Glenwood Hot Springs

The Glenwood Hot Springs resort in downtown Glenwood Springs, Colorado attracts over 560,000 visitors every year. The property offers a wide range of amenities for its guests- including a spa, athletic club, restaurant, pool, and lodge. With this volume of visitors, the resort requires plenty of parking to meet its demand. However, the resort was poised to lose its main 170-space parking lot during Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) construction of a new nearby Interstate off-ramp. To cope with this loss, the resort required an alternative solution to continue meeting the needs of its clientele throughout the construction process; additionally, the resort needed a comprehensive understanding of the financial repercussions in order to approach CDOT for proper compensation.

Walker began with a holistic look at the existing peak and average parking demand at the resort to precisely determine how many spaces would be needed off-site to accommodate peak season demand. In a second phase for the project, Walker projected the approximate investment required to improve and operate a satellite lot and shuttle service. This cost estimate included shuttle service ridership volumes, headways, operating costs, and marketing and promotional expenses. Looking to the future, Walker also provided the resort with Parking Access and Revenue Control System (PARCS) recommendations to improve the operational efficiency of the resort’s parking system for years to come.

As a result of this work, Glenwood Hot Springs resort was able to:

• Fully implement a shuttle system, called the Hot Springs Hopper, based on Walker’s cost estimates, operational guidelines, and marketing plan. With this shuttle system, the resort is able to maintain an excellent level of service for its guests even while using a satellite lot.
• Negotiate a reimbursement deal with CDOT, based on cost estimates provided by Walker, to properly compensate the resort for finding and operating an alternative parking resource during construction.
• Plan for the future using PARCS and other operational recommendations to ensure maximum efficiency of the Glenwood Hot Springs parking system for years to come.