May 3, 2021

This isn’t a common sight on a weekend as April becomes May.

The Best Western Plus Ramkota Hotel is hopping – no more so than in the water park, where families have filled the pool area much like they have filled reservations at the hotel for the past several weekends.

“This is not normal,” said Josh Schmaltz, president of The Ramkota Cos.

It’s not normal in so-called normal times.

It’s definitely not normal in the context of the past year.

But that’s reality for The Ramkota of late, nearly across its entire portfolio.

“Things are very strong,” Schmaltz said. “During the week, it’s quiet. But our weekends, we’re consistently selling out. We could enter a week for the upcoming week at 25 percent occupancy, and by Thursday we’re 90 percent, and by Friday we’re 100 percent. Our weekends are just full.”

Look around the parking lot, and you’ll see a lot of license plates starting with the numbers 1 and 44, for Minnehaha and Lincoln counties, he continued.

“It’s the staycation,” he said. “It’s a lot of local people. It’s Sioux Falls going to the Ramkota.”

Sioux Falls is going to the Okoboji area, too, where Ramkota’s Arrowwood and Bridges Bay resorts are seeing the same surge in weekend business.

And back in town, its ClubHouse Hotel & Suites even is starting to see some corporate business return.

“That hotel from a corporate-travel standpoint has rebounded faster than some of them, but on weekends we are seeing shoppers from Minnesota who maybe don’t quite feel comfortable shopping Mall of America that still like to come to Sioux Falls,” Schmaltz said.

Citywide, hotel occupancy numbers back up what Ramkota has been experiencing from behind the front desk.

In March, Sioux Falls topped a list of 11 comparative regional communities for hotel occupancy at 57.7 percent.

That’s not a number tourism leaders typically would tout, but compared with a year ago when the industry all but shut down, it’s definite progress.

“Typically in March, we would hope to be in the mid-60s,” said Teri Schmidt, executive director of Experience Sioux Falls. “But occupancy-wise, which is really what we look at hard, for us to be No. 1 out of 11 cities, we know it’s bad, but there are places that have it worse.”

Sioux Falls also has the highest year-to-date hotel occupancy at 49.5 percent compared with its 11-city region, which includes St. Paul; Des Moines; Madison, Wisconsin; and other regional cities. Rapid City ranked second in both the monthly and year-to-date reports.

“The fact that we’re open, the fact that we have things to see and do” is driving visitor business, Schmidt said.

“Minnesota came over here. People came to eat. There wasn’t a lot as far as activities and events through the winter, but they came over here to get away, eat, maybe shop a little, and now with all the events revving up and the summer coming, we’re seeing more.”

The effect is being seen at visitor attractions too. Even with limited capacity, the Butterfly House & Aquarium had higher attendance in March than in March 2019.

“People are ready to be out and active again, and we’re doing our best to provide an experience that guests feel comfortable with,” CEO Audrey Otto said.

“And we are gearing up for an incredibly busy summer season, with new animals and educational programming to enhance the experience for our local and out-of-town guests.”

This week marks the annual travel and tourism week backed by state and local tourism officials as a chance to share the industry’s story.

And it’s an increasingly encouraging narrative.

Schmidt just finished making a long list of tournaments coming this summer and came up with 31 events, from adult co-ed nationals in baseball and softball to youth soccer and baseball and even a Midwest pickleball showcase coming in August.

“Barring any kind of catastrophe, I think we’re looking at a good summer,” she said.

So does Jim Hagen, who leads the state’s Department of Tourism and has seen a 174 percent increase in traffic to the department’s website in the past 30 days and a 218 percent increase in requests for vacation guides.

“Things are shaping up very nicely for this summer,” he said, adding that many travelers are tired of staying home and increasingly saying they want to visit cities in metro areas, small towns, rural destinations, and state and regional parks.

“South Dakota has these in spades,” he said. “The road trip has always been here for South Dakota, but it is here in the biggest way it’s ever been. People feel more comfortable and safe driving in a car and are saying they’re hitting the road.”

The department promotes tourism destinations statewide and in Sioux Falls is focusing on what the city has to offer families, he said.

“People are still looking to socially distance and get outdoors, so if they can get to outdoor concerts like the Levitt or Good Earth State Park, those are still incredibly important in marketing to remind people we have these wide-open spaces.”

Social events also are driving more visitor business.

“The wedding business has been the best it’s been,” said Paul Hegg, president and CEO of Hegg Cos., which owns multiple Sioux Falls hotels, including the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown.

Weddings deferred during 2020 have struggled at times to rebook at some venues, leading them to seek out hotels more than they typically have, he said.

“We have seen the benefit of that, especially downtown, where people are booking more weddings than in the past because they’ve been diverting to unique event centers, so there’s an uptick in that.”

The downtown hotel has fared the best of Hegg’s portfolio, he added.

“If you looked at that by itself, you’d say the future looks pretty bright, but then you look at the occupancy of the others, and they continually suffer with lower than normal occupancy rates.”

The biggest challenge is finding people to help serve those guests, he said.

He recently convened his leadership team to brainstorm best practices in recruitment and retention.

“It’s definitely risen to the top of the urgent and critical list,” he said. “I don’t necessarily have any good answers, but I thought more minds together might come up with a potential solution. My attitude is: Try something.”

There are reports from the Rapid City area of housekeepers being offered $1,000 hiring bonuses, he said.

But increasing wages at a time when the average daily rate for guests hasn’t rebounded is problematic too.

At $81.20, Sioux Falls ranked third for average daily rate in March in its comparison set of 11 cities, a nearly 10 percent year-over-year decline.

“And the existing staff get stretched and stressed, and you start to worry about them,” Hegg said. “With PPP, we were able to at least keep people employed, and now things are stepping up, and we’re trying to reach back out and recruit new people, and if we get one applicant, we’re doing well. I’m maybe overemphasizing, but that’s not out of the realm of what’s happened.”

Next year will show a lot about the financial state of the industry, he added.

“We’re looking at 2021 as an OK year because we got a backstop with PPP and state money, but 2022 will be a really interesting year because we don’t have any of that unless something happens, which I don’t think it will.”