Hillary Folkvord was looking for a hotel for the upcoming Professional Bull Riding events in Big Sky. The only available room was $ 900 for the night. “Hell no, I’m not going to stay there for $ 900,” said Folkvord.
Instead, Folkvord found a limo service that would drive their group to and from Big Sky on weekends – a cheaper alternative than an overnight stay.
Folkvord, who owns the RSVP Motel in Bozeman with her sister, knows that hotel prices in Bozeman and the surrounding area are rising as more and more tourists visit southwest Montana.
“Room prices are skyrocketing all over town,” she said. “People are willing to pay anything to stay in Bozeman.”
The tourism and hospitality industries are in Bozeman. on the upswing after first hits in early 2020. A search for room rates for a specific night that month in Bozeman ranged from nearly $ 650 to about $ 250.
Christina Mennel, a traveling nurse temporarily working for Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital, found the high hotel prices more than uncomfortable.
Mennel joined Bozeman in April on a 3 month contract. She usually stays in hotels while at work – especially during the pandemic, as this has made quarantine easier after her shifts. It’s usually cheaper than trying to rent a furnished apartment for a few months.
Christina Mennel, a travel nurse who works for Bozeman Health, is photographed in her apartment in Belgrade on Wednesday 14 July 2021.
But when she started looking at Bozeman’s hotel prices, she realized she had to find an apartment.
“I moved and stayed in hotels that were like single rooms for $ 60 a night compared to $ 540 a night in a hotel here,” she said. Eventually she found a furnished two-room apartment in Belgrade for $ 2,400 a month.
During her search for temporary accommodation, Mennel found that hotel rooms are expensive if you can get hold of one.
“We saw Bozeman sell out across the board,” said Daryl Schliem, President of Bozeman’s Chamber of Commerce. “In July the hotel rooms were almost 100% occupied and we expect this to happen in August and early September.”
That is an increase compared to summer 2020, which decreased in occupancy by 24%. The Chamber is pursuing this through the city’s bed tax.
Schliem estimates that the cost of a hotel room in Bozeman has only increased by around 5 to 7% this summer since 2019.
“We’re seeing a slight upward trend just because of the traffic,” he said. Business costs also rose in 2021, which could lead to an increase in room rates, he added.
“Higher property taxes, sewage, gas and wages, these are the normal business costs and are passed on to every room,” said Schliem.
While some of the upper-range hotels in Bozeman are driving up average room rates across Bozeman, lower-end hotels are sticking to average summer rates, he said.
“The prices are not constant (daily), but we have the highest ADR (Average Daily Rate) that we have seen in the hotel industry,” said Folkvord.
Erickson’s Hostel keeps a flat rate for its dormitory-style rooms and some private rooms all year round. The cheaper alternative has been particularly busy this summer, she said.
“We’re full every night and we have to turn away some people. We get over 20 calls a day and people come in trying to get a bed, ”she said.
It’s a lot different from the hostel’s previous year when business slumped due to the pandemic.
“People want to travel again, and Montana is known for it,” said Erickson.
Bozeman is well on its way to seeing a record number of visitors, Schliem said.
In 2019, Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport recorded more travelers than ever before, with 1.57 million passengers that year. It was the tenth year in a row that the airport had broken its own records.
After a slump in 2020, the airport is now well on the way to exceeding that number, said Schliem. This June, 44,000 more passengers were flown in and out of Bozeman than in June 2019. And in July, 60,000 more travelers are expected than in July 2019.
But more tourists aren’t necessarily a silver bullet in solving the hotel industry’s problems, said Dax Schieffer, director of Voices of Montana Tourism. Higher cost of goods and supply chain issues are still weighing on many businesses, he said.
“It is too early to say the tourism industry has recovered,” he said. “When the cost of goods increases, more people don’t always lead to a higher net income.”
And while Bozeman and the Yellowstone region are experiencing high levels of tourism this summer, not all parts of Montana are experiencing the same boom, he said.
Parts of Montana that don’t have the appeal of national parks or other recreation are falling behind.
“In central and eastern Montana, they were put back eight to ten years in collecting the lodging tax,” Scheiffer said, adding that the pandemic had caused some of the lowest bed tax rates in about a decade.
But for travelers planning an autumn trip to Bozeman: book early.
Folkvords Hotel is fully booked over the summer. While tourism usually subsides in the fall, Folkvord believes that could change this year.
“Usually we have this off-season at the end of September. I don’t see that happening. We’re going to start the football season and the people who couldn’t come to Bozeman and Big Sky this summer will do it in the fall, ”she said.
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