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Key Concessions Contracts Up At Yosemite National Park, Along Blue Ridge Parkway

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The Ahwahnee Hotel in the Yosemite Valley is one of the prizes in the concessions contract for Yosemite National Park/Kurt Repanshek

The coming months could tell whether Xanterra Parks & Resorts and Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts are both still in an acquisition mode, or will look to stand pat, as concessions opportunities are weighed in Yosemite National Park and along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

In Yosemite, the National Park Service is seeking bids for the chance to operate The Ahwahnee and other plum lodging, dining, and recreation operations for the 15 years beginning in 2016. Along the Blue Ridge Parkway, the agency is seeking a business partner to operate lodgings and dining operations at Rocky Knob Cabins near Milepost 168 and the Otter Creek restaurant and gift shop at Milepost 60.8.

Xanterra last year pulled off a coup by landing the concessions contract at Glacier National Park over long-time operator Glacier Park Inc., and also renewed its contract at Yellowstone National Park for 20 years. In addition, the company of late has been cementing its position in the outdoors, having acquired both Austin Lehman Adventures (now known simply as Austin Adventures) and Vermont Bicycling and Walking Tours in the past nine months. Going after the Yosemite contract would be expensive, particularly in the wake of Xanterra's new contract at Yellowstone that calls for an investment of roughly $135 million there. But Yosemite would be a nice addition to Xanterra's portfolio, which also boasts lodging and dining operations at Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Zion, and Crater Lake national parks.

Yosemite National Park, a jewel in any concessionaire's portfolio, has been held by Delaware North for many years. The company, which also manages concessions at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, has been expanding its footprint in the parks recently, adding the lodging at Shenandoah as well as the Peaks of Otter Lodge along the Blue Ridge Parkway since the beginning of 2013. The company also has expanded its lodging holdings in West Yellowstone, Montana, operates lodges in Olympic National Park, and has retail outlets in Yellowstone and Grand Canyon national parks.

With Delaware North's acquisition of the concessions business at Shenandoah and Peaks of Otter Lodge, it will be interesting to see whether the company pursues the other Blue Ridge Parkway properties, although the operations are small. However, also up for bid is the contract to the Pisgah Inn located along the Parkway to the south of Asheville, North Carolina. That operation, with 51 guest rooms and a restaurant, might interest the company.

Also to be determined is how aggressive ARAMARK Parks and Destinations might be. The company lost the Shenandoah contract and that to the Kalaloch Lodge in Olympic to Delaware North. ARAMARK does operate in Denali, Mesa Verde, Glacier Bay, and elsewhere in Olympic (Lake Crescent, Log Cabin Resort, Sol Duc Hot Springs), and at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Otter Creek Facilities Review

The Otter Creek restaurant, gift shop and campground (MP 60.8) are located on Otter Creek, approximately 20 miles from Lynchburg, Virginia. The restaurant and gift shop facility at Otter Creek was designed as a modern board-and-batten frame building with traditional Southern Appalachian features such as a long porch across the front, a jerkinhead, or clipped, gable roof, and a stone chimney. The facility opened for business in May, 1960. Site stabilization of an area just behind the restaurant was also accomplished as a part of the restaurant building improvements that occurred during the spring of 1999. A montane oak-hickory forest is the principal plant community surrounding the restaurant.

Historically, the 3,190-square-foot facility was operated as a restaurant and gift Shop. The facility was open from May through October, serving breakfast and lunch. As it was configured, the dining room seated 57. The gift shop sold gifts, souvenirs, sundries and firewood. The facility has been closed since the end of 2010.

The adjacent, 69-site, Otter Creek campground, opened in 1960 with a small amphitheater established in 1962, is operated by the NPS, but was offered as a concession operation in the 2012 prospectus. Interested parties could improve and rent campsites, or have the opportunity to rent camping gear. Appendices to this RFEI contain additional information about the facilities.

Rocky Knob Facilities Overview

The Rocky Knob Cabins, a small, secluded complex of seven housekeeping cabins, a manager's house, and a shower/bath house is located near Floyd, Virginia. These historic structures constructed in 1941 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. First developed as "trail lodges," the cabins were remodeled for use as family housekeeping units in 1950. Six of the cabins include a bedroom and kitchen. The seventh cabin is ADA accessible and includes private bathroom in addition to a kitchen. Each cabin is 418 square feet. The 960-square-foot manager's house includes a bedroom, living area, kitchen, bathroom and office. The 792-square-foot shower house has men's and women's bathrooms and showers, and a laundry room. The cabins were historically available for rental May through October. The cabins have been closed since the end of 2012 due to lack of a concessionaire.

At Yosemite, the concessions contract would cover all lodging, dining, and retail shops in the Yosemite Valley, as well as the lodging operations at White Wolf, Tuolumne Meadows, Wawona, and the High Sierra Camps. The recreation businesses in the contract include the Badger Pass ski area and guide services for the mountaineering, nordic instruction, and ski school operations. Park Service officials estimate that if a company other than Delaware North landed the new contract, it would cost that company $32 million (in 2016 dollars) for "personal property, inventory, supplies, start-up costs (staff hiring, training, etc.) and working capital." Additionally, another $22.5 million would be owed Delaware North for "personal property such as furniture, trade fixtures, equipment, and vehicles," and an estimated $6.5 million for existing inventory. 

Start-up costs for a new concession are estimated at $3 million, and another $3 million would be needed to address deferred maintenance in park facilities run by the concessionaire.

The new concession contract is scheduled to begin on March 1, 2016, and will be issued for a term of 15 years. This is the park'™s primary concession operation and the largest concession contract in the National Park System.

Comments

I will repeat. $20 for a campsite is hardly pricing someone out of the market. 


ec, you really need to read the article.

It's not about $20 campsites.

But it is about $110 a night for a cruddy cabin and motel rooms run by a monopoly.

And what made this country the greatest on earth was our willingness to work together, each helping to shoulder the burden despite the best efforts of those who felt entitled to snag all the profits they could from the hard work of others.

Unfortunately, that still happens.  Fortunately, there are still people willing to sweat to boost us all -- even boosting the leaches at the top of the heap who have figured out how to abuse the system for their exclusive benefit.

If parks and public lands are supposed to be free of cost, shouldn't the motels and hotels and tent cabins be free, too?


It does seem to be a complex issue, Alfred Runte.  I don't know how much park fees should be, or what precisely is un/affordable for whom.  But I do appreciate the gist of your statement; the goal should be to make the parks as affordable as possible, especially given the additional costs, which go well beyond simply an entrance or campsite fee, such as travel to and from the parks, which are in so many cases in pretty remote locations.

I'm not sure cost is what is limiting visitation, though.  (Although you might very well be right.)  Of the people I talk to who travel extensively, including to the national parks, most haven't heard of even half the national parks I've visited.  And when I go into details about one of these parks--say, Lassen Volcanic, Congaree, or Isle Royale--they are pretty shocked they haven't heard of them.  I think the parks are--somehow--wildly underpublicized.


These are the current approved rates for the Ahwahnee:

Featured Room Year Round $437.96

Classic Room Year Round $412.95

Standard Room Year Round $387.95

Parlor Room Year Round $488.34

Specialty Room Year Round $488.34

http://concessions.nps.gov/docs/Prospectus/YOSE004-16/Appendix%20Files/Y...

These are the rates for the Ahwahnee in a 2007 NPT article:

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

/2007/09/if-you-have-ask-price-ahwahnee-and-jenny-lake-lodge-are-probably-out-reach

A LA Times article from April 2010 has Ahwahnee room rates thru Oct 2 of that year starting at $443. So it looks like between 2007 and 2010 prices rose 4% and between 2010 and 2014 prices rose roughly 10%.


May I have the Rollaway?!! I think we all understand the problem, including EC. He's right that $20 by itself should not prohibit anyone from visiting the national parks. It's just that everything else keeps adding up, too. Here's another wrinkle in the story. Graduating college in 1969, I treated myself to six weeks in Grand Teton National Park. I would have stayed longer but my draft board had other ideas. . . The point is: I put myself entirely through college at a state university that cost no more than $500 a year, that is, for tuition, books, and fees. Adjusted for inflation, that is still but a fraction of what college students are paying today. How can they afford "gifting" themselves a trip to the national parks? They can't even afford to work there anymore, since the expense of getting there takes the biggest chunk of their summer income. Indeed, have you noticed that most of the people working in the national parks are year-round employees of the major companies, in Zion, for example, people with 10 years experience plus who live in neaby St. George, Hurricane, La Verkin, and other towns?

The price of college, let alone the national parks, is changing the entire face of America. High-salaried bureaucrats forget what these institutions mean--should mean to the country. At the colleges where I used to teach, administrators now outnumber the faculty ten to one. It all starts with the argument that market forces should prevail. But just who is determining the market? Why should the National Park Service "farm out" any of its mission to others, thereby escalating the going price?

It all adds up to a different face for our national parks, and perhaps not the face we want. I think we all want for the rest of America what we had as young people ourselves. In that case, there may need to be some pulling back from America's perennial argument that price should dictate the experience every time. So again, I'll take the Rollaway, provided EC buys the suite!


Why should the National Park Service "farm out" any of its mission to others, thereby escalating the going price?

Because if they didn't, the price would likely escalate more.  The private sector has consistently provided cheaper and higher quality services than the government. 

BTW - You do realize the reason that the cost of college has gone up is because many don't pay at all (scholarships) or get access to "cheap" loans which some now want to be totally forgiven.  The further you remove the recipient of education from the funder - the more the demand - and price - will go up. 

Oh and while I could afford the suite, I much prefer the tent.


Dr. Runte--

Have you noticed what I have in my last couple visits to parks?  Many of the concession employees come from other countries.  I am not sure how visas etc. are arranged by companies such as Delaware North, but they must have a good friend at the State Department.  It certainly is a lot different than when I worked.  Most concession employees then were, as you point out, college students.


Okay, EC. Then tell me this. How do 18,000 administrators "improve" higher education at the University of Washington. That is 400 for every 1,000 students. At that ratio, the students should be taking a cruise. The increasing cost of higher education is explained by those bureaucrats--all of whom draw above $50,000 a year. The highest paid, our new football coach, makes $6.5 million a year. The university protests that is the "market price" for football coaches, then makes the faculty 37 percent part-time. Part-time faculty and full-time salary pigs explain the demise of higher education in the United States. Scholarships? Yes, we have them, but they pay barely 20 percent of the costs. Who gets the full-time scholarships? Of course, the football players. Another market-driven cost, as we say. I know young people and I know universities, and I know how many students are struggling just to get by. I struggled some in the 1960s, but not like these kids have to struggle if one of their parents has died.

Rick brings up another good point. The concessionaires are increasly hiring abroad. Why? Because the park seasons have lengthened into shoulder seasons that summertime vacations can no longer supply. Often when the job holder is needed most, he or she needs to return to college. More than one lodge manager has asked me not to "recommend" a student unless that student can drop out for at least six months. Some do, taking six or seven years to finish college, when most of us easily finished in the standard four.

It's a mess, and the mess could easily be solved, again, if we would stop arguing that everything must serve "the market." I love it when Bill Gates says we need better college graduates, then asks to hire what he needs abroad. Get a good education and go to the back of the line. Why? Because he wants to pay his employees less. It's a scam, and we need to end it. Now, where were we on the national parks?


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