Boulder leads region in hotel occupancy, room rates
Boulder and Loveland led the four-county Northern Front Range region in March for occupation of hotel and motel rooms, according to the Rocky Mountain Lodging Report issued Monday.
The March report, compiled by the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association, showed that 68.4 percent of rooms in Boulder were occupied during the total 31 nights of March, and Loveland followed closely at 68 percent. Hotels along the U.S. Highway 36 corridor between Boulder and Denver saw 64.8 percent total occupancy, while Fort Collins recorded 61 percent of rooms occupied, Greeley 60.9 percent and Estes Park 33.5 percent.
Only the U.S. 36 corridor saw a year-to-date increase in occupancy percentage from the same three months in 2015, according to the report. That area saw 63.3 percent total occupancy for the first three months of this year, compared with 62.9 percent for January through March 2015. Likely reflecting the decline in oil and gas activity in Northern Colorado, Greeley posted the area’s sharpest decline in year-to-date lodging occupancy, falling from 72.9 percent in the first three months of 2015 to 57.4 percent of rooms filled for the 91 nights of January through March of this year.
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Greeley innkeepers also saw a sharp decline in the average daily room rate this year. Rooms that averaged $106.97 during the first three months of 2015 went for an average of $97.13 for January through March of this year, according to the report. All other areas in the region posted year-over-year gains, with Estes Park posting the largest gain in average price: $132.93 per room per night so far this year, compared with $119.89 for the same period in 2015.
Rooms in Boulder were the most expensive in the region, bringing in an average rate of $141.52 for the first three months of 2016.
