Crater Lake New Concessionaire Gets Transfer Approval

Above, Wizard Island through a smoky haze in 2017. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The National Park Service has approved the transfer to a new concessionaire at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.

They issued the following press release:

Date: April 18, 2024

Contact: PWR_Public_Affairs@nps.gov  

CRATER LAKE, Ore. – The National Park Service (NPS) has approved the transfer of the Crater Lake National Park concessions contract formerly held by Crater Lake Hospitality.   

Hospitality company ExplorUS will take over providing visitor services under the contract immediately, including:  

• Lodging at Crater Lake Lodge, The Cabins at Mazama Village, and Mazama Campground    
• Food and Beverage at Crater Lake Lodge Dining Room, Annie Creek Restaurant, and Rim Village Café    
• Retail at Rim Village Gift Shop, Annie Creek Gift Shop and Mazama Village Store (including gas pumps)   
• Lake and Wizard Island Boat Tours 

“We look forward to working with ExplorUS as they invest in facilities, staff training, visitor services, and other improvements to make visitors’ and employees’ experiences at Crater Lake even better,” Crater Lake National Park Superintendent Craig Ackerman said.  

NPS and ExplorUS are striving for a seamless transition of services but ask for flexibility and patience from park visitors. The majority of visitor services in Crater Lake National Park begin to open for the season in mid-May. Information about services currently available are available on the park website at https://www.nps.gov/crla.   

NPS Fires Crater Lake Concessionaire

Above, a smoky view of Crater Lake's Wizard Island. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The National Park Service has made good on its threat to terminate Aramark's concessionaire contract at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.

The announcement was made on Monday.

SFGATE reported:

After a tumultuous several years, the National Park Service has made good on its recent threat to terminate its current contract and replace Crater Lake National Park’s concessions operator.

Kansas-based ExplorUS announced in a news release on Monday that it had signed a “definitive letter of intent” to take over operations from Crater Lake Hospitality as well as its concessions for the popular West Coast national park.

Crater Lake Hospitality, a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Aramark, was responsible for handling Crater Lake’s concessions, including food, lodging and other visitor services. The company’s contract was until 2030.

To read more, go here. 

The National Parks' Lodging Problem

Above, how does $600/night to stay at Yellowstone's Old Faithful Inn sound to you? Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Years ago, my family and I stayed at Zion National Park Lodge and Bryce Canyon National Park Lodge. At the time, I never heard any complaints of any high lodging prices from my parents.

But that was then.

Today, concessionaires who run national park hotels and lodges seem to be gouging the public with outrageous prices of accommodations.

The National Parks Traveler reported:

There are, across the National Park System, rising lodging rates that likely block a wide segment of Americans from experiencing a night or two in the some of the system's most iconic lodges and cabins. Places like Lake Hotel and the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone, El Tovar at the Grand Canyon, the Ahwahnee in Yosemite, Cavallo Point at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Jenny Lake Lodge in Grand Teton, the Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier.

These are places where nightly rates can quickly climb past $400, with some approaching and surpassing $1,000 a night, depending on the season and occasion. And with the National Park Service's willingness to allow concessionaires to charge whatever the market will bear for some accommodations, rates will only go higher.

But where do you — can you? — strike a balance between a company's right to make a profit and the right of Americans to visit the national parks their tax dollars help support?

That question surfaces in the wake of a story from WyoFile, a nonprofit news organization in Wyoming, that looked at the cost of spending a night in one of the historic lodges in Yellowstone National Park. In roughly half the lodging rooms in the park, at the Old Faithful Inn, Lake Hotel, and Canyon Village, the Park Service lets concessionaire charge whatever they can get. That approach has led to dizzying nightly rates that have climbed above $400 a night — a 55 percent increase in just the past five years — at the historic Old Faithful Inn, according to WyoFile.

"Sadly the average American will be priced out of our national parks," wrote one Traveler follower on Facebook after reading the Wyofile story.

The practice to let concessionaires charge whatever they like for some lodgings dates at least to 2017, when it surfaced at Yellowstone as part of an unannounced five-year pilot project.

To read more, go here. 

Aramark Subsidiary Wins Crater Lake Concession Contract

Above, Crater Lake's Rim Village Cafe and Gift Shop. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The bidding is over and a new concession contract has been won by a subsidiary of Aramark for Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.

Television station KTVZ reported:

CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK, Ore. - The National Park Service announced Tuesday the selection of Crater Lake Hospitality, LLC, a subsidiary of Aramark, to operate visitor services at Crater Lake National Park and Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve. The concessioner will operate lodging, a campground, boat tours, food service, and retail at Crater Lake and operate a lodge, food service, and retail at Oregon Caves.

The concession contract, awarded through a competitive selection process, combines two currently separate operations under one contract. This commercial operation will provide a significant portion of the services visitors seek at these parks, and is critical to providing a positive visitor experience. The visitor services include the management of two lodges in the grand National Park Lodge tradition, the Crater Lake Lodge and the Oregon Caves Chateau.  

Thank God it wasn't awarded to Delaware North!

To read more, go here.