Re: Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and White Wolf not opening this summer.

I had reservations for TML this summer and just got this email:


Dear Guest,

Our entire team at Yosemite Hospitality has been working tirelessly on operating plans for the summer season; however, we continue to struggle with unprecedented hospitality industry staffing challenges. Due to staffing shortages, we are notifying you with sincere apologies, that it has been determined Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and White Wolf Lodge will be closed this summer.

As a result, we need to cancel your upcoming reservation. You will receive a refund for your deposit within 14 business days on your credit/debit card presented at time of reservation. Please know that this is not something we take lightly, and we understand the frustration this may cause. We appreciate your grace and understanding as we continue to work towards providing our guests the best experience in Yosemite.

Other lodging options and dates available in Yosemite Valley can be found at www.TravelYosemite.com. We also suggest visiting www.Yosemite.com to view lodging options in the greater Yosemite region. We hope to still see you at Yosemite National Park this summer.

Regards,

Yosemite Hospitality Management

Sure, no problem to get a hotel room in the valley in the summer if you start planning in May. Especially THIS summer, when so many campgrounds are closed for (long-overdue) maintenance projects.

/end sarc/

Does anyone know if the rates that Aramark can charge at Tuolumne HSC Lodge or White Wolf are capped by NPS? I don't know all the background here, but I would think that if no caps are in place, Aramark could raise rates to the point where they could pay staff enough to make it worthwhile to, you know, work. But I'm guessing there are other considerations involved, like where staff would housed (maybe kicking staff out of housing in early 2020 wasn't so smart?), what kind of unemployment benefits are available in CA, and whether or not Aramark has to pay a penalty for failing to open these venues absent force majeure (like record-breaking snowfall in the winter).

I am not sure if it still applies but the NPS used to limit the percentage that a concessionaire can raise their prices each year. With Covid comes some limitation with hiring staff. Housing is an issue because they can't put the same amount of people in rooms so, for example, a room that used to house four workers might only have one or two in them. Concessionaires have a tendency to hire summer workers from other countries and with Covid, that is an issue. Years ago, when we were staying in Yosemite Lodge, the housekeepers were from several countries. I asked one of them who was from South America how they were hired and they said that the concessionaire (it was DNC at that time) had information for jobs at a job fair at their university.

It's not really covid. A lot of the NPS concessionaire business models don't work if you have to pay workers $25 an hour.

The summer work visas were a way to get around higher wages. I don't know far in advance those are set up so maybe they did get shut down. I noticed a lot more of those in Montana, Utah, and Arizona and not many in California parks. Kinda crazy that kids pay thousands for a visa to wash dishes in a park when they could do 90 days in America for free on an ESTA.

I personally know concessionaire employees that have worked in the park for decades that were having issues finding housing in the park because of the Covid rules that are limiting the amount of people that can be in a room. One of them was thinking of leaving Yosemite and going to work someplace else. I have not asked people what they make working in the park but I doubt that a dishwasher or someone in housekeeping is making $25/hour. Bottom line is that concessionaires want to make money and so they hire foreign workers that will work for less. Years ago, after learning about the job fairs in other countries to find workers, I always wondered if the concessionaires did same thing in areas of the US where jobs are hard to find. Growing up near the Appalachian mountain area where jobs are few and far between, did they advertise jobs there? I have to agree, that there has always been an issue with the concessionaire model in many respects.

If concessionaires could set their own prices, surely there would never be space at the Ahwahnee for under $2000 a night in the summer. The Park Service is clearly capping prices somehow with the idea that capitalism and profit motives should be tempered by lotteries and long term advance reservations in the parks.

At Grand Canyon, the capitalist Havasupai Indians charge $350 per person to camp three nights in a crowded spot with no facilities but a composting toilet. The Park Service charges $100 for an air conditioned cabin for four people 10 miles and 5000 vertical feet from the nearest road deep in the wilderness at Phantom Ranch with hot showers. Lottery is 15 months in advance. They could easily charge $1000 a night for those cabins.