for 69,000 square feet of its 100,000 square feet of meeting space.
Last year construction was halted on the $420 million Chateau at Heavenly Village on the California side across from Harveys while the developer sought financing. RockResorts pulled out as a partner in May of last year.
Also in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, 30 miles from Yosemite National Park, lies the town of Mammoth Lakes, five miles from the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area.
The ski area has 600 accommodation units in three properties. Mountainside Conference Center, its largest meeting facility, has 6,600 square feet of space across from the 211-room Mammoth Mountain Inn, with an additional 2,365 square feet.
Other meeting venues include the 230-room Westin Monache Resort, which opened in late 2007 with three meeting rooms, the largest 1,525 square feet, and the 204-room Village Lodge, which has 3,700 square feet of meeting space.
Washington
Suncadia, a 6,400-acre year-round mountain resort 90 miles east of downtown Seattle, in April last year unveiled its 254-room Lodge at Suncadia, adding 16,000 square feet of indoor meeting space and a spa.
Overlooking the Cle River Valley, it also has the 18-room Inn at Suncadia, which has 5,000 square feet of meeting space and two golf courses, with a third scheduled to open next year. Summer is peak season. Winter activities include cross-country skiing, sledding, snowshoeing and ice-skating.
"Suncadia is being discovered as a great regional resort alternative for meetings. Our proximity to Seattle has been a huge positive for us," says Jack Schmidt, vice president and regional director of sales and marketing at Destination Hotels and Resorts, Suncadia’s operator.
"We are booking many small corporate meetings short-term," he says. "Year-to-date, the number of meetings booked is ahead of last year although the group size is smaller. Winter bookings are shaping up. Everyone is booking short-term and looking for a deal."
Western Canada
In Alberta, the Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper areas of the Canadian Rockies attract groups year-round. Notable properties include the Fairmont Banff Springs, with 76,000 square feet of meeting space; Fairmont Chateau Lake Louse, with 36,000 square feet; Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, with 26,500 square feet; and Banff’s Rimrock Resort Hotel, with 18,000 square feet.
The 414-room Banff Centre stands out as a top meetings and cultural venue, offering 60 meeting spaces totaling 72,000 square feet, including an IACC-certified conference center, theaters and auditoriums.
Next July, the center opens the new 23,000-square-foot Kinnear Centre for Creativity and Innovation, which will have a range of meeting space. In addition, a new 400-seat amphitheatre is planned to open in summer 2011.
"It will have the best views of Banff and a lot more flexibility and state-of-the-art features, which are being built to LEED Silver specifications," says Deborah Whittle, the Banff Centre’s marketing officer for hospitality and conferences.
In British Columbia, Whistler is gearing up to be the host mountain resort for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games Feb. 12 to 28, followed by the Paralympic Winter Games March 12 to 21.
Last December, Whistler unveiled the new 2.7-mile PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola, connecting the tops of its two mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb. Also last year, it opened three Olympic venues: the Whistler Sliding Centre (bobsleigh); Whistler Olympic/Paralympic Park (Nordic and cross-country skiing, biathlon and ski jumping); and Whistler Creekside (alpine skiing).
TELUS Whistler Conference Centre, which offers 40,000 square feet of rentable space, recently held its largest conference ever, the annual meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, producing more than 7,000 room nights.
Four village properties, the Fairmont, Hilton, Four Seasons and Westin, together offer almost 70,000 square feet of meeting space. With 25 percent of its room nights from group business, Whistler has 3,200 hotel rooms, more than 5,000 other accommodation units and 22 properties with meeting space.
Following renovations, the former Coast Whistler Hotel reopens in late November as the 193-room Aava Whistler Hotel, with group space for up to 120. The newest meetings property, the 77-suite boutique Nita Lake Lodge, with 4,000 square feet of available space, opened at Creekside in January 2008.
In summer 2008, the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre opened. Featuring the heritage of the Squamish and Lil’wat First Nations, it includes a museum, a theater and a hall accommodating banquets for 270.
Wyoming
Jackson Hole has three major ski resorts: Jackson Mountain Resort, Grand Targhee Resort and Snow King Resort. In addition to skiing, snowshoeing and dinner sleigh rides, wildlife tours of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks are popular.
Standout meeting facilities include the 204-room Snow King Resort, with more than 40,000 square feet of meeting space; Jackson Lake Lodge, which can take groups of up to 700; and the Four Seasons Jackson Hole, with 8,000 square feet of meeting space.
Slated to open late this year is the new Grand View Lodge & Spa. A sister property to Snow King, it will feature condo suites, a spa and 9,000 square feet of meeting space.
"The new space will greatly help in promoting Jackson Hole as a group destination," says Heather Falk, tourism manager for the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce.
