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Show Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, January 23-26, 2010 The Park Record A-9 Festival lodging a success Jason Linder. director of sales and marketing for All Seasons. "We've sold 3,000 room nights." he said. Because it is tailored specifically to the festival and is By ANDREW KIRK designed to help tourists and Of The Record Staff film-industry professionals alike find what they need, the The Sundance Institute has service is superior to that always fielded questions about offered by higher-profile lodging in preparation for the booking sites, he said. festival. They used to send out Smaller inns, bed & breakan email with 12 links to local fasts and condo-hotel manlodging companies, explained agers also love the exposure Kenzie Coulson, manager of Destination Sundance profestival accommodations and vides that they normally don't transportation. get from nation-wide reservaThen it occurred to the staff tion sites, Linder added. i that several benefits could Because they know people come from helping people find are looking for value this year, a room or condo themselves so and arc willing to drive a little Destination Sundance was farther to get it, one of the born. options on the site is to shop New this year, a Web site outside of Park City in Kamas, managed by All Seasons the Heber Valley, the Resorts is fed directly by the Sundance Resort and even ticket-purchasing site. Once Salt Lake City. Probably 95 people choose their movies, percent of attendees want to the Sundance page invites sleep in Park City, but these them to book their accommo- outlying areas are getting dations. The site allows shop- more exposure with festivalpers to sort by location, size, goers than ever before, he price range and other factors. said. In return, the festival gets a Like the rest of the lodging reservation commission that industry, Sundance supports its operation. Destination experienced According to Coulson. the shorter booking windows this commission is less than other year, making it hard to predict sites and services charge, so pillow counts. local hotels love it. "'Tilings really picked up in Hoping to double what was December," Linder said. done last year, the new "People are still booking... I Destination Sundance service thought we'd be done by now. actually saw a four-fold but yesterday we had 10 reserincrease in transactions, said vations." Visitors, hoteliers praise Destination Sundance And there's still inventory available, he added. People are scouring for the low-cost options making certain properties more popular that didn't used to see a lot of Sundance traffic. The big names appear to be using the site as well. He thought celebrities would use acronyms, but his paperwork is coming through showing Alisters have used it to book rooms as well. Coulson said she's already looking forward to the summer months when she can gather feedback from everyone about how things went and how to improve. Linder said more feedback is something he's really looking forward to, also. Already he knows the lodges would like more access to their postings to change rates, specials and packages any time, in real time. Linder said there's also a plan to work more closely with condominium managers to help them post properties in a way that showcases the unique benefits to each property while still making them easy to search. Maxine Jensen, director of sales and marketing for the Park City Peaks Hotel, said this year was the first time they've worked with the service and said it went smoothly. "We were pleasantly surprised with how it worked," she said. "They sent us a lot of bookings. We'll be happy to continue next vear." OR full of fan, new gadgets Chinese companies were not hard to find at the 2010 OutdoorRetailer Winter Market in Salt Lake City this week, many filling large booths. One large room was reserved for vendors proudly displaying, "Made in China" banners offering fabrics, sleeping bags, underwear and back packs. It was also hard to go anywhere in the voluminous Salt Palace Convention Center without hearing Korean spoken by vendors and buyers alike. The market has always been international with its Scandinavian Village housing several Nordic brands and various companies selling products from South America. With so many businesses attending, it isn't hard to find innovative items from all over the world that catch llie eye. ' Philip Li from Hong Kong was at the market showing off Sun Republic bags. Each unit sports a large, shiny, orange square that converts sunlight into electricity for recharging batteries. He estimated the average backpack could charge an iPhone in seven hours in full sunlight. Li said the bags sell wholesale for around $33. Another example of an innovative product is the StreetStrider, an elliptical cycle that can exceed 25 miles an hour. Resembling a stand-up bicycle, the StreetStrider uses the same motion as a home-fitness elliptical machine, engaging the arms and legs simultaneously. The market also has plenty of low-tech but creative items, like Demerit Wear patches. Modeled after Boy or Girl Scout sashes, these reward life's bloopers like skiing spills. -Andrew Kirk sfc*. 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