The scourge of low snowfall affecting the Ketchum area and ski towns across the West has so far dampened but not doused holiday tourism activity, according to a mixture of anecdotal reports and data from Blaine County lodging, dining, shopping and recreation businesses.
Though many area hotels have seen fewer visitors, restaurants have for the most part stayed busy. Though persistent rain may have meddled with ski plans, it drove tourists inside local shops.
Business bustled at ski and snowboard rental shops despite less-than-ideal snow conditions, though some rental operators warned that business was still lower than usual.
Below are some accounts of the holiday season from multiple business sectors.
Hotels
Lack of snow in the Wood River Valley has caused some hotels to see decreases in occupancy and reservations this holiday season.
Area tourism promotion agency Visit Sun Valley last week released a report from the tourism analytics platform DestiMetrics showing that November lodging occupancy in the Sun Valley area was down 6% from last year.
Visit Sun Valley stated, “some of this decline can be attributed to cancelations due to the delayed start of ski season.”
Although occupancy decreased in November, the average daily room rate increased by 5.9%, from $201 to $213.
As of Nov. 30, December bookings had increased 14.4% from the same time last year while the average daily rate for December was down 2.7%, dropping from $553 to $538.
January bookings were up 4.8% and the average daily rate for January was up 2.6%, from $408 to $418.
February occupancy was up 18.8% and the average daily rate was up 8%, from $448 to $484.
March occupancy was down 30.8% and the average daily rate was up 2.1%, from $421 to $430.
According to staff members from each hotel, Hailey’s Mountain Valley Lodge and Ketchum’s Limelight Hotel have both seen fewer guests over the holidays than last year.
Serenade Rodriguez, general manager of the Limelight Hotel, estimated that roughly 80% of the hotel’s rooms were full this time last year compared to roughly 50% this year.
“There’s a huge difference, and it’s because of the lack of snow,” Rodriguez said. “We didn’t have a lot of reservations, then we got some more, and I still am struggling with a lot of cancelations. If it starts raining, people will call and cancel.”
Rodriguez said that vacation-goers have even changed long-term bookings based on the weather, unlike last year.
“They’re long reservations. People book a week or some of them even two-week reservations,” Rodriguez said. “Last year we had so much snow and it was so cold.”
Rodriguez has seen an increase in reservations for January, which she attributed to upcoming hockey tournaments and games, which are not affected by snowfall.
Bert Witsil, associate director of sales at the Limelight Hotel, said the hotel has a 30-day cancelation policy during the holidays, which some guests took advantage of.
“We did see some cancelations come in citing weather and lack of snow as the reason they were canceling in the end of November,” Witsil said. “Snowfall plays a huge role in people’s holiday destination plans, so we will see some people cancel and go to other destinations.”
Witsil believes that this year, rather than going to other ski areas, many people pivoted vacation plans entirely.
“Across the whole West there was significant lack of snowfall. I think what Sun Valley and Ketchum felt wasn’t unique to here,” Witsil said. “The cancelations we received, I think these folks were going [to] beach destinations and things like that.”
In contrast to its counterparts, the Knob Hill Inn in Ketchum has seen a year-over-year increase in its holiday occupancy and has all 29 rooms booked from Christmas Day until New Year’s Eve. The Inn had no more than 20 rooms full during the same six-day period in 2024.
General manager Ally Barnhardt attributed this to an older clientele with different interests than some other Wood River Valley visitors.
“We probably are an older demographic that is just here to see family and friends,” Barnhardt said.
Barnhardt said that cancelations of local events like the torchlight parade have not impacted Knob Hill Inn’s occupancy or revenue, and that the Inn is ending the year on a high note.
Restaurants
November and the first couple weeks of December are a transitional time for restaurants in Ketchum as they go from slack to their two busiest weeks of the year.
This tracks with what Duffy Witmer, owner of The Pioneer Saloon, said when he was reached on Saturday: In the days following Christmas, restaurants have been busy. But, Witmer said, until then business had been noticeably slower than in previous years.
“Business is off,” said Witmer, noting that he’s heard the same from other Main Street restaurants in Ketchum.
He cited the warmer temperatures this year and the lack of snow on ski runs in the area. The fact that Christmas fell in the middle of the week may have also affected people’s travel plans, Witmer said.
“I don’t think there are quite as many people in town,” he said, adding that in the days just prior to Saturday The Pioneer Saloon was “busier than heck,” but not quite as busy as in past years.
While the dollar count for the restaurant is up, Witmer said, “the real count is the number of people through the door.”
The restaurant raised its prices by 10% to cover increased costs of food and labor, so its dollar volume is up, but the “true count”—the number of meals served—is slightly down.
Witmer has been through ups and downs in the industry and in the valley and remembers the 1976-77 season—a notorious winter with virtually no snow—when the restaurant went from serving 300 dinners in previous years to serving just 80 a night.
“It looks like winter outside now,” he said. “So I’m feeling better about the count.”
November is always slow, said Patrick McKain, the general manager at Enoteca, with the weeks between Dec. 20 and Jan. 5 being the restaurant’s busiest.
McKain gauged that this season has been “normal” for Enoteca, though the waitlist might be shorter for the restaurant than in the past, dropping from around 450 people down to 70.
Without actual numbers, McKain couldn’t speak to guest count and guest spending, but he noted that the restaurant has been intentional about its menu choices this year, trying to be “a little more sensitive to the eyeball test” for guests who may feel more constrained financially.
Retail
Anecdotally, retail businesses in Ketchum benefitted from rain days and the fact that there was less snow in the valley over the holiday season.
“People bought more because they were coming in more because they weren’t skiing as much,” said Stoddard Rowley, a store manager at Silver Creek Outfitters.
He thought that Ketchum felt busier this holiday season than in previous years and that holiday sales for the store will be up this year over last year.
“It was a good Christmas season,” he said.
Conor Quinn, a co-owner of the 55-year-old Chapter One Bookstore, echoed Rowley.
“The rain’s a bummer for a number of reasons, but it drew shoppers into town,” he said.
In preparation for the holidays, the bookstore “Clark Griswolded” its historic building with lights and decorations, rendering it into a life-sized snow globe. The store extended its hours during the holiday season and opened on days it hadn’t planned to, said Quinn. It had five staff working, as well as an additional person to wrap books and help handle the increased business.
On Friday, Quinn was working on a “huge order” to restock the store’s shelves. He said he was surprised by how busy the store was.
“I thought it would be a hangover day,” he said. “It’s been a wonderful holiday and day.”
Jennett Zimmerman, a manager for the home décor store Picket Fence, likewise described this holiday season as “wonderful.”
Buyers for the store traveled to Europe to source holiday décor this year. In spite of tariffs, which Zimmerman said the store didn’t pass on to customers, the store has done well this holiday season. The new decorations went up in November, and business has been good since, Zimmerman said.
“We have had a really good November and December,” she said.
The store garnered 35 new customers a day in December, for a total of 235 customers. That number includes both online and in-person sales. Last year, the store had 288 new clients in December. Even while the total number of new customers was down this December, the store’s sales for the month are up 21% this year, the average order size is up 20% and the average amount spent is up 5%, Zimmerman said.
Ski shops
Brent Bommentre, a partial owner of Black Tie Ski Rentals in Ketchum, said business at the store was strong, though it was hard to compare this holiday season to others because the month wasn’t over.
Bommentre said that snow conditions this year have not been perfect, but he was grateful that the mountain was open. He said that more terrain will be opening up as temperatures drop.
“It’s a long ski season,” Bommentre said. “I think Sun Valley is a really special place because it’s more than just the mountain.”
Shawn McFarland, a shop manager at Backwoods Mountain Sports, said the slow start to the snow season had impacted business a bit. He said business peaked five to six days before Christmas but had been slow until then.
“We keep hearing that Sun Valley bookings go up, but if snow doesn’t keep coming, it’s going to directly affect the ski business,” McFarland said.
Reached by the Express on Friday, employees of PK’s Ski and Sports, the Ketchum Sturtevants and Board Bin said they were too busy to talk. 
