Earlier this summer we ran a list of the "Top 10 Lodges" in the park system. Admittedly it's a "soft" list, one that definitely is not objective. But what some might find objectionable are the nightly costs for staying in some of these places.
Regular reader and occasional contributor Owen Hoffman took a little time the other day to come up with the most recent rates for staying in these places, and this is what he found. The list correlates to the rankings of the Top 10 Lodges, not to respective pricing.
No. 1: The Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California
Ahwahnee Rooms...........................................................................$426
Ahwahnee Cottages........................................................................$426
Jr. Suite.........................................................................................$499
Suites............................................................................................$893
Tresider Suite with Library Parlor.....................................................$984
Additional Adult in same room-per night.............................................$21
Additional Rollaway in same room-per night........................................$11
No. 2: Big Meadows Lodge, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Big Meadows Lodge Sun - Thurs* Fri & Sat 9/28 - 11/03
Main Lodge.....................................................................................$72-$116 $78-$129 $81-$135
Lodge Units.....................................................................................$87 $99 $108-$121
Deluxe Units....................................................................................$115 $127 $135-$143
Suites..............................................................................................$130 $144 $150-$165
Mini-Suites........................................................................................$129 $139 $143-$153
Cabin Rooms.....................................................................................$92-$96 $99-$103 $100-$103
No. 3: Camp Denali and North Face Lodge, Denali National Park, Alaska
Prices $425 per person per night, double occupancy. Rates include all meals and guided activities. Minimum stay 3 nights
No. 4: Crater Lake Lodge, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
Ground Floor.....................................................................................$138
Southside Rooms...............................................................................$171
Standard Lakeside.............................................................................$179
Deluxe Lakeside.................................................................................$191
Loft...................................................................................................$260
Extra Person $25
Child (under 12 years old) No Charge
Rollaway Bed or Crib No Charge
No. 5: Jenny Lake Lodge, Grand Tetons National Park, WY
One room cabin (duplex style).............................................................$525 (two persons)
Each additional person is $150 nightly
Suites...............................................................................................$695 - $750 (one or two persons)
Each additional person is $150 nightly
No. 6: Maho Bay Camps, Virgin Islands National Park
Rates For Maho Bay Camps
May 1 - December 14, 2007:
$80 / night, double occupancy.
Additional guests $12 / night.
Families enjoy the "Kids Stay Free" program for children under 16, when accompanied by an adult.
Single travelers will receive a 25% discount on tent-cottage rates - singles pay only $60.00 per night.
No. 7: Many Glacier Hotel, Glacier National Park, MT
Value Room......................................................................................$129
Standard Room.................................................................................$145
Lakeside Room..................................................................................$154
Family Room.....................................................................................$208
Suite.................................................................................................$255
Additional person $15.00. Children 11 and under free with adult. Roll-a-way bed $15.00 per night by request only.
No. 8: Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ.
Dorm..............................................................................................$34.16 per person
No. 9: Volcano House, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii
"New” Wing, Crater View Deluxe.........................................................$225
Main Building:
Crater View..............................................................$200
Non-Crater View......................................................$170
Ohia Wing:
Garden View.............................................................$125
Standard...................................................................$95
Namakani Paio Cabins...........................................................................$50
No 10: Zion Lodge, Zion National Park, Utah
Hotel....................................................................................................$150.85
Western Cabin.......................................................................................$160.85
Suite.....................................................................................................$170.85
Extra person $10.00
Rollaways $12.00
Cribs $5.00
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Comments
All the prices for lodging in Yosemite are very high compared to comparable lodgings elsewhere. Tent cabins in White Wolf are $93. per night for four cots and a Franklin stove. No electricity. The motel rooms at Curry Village are approx. $170. with tiny bathrooms. Yet, these accommodations are almost always full during the summer so using basic Economics 101, they are not overpriced. If people thought they were overpriced, there would be plenty of vacancies. But instead, lots of people are willing to pay the rates for the location.
Kath, if your a well heeled silicon valley boy, the Ahawahee Hotel is no subject of high prices. Why can't we All have a taste of the good life at the Ahawahee. The hotel systems in the National Parks should bear in mind that the super rich shouldn't alway's get that carte blanche treatment. There's plenty of hard working Americans that deserve just as much equal treatment...if not better (since they carry the bulk of the taxes and the blood shed of the sicking (wasteful) Iraq war). When it comes to the use of the National Parks, I believe all Americans should be on equal footing (price wise) for hotel acommodations and treatment as the rich. Something looks awfully awkward when the jaded Hollywood rich type roll into Ahawahee Hotel, slick to the gills, just to have a few gin tonics. Of couse, life is never fair, but I love my little pup tent just the same and besides I see the REAL World better.
Gotcha Frank! Excellent points made!!
I'm pretty much not interested in these sorts of accomodations so long as I can still carry my tent and sleeping bag. I did, however, get the steak dinner at Phantom Ranch once when hiking through the canyon and boy oh boy was that a good investment regardless of the price, which I no longer recall. After eating astronaut food for a day or two or three, that was one awesome meal.
Places like the Ahwahnee were built specifically to cater to the super-rich. Stephen Mather, first NPS superintendent, thought that in order for the National Parks to get the funding and approvals needed in Washington, they had to be places where the wealthy movers and shakers in the East Coast elite wanted to vacation. So the parks needed hotels that would attract that sort. Like it or not, that's just the way it was and it may have been a good politically savvy move.
I agree with competition. If one company operated the Yosemite Lodge and another operated Curry Village, the competition would likely spark improvements to both properties as each vied to be the better facility with the better rates. As for whether the concessionaires are reaping a windfall, I'd need more information on how profitable the properties are, who pays for maintenance, who pays insurance, etc. etc.
The idea that fair market competition would lower prices in Yosemite or any other park is absolutely absurd. Where in the rest of the world does that happen? Resort industries have a monopoly by their very presence in the valued place so prices only go up up up. Competition would increase prices, increase pressure on the resource and also increase the pressures on an already over-pressured NPS to submit to the "will of the market."
Stephen Mather set up the (yes, very imperfect) concession system so that the NPS could regulate the costs and quality of the visitor ammenities in the park. It is certainly a system that needs repaired. But the repair is not to allow more competition to start crying out for more ammenities, more recreational use, more conferences, more day-use buses. The repair is for the NPS to get some friggin' teeth and clamp down on the concessions.
The prices in the parks are obscene. Middle class families can't afford $100/night rooms. And lower class families are shut out entirely. What are we saying about the park experience when we shut the greater portion of our populace out of that experience? If the parks become only for the wealthy, they become private, elite parks and not parks for the people.
Owen has done us a great service to send us this shameful review of the "best" places to stay. The Park Service should be embarrased.
I agree, Beamis. They are not.