Room rates are impacted by lodge maintenance expenses that can be sizeable, especially for historic lodges. Yosemite National Park’ s Wawona Hotel is nearly 150 years old, while Yellowstone’ s Old Faithful Inn and Grand Canyon’ s El Tovar Hotel are each approaching 120 years of age. Historic structures tend to require high maintenance combined with occasional major expenditures for repair of foundations, plumbing, electrical wiring and more. Retaining the historic nature of facilities in isolated locations ups the cost even more. Consider the National Park Service( NPS) spent more than $ 30 million over 11 years for restoration work on Old Faithful Inn. Tens of millions of dollars were spent on foundation and renovation work at Paradise
Inn in Mount Rainier National Park. Lodges undergoing major work are often closed for months or even years resulting in months of zero revenue. While the National Park Service is responsible for much of the major maintenance, a portion of the expense is recovered from required fees paid to the NPS by lodge operators.
Strong public demand for national park guest rooms also plays a part in lodging prices. Many lodges are able to fill most of their guest rooms even at premium prices. National park visitation grew by 37 % between 2020 and 2023, with popular parks experiencing even larger increases. Yellowstone visitation increased nearly 42 % during the last decade with no meaningful increase in the number of the
Cabin at Jenny Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming Photo by Kay Scott
June 2025 | Valdosta Scene 35