December’s warm, dry weather reduced tourism numbers and demand for utilities, negatively impacting Steamboat Springs’ overall monthly sales tax collections by nearly 5%.

City sales tax revenue for December came in 4.96% lower than in December 2024, Kim Weber, financial director for the city of Steamboat Springs, said Wednesday.

“Utilities and groceries are normally our most consistent categories,” Weber said. “Groceries were up by 3.8%, but because of the warm weather, the need for utilities fell off in December. Grocery stores help fill those times when our tourism slows down.”

Weber said the city collected $257,724 less in December than it did in December 2024. Despite the December dip, the city reported that overall collections for 2025 were up 2.31%, or $974,323, compared to 2024.

Weber said the city had budgeted for an increase of 3% for 2025, meaning that final totals fell just short of that mark. Weber commended City Council for taking a conservative approach to the budget, saying that helped reduce the impact of December’s drop as well as what she anticipates will be continued lower sales tax collections in the coming months. She added that those impacts could require the city to reevaluate its budget and find places to cut costs moving forward.

When compared to December 2024, the December 2025 sales tax report noted that month-over-month collections for utilities, which includes natural gas and electricity, were down 10.94%. Construction was down by 4.31% for December, compared to the same month the previous year.

Some of the largest month-over-month declines were in areas normally supported by tourism, including obvious categories such as lodging — which dropped by 7.54% compared to December 2024. In the “Regional” category — which includes lodging entities such as Airbnb and Vrbo — December tax collections were 14.31% lower than the previous December. Short-term rental tax collections came in 6.16% lower, a decrease of $131,273.

The city’s full December tax report is at SteamboatSprings.net/m/Newsflash/Home/Detail/3204.

Laura Soard, senior director of marketing and communications for the Steamboat Springs Chamber, said the average occupancy rate for December was about 32%, which reflects the entire month including the weeks before seasonal direct flights began arriving in the Yampa Valley. Soard said occupancy was 34% in December 2024 and 36% in December 2023.

“December is pretty low at the beginning of the month and then it ramps up toward the end,” Soard said of December. “At the end of the month occupancy gets up closer to 70% but the average throughout the month was 32%.”

She said those numbers reflect the paid occupancy, and include about 80% of the lodging rentals including short-term rentals. In January 2026, paid occupancy in Steamboat was 49% — compared with 55% in January 2025 and 59% in January 2024.

“The December bookings were still strong, so there was a possibility that those sales tax numbers would come in strong,” Soard said. “But they did fall a little short of our projections.”

The Chamber’s December occupancy report is at SteamboatSprings.net/DocumentCenter/View/41816/12-December-2025-Preliminary

Other city sales tax declines for December could be seen in sporting goods, down 9.73% from December 2024; marijuana sales, which dropped by 8.54% from December 2024; and liquor sales, which came in 7.59% lower month-over-month.