Salt Lake 2034 Olympic Organizers Near Lodging Goal

The Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games has already secured over 21,000 hotel rooms for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, nearly fulfilling the targeted goal more than a decade out from when the Games would return to Utah for the first time since 2002.

Salt Lake City has been named the Preferred Host for the 2034 Games by the International Olympic Committee, which would require 24,000 rooms to be secured.

The Utah bid has contracted lodging in 11 Utah counties plus Wyoming. The work to secure rooms is led by John Sindelar, who served as director of accommodations for the 2002 Games and has since worked with major global sporting events from the Olympics to FIFA World Cup on lodging procurement.

“We have been very encouraged by the active engagement of the Utah lodging community in support the Games,” said SLC-UT 2034 President and Chief Executive Officer Fraser Bullock. “John’s global experience in major event lodging combined with his longstanding relationship with the Utah lodging community has put us in a very good position.”

SportsTravel profiled the work Sindelar was doing in July 2022 with a few details that hotels are presented as part of the universal contract:

• Hotels are asked to reserve a minimum 85 percent of their available rooms and the same amount of function space for the approximate dates of January 24 through February 26, 2034. Hotels would also participate in the Paralympics with room nights reserved for the approximate dates of March 1–20, 2034.
• Room rates will not be calculated until the spring of 2027. The rate will be calculated on a base rate, plus inflation, plus a premium. The base rate will be an average of February rates in the years 2025–2027 while inflation will be the cumulative annual rate for the same period.
• Participating hotels will earn a premium based on how much of a room block is booked, with hotels that have their entire block reserved getting a 110 percent premium on the rate.
• Should the Games be awarded to Salt Lake City next summer, the local organizing committee will assign stakeholder groups such as the IOC, international federations, media, workforce, marketing partners and the National Olympic Committees to contracted hotels anywhere from one to three years in advance. Allocation plans would be approved by the IOC before they are assigned to each participating hotel.
• After a stakeholder is allocated to a hotel, organizers step out of the process and assigned stakeholders will deal with the hotel for reservations and arrangements for function space. Reservations are booked in four waves with stakeholders allowed to book anywhere from one to all four waves depending on needs; unreserved rooms and function space are released back to the hotel 12 months prior for general sale.
• Hotels would invoice stakeholders on a payment schedule predetermined by IOC with 30 percent due 15 months out from the Games, another 30 percent due 11 months out and the remaining balance due four months out.

Hotel partners include Utah-based hoteliers, developers, and management companies with both longstanding lodging experience and a look to future developments. Primary housing for Games athletes and team officials will be in the University of Utah Athletes’ Village.

“We are fortunate to have such a diverse and experienced group of lodging management companies here in Utah,” said Sindelar. “And we still have opportunities for others to come on board and commit their rooms and function spaces to the 2034 Games.”

SLC-UT 2034 will submit its official bid file to the IOC in late February before the Future Host Commission visits Utah later in the spring.