Affordable Aspen? Bargains in Beaver Creek? Crested Butte on the cheap?

Colorado ski towns have resorted to the unthinkable this year: holiday discounts and freebies on everything from lodging to lift tickets.

"We've never had to offer packages for the holiday season," said Carly Grimes of the Breckenridge Resort Chamber. "We usually sell out without having to promote the holidays much at all."

But this year has proved far different from past Christmases.

The Summit County ski town has earmarked an extra $250,000 in marketing money to tout marked-down lodging rates and free lift tickets.

It's new territory for those who track booking trends in the mountains.

So far, advance reservations are running about 25 percent behind where they were at this time last year, according to Ralf Garrison, director and analyst of Denver-based MTRIP, the Mountain Travel Research Program.

In several cases, Colorado lodging properties are reporting that the number of cancellations has exceeded the number of reservations coming in. And the canceled bookings have come even after people can no longer get refunds for their deposits.

International travelers, who tend to spend heavily when they arrive, have been most likely to bail out of their reservations, he said.

"We're not just kind of off, we're way off," Garrison said of bookings.

He usually rents out his own mountain retreat for the holidays. But with no takers this year, he plans to use the Frisco condominium during the Christmas holiday for the first time since he bought it.

It's a trend that's beginning to show up in the data he collects from mountain lodging operators at destination resorts throughout Colorado and other Western states.

To persuade more Front Range skiers to help fill the void, Copper Mountain eliminated its holiday "blackout" dates for holders of a discount pass good for four days of skiing.

"Want to get away for the holidays but your pass is blacked out?" the ski area wrote in an e-mail this week. "Copper is bringing you some holiday relief."

The policy comes after its Canadian parent Intrawest laid off workers amid a decline in pass sales. Its rival ski-area operator, Broomfield-based Vail Resorts Inc., also has cut its year-round staff to deal with the negative impact of a struggling economy.

Last season, many Colorado ski areas saw record snowfall levels. Nationally, ski area visits were up 10 percent compared with the previous year.

But this year experts predict even a series of well-timed blizzards won't save ski resorts from the economic downturn. "I think it'll be a bad year no matter how good the snow is," says Will Marks, a managing director with JMP Securities, who tracks the hotel and ski industry.

Ski-industry executives say the timing of the financial market slump this fall spooked skiers and snowboarders just as they would normally have been calling to book winter vacations. And with the dollar stronger against the euro, many Rocky Mountain ski resorts say they'll also see a drop this season in European travelers who took advantage of the steep exchange-rate discount in previous years.

Aspen Skiing Co. has predicted business could drop between 5 percent and 15 percent this season compared with last year. Vail Resorts Inc., which owns five ski resorts in Colorado, Nevada and California, reported Tuesday that advance bookings as of the end of October were down 23 percent from the previous year. The company says it has laid off at least 50 workers and says it won't fill another 92 seasonal positions.

"This year is kind of unprecedented," said David Perry, Aspen's senior vice president, mountain division. "People still want to take their family on the ski vacation, but are looking for the best bargains."

Among Aspen's promotions: Customers who buy discounted seven-day lift tickets in advance will no longer be restricted by blackout dates.

Vail has repeatedly said its early bookings this season have lagged past years, raising uncertainty about how many skiers it will be able to attract in the months ahead.

Even Vail's upscale Beaver Creek enclave has been offering extra hotel nights for free to attract enough guests for the holidays.

Aspen and Snowmass Village, two of the most expensive places to book a week of holiday skiing, have pitched some unusually aggressive lodging rates and airfare deals.

Since word on the bargains got out, vacancy rates have edged lower. But accommodations are about 75 percent booked between the peak period of Dec. 26 through Jan 1. Normally, they would be sold out by now.

"There are still rooms to be had for the holidays," Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass, the central reservations agency. "It's a well-known fact there are some bargains . . . some of the most affordable pricing to get into Aspen that I've seen in recent memory."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. kelleyj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5068

Sample deals

Aspen/Snowmass

* Kids fly for free on Frontier Airlines and get free lift tickets when accompanied by a paying adult. Lodges are offering bargain rates to fill vacancies over the normally booked-solid holiday period.

Avon/Beaver Creek

* The luxe new Westin has a winter package for the holidays of $449, which includes accommodations for two in a suite with two free lift tickets and complimentary valet parking.

Breckenridge

* The Summit County ski town has found itself running its first-ever big promotions to jump-start holiday business. Package deals on area accommodations include five nights of lodging and four days of lift tickets for $113 a person each night with two adults and two children.

Crested Butte

* Crested Butte is offering free lift tickets if you book rooms through central reservations, while bargain airfares - starting at $198 round-trip - kick in the week after New Year's and include free skiing.

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