Photo: A conversation between Springs Resort marketing director Jesse Hensle (back to camera) and members of the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board, June 2, 2025.
During the June 2 PowerPoint presentation by consulting firm Blue Room to the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board on July 2, we heard that the tourist industry in the U.S. is struggling a bit with economic uncertainty, generated by recent federal government actions.
You can download the presentation here.
The Board also heard from consultant Dave Fluegge, who helps manage the social media end of Pagosa’s tourism marketing effort.
Both consultants were asked to address ‘holes’.
One of the slides illustrated the growing visitor trend, nationally, to book either very far in advance (6 months ahead), or else, with little advance notice (one to five days in advance).
Apparently, this booking pattern is also being seen locally in Pagosa Springs, making it more difficult for lodging entities to adjust their pricing to fill ‘holes’ in future room occupancy — typically, by lowering room rates when bookings are insufficient.
Here’s consultant Dave Fluegge, discussing the ‘holes’.
“The goal is to be able to move quickly, and when we see these ‘holes’, find the subject that we need to plug that ‘hole’, and get that out in front of people. So, we do move very quickly…”
But as was discussed yesterday in Part Two, the Tourism Board staff and the consultants have struggled to obtain timely data — and being “timely” is especially challenging when visitors are booking at the last minute, rather than months in advance.
Who knew, that tourists would be careful about their future plans, in a volatile economy?
Board member Sarah Mashue — owner of The Drift vacation cabins on South 5th Street and a member of the newly-formed Pagosa Lodgers Association — addressed a more general trend related to ‘holes’, with a question to Mr. Fluegge.
“So I would like to share… the Lodgers Association… we collaborate as an association, and we do see that, within that six-to eight-week window, we are experiencing a 25% to 27% decline in bookings compared to last year. How would we activate you to go ahead and promote Pagosa, to fill that hole that we currently know is within the six-to-eight week window?”
Tourism Director Jennie Green noted that summer season marketing is ongoing through the end of August. The Tourism Board stopped marketing summer visitation during the COVID crisis, due to the big (unexpected? unpleasant?) influx of visitors in the summers of 2021 and 2022. Apparently, the staff has now decided to return to doing summertime marketing.
Ms. Green addressed the shortage of mid-range bookings. “But if people’s booking windows are shorter… wouldn’t it seems reasonable that you are seeing fewer bookings in your six-to-eight-week window?”
Good question.
Ms. Mashue:
“Because historically, we haven’t done summer advertising… so it’s great to get the report that we’re shifting, and I think that’s what we’re wanting to hear. But what is that marketing strategy? Because this is a different year… How do we secure those last-minute bookings that lodgers don’t have on their docket?”
Board member Shane Prince, who represents Wyndham Resorts:
“But is your occupancy up, overall, for the year?
Ms. Mashue: “Collectively, no.”
Mr. Prince: “I’m not seeing that trend, myself. When I hear ‘25% decline’… when [Wyndham is] seeing record numbers…” Occupancy at Wyndham Resorts is reportedly up about 4% over last year.
County Commissioner John Ranson — a relatively new appointee to the Tourism Board — brought up the fact that, historically, there’s been a contentious relationship between the Tourism Board and certain lodging entities. And perhaps some of those entities are now members of the new Pagosa Lodgers Association?
Jesse Hensle, a marketing director at the Springs Resort, one of largest employers in Pagosa Springs, addressed the contentious relationship, and the long-frustrated efforts by the Tourism Board staff to coordinate information sharing with a national tourism tracking company like STR Global:
“Yes, as all of us in this room know, it’s been a topic for some time. For us, it’s really… what is the value gained out of [supplying booking data to STR Global]? We can supply some information. We provided some information when Sarah sent out the [Board] agenda item… what our pacing is, what our current reports are. We’re polling our lodgers and asking them for this information in these meetings, so we can present it.
“The data will get skewed, quite frankly. Our rates [at the Springs Resort] are completely different from Sarah’s rates and other small lodgers. So what it could potentially indicate, based off of some of my rate increases and occupancy… and because [the Resort] built a new building… we’re going to have changes to our tax collections, and it might show that the Tourism Board is much more effective. But it’s not helping out some of our smaller businesses, like Sarah’s business.”
The Tourism Board staff uses Lodging Tax numbers to estimate its marketing success, but the opening of a new motel can made year-over-year comparisons problematic.
The Springs Resort recently opened the doors to a new 78-room motel, spa and restaurant, and more than a dozen new geothermal soaking pools — increasing the number of Pagosa motel rooms by more than 15%.
Mr. Hensle:
“And I mentioned earlier too, it doesn’t help with our side of the business, with the hot springs soaking, which is another integral part that we have to yield against for staffing, for planning, for building… putting together the plan for the summer.
“For instance, we brought in a whole bunch of staff, and we’re completely over-staffed this summer, because we don’t have the volume in the pools to keep that going on. So that information would not be included in [a report from STR Global]. So that wouldn’t help this community.”
Reports from STR Global depend on the voluntary submission of booking data from the larger lodging organizations in the subject community, but most Pagosa lodgers have consistently refused to share occupancy and room rate data with STR Global.
So, yes, there has been a contentious relationship between certain motel owners and the Tourism Board around the availability of booking data, and around whether the Lodgers-Tax-funded marketing effort has been as effective as it might be…