COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — With eight new hotels opening in the Pikes Peak region through 2025, focus is now turned to filling the hundreds, if not thousands, of openings in the hospitality industry.
“This is an amazing time to be in the hospitality industry in Colorado Springs, because there's so many hotels opening up,” said Torie Giffin, owner and operator of the Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort. “It just means opportunities for the workforce galore. Opportunities for having a career in hospitality. You could start as a busboy one day, and maybe in two years, you could be upper management.”
But Giffin said the record-breaking increases in Pikes Peak tourism, coupled with the new hotels, could be putting a strain on hospitality hiring.
“There are literally a lot of hotels right now that are all competing for a very limited market of employees,” she said.
According to data provided by Visit Colorado Springs, tourists coming to the area are beginning to balance out across all seasons.
Summer months from July through September remain the most popular, making up 30% of visitors. But other seasons aren’t far behind.
January through March saw 21% of total visitation, April through June had 26%, and October to December made up the other 23%.
With tourists coming in throughout the year, the typically seasonal summer jobs of the hotel workforce, and hospitality in general, are now spreading throughout the year.
“We're becoming more of a year-round state,” said Giffin. “So it doesn't mean that there's only jobs during the summer. There's actually more jobs year-round and hotels staying open year-round.”
The Pikes Peak Workforce Center partners with local organizations, including hotels, to help place candidates into open jobs.
Erica Romero, business relations manager at the Pikes Peak Workforce Center, said their organization aims to help fulfill the high demand in hospitality work.
“Over the last six months, we've been seeing around 100 job postings weekly coming out, because there are all those new facilities getting ready to open up, not only here in El Paso County, but in Teller County as well,” said Romero. “With that, they're needing the staff to fill not only those entry level positions, but also those other supporting positions throughout the industry.”
Romero said some operators have begun promoting or offering incentives to set themselves apart and attract applicants. She pointed to wages, flexibility in scheduling, and the career pathways that hospitality can provide.
There are also hotel and hospitality programs at local higher education institutions like Pikes Peak State College hoping to create a workforce pipeline.
But still, with a limited pool of applicants for the time being, some hotels may need to consider hiring outside the local community to fill their hundreds of positions.
The Broadmoor Hotel, for example, has a large international recruiting effort to bring in employees from around the world.
The Hotel Polaris, the new 375-room hotel opening this fall next to the Air Force Academy’s North Gate, said it plans to hire as many of its positions from the local community as it can.
Curtis Bova, general manager of Polaris, said they’ll probably hire about 340 staff members when it’s operating at full capacity.
He noted the challenges in hospitality hiring since the pandemic, but he’s still optimistic they’ll find enough workers from the Pikes Peak region. But if that proves difficult, he wouldn’t rule out international hiring during their peak season either.
“We're certainly preparing for that opportunity that if we needed to attract some international team members, we would do that,” said Bova. “But we truly are committed to being a neighbor and an engaged community partner. So that commitment to the workforce, and the community in that way, is paramount to us.”
Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTVon X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.
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