SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., June 17, 2025—Booking reticence for summer vacations persists while bookings by international visitors from Canada, western Europe, and now Mexico, continue to fall, according to the monthly Market Briefing from Inntopia’s DestiMetrics.DestimetricsHNWeb The booking pace at 17 participating mountain destinations in seven western states has declined for six consecutive months, its longest downward streak since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The financial and political turbulence of the past few months continues to have an impact on bookings—even with some good economic news and an uptick in consumer confidence during May,” said Inntopia senior vice president of business intelligence Tom Foley.

As of May 31, bookings from Canada were down 55.5 percent for the entire summer period, while western Europe was down 35.5 percent. For the first time in months, there was also a decline in bookings from Mexico—down 5.4 percent for the summer. Domestic bookings were up just 1.7 percent for the summer, while the overall booking pace during May for the full summer was down 7.1 percent.

After several post-pandemic summers with consistent year-over-year growth, occupancy for the upcoming summer is sluggish with aggregated occupancy down 1.2 percent by May 31. However, the average daily rate rose an aggregated 3.7 percent, helping to offset those losses for lodging properties—but higher rates are also deterring bookings. 

“The most notable conclusion from this month’s data is the undeniable impact that rate is having on bookings,” said Foley. “We’re seeing a clear pattern that just about every time that year-over-year daily rates rise at all, the booking pace declines—and on the rare occasions that rates have dropped, those dates pick up bookings.” 

In line with this pattern, and in a reversal of the past several months, economy properties edged up in bookings in May as the luxury category struggled. Economy properties, priced up to $250/night, have increased rates slightly, and were the only category to record strengthening in either occupancy or revenues. On the other end, the luxury tercile, charging $401/night and above, raised rates by 1.4 percent, but saw a 3.2 percent drop in occupancy. 

After “so-so” occupancy over Memorial Day weekend, said Foley, and the dates around Fourth of July weekend (July 1-11) mostly lagging, “the larger concern now is that the two busiest months of the summer—July and August—are clearly underperforming.”

July occupancy is down 5.1 percent, August is down a slight 0.9 percent, and September has slipped down 4.7 percent.

Foley cautioned that, as economic volatility continues and consumers remain cautious, “lodging properties will have to continue with diligent and balanced rate management and re-visit past successes with value-added strategies.”