At a Glance
- Hotel (6 guests): 3 separate rooms, no shared space
- Lumberyard (6 guests): One unit — kitchen, living room, deck
- Rates: Check current rates at ouraycondos.com
- Hotel Common Space: Lobby only
- Lumberyard Common: Kitchen, living, deck
- Max Group Size: 10 guests, 5 units
The Per-Person Economics of Group Travel
Six people in three hotel rooms means three separate nightly rates, plus parking, tax and any dog fees — for roughly 900–1,200 total square feet of fragmented sleeping space. No shared kitchen. No common area. Three bathrooms if you're lucky.
Six people at The Lumberyard fit in one or two units with full kitchens, living space, a deck, laundry, and a genuine shared common area. Splitting one nightly rate across the group is typically well below three separate hotel rooms — check current rates at ouraycondos.com.
The Social Architecture of Group Trips
This is the harder-to-quantify difference but arguably the more important one. Hotel rooms isolate people. After a day on the passes or the trails, three separate hotel rooms mean three separate evenings — someone's watching TV in 318, someone else is reading in 320, the group dinner requires a restaurant reservation because there's no place to eat together. The trip becomes a series of logistics rather than a shared experience.
The Lumberyard's layout — five units at 55 4th Ave, with a common outdoor space and shared access — creates the conditions for the trip to feel like a trip. You can drink wine on the deck together, plan tomorrow's route over the kitchen table, debrief the day in a living room with everyone in the same room. This is the thing that makes people remember a trip. Hotels provide beds; The Lumberyard provides the infrastructure for a genuine group experience.
The Kitchen Multiplier for Large Groups
Feeding 6–10 people in Ouray exclusively at restaurants is both logistically demanding and expensive. Popular spots like Ouray Brewing Company have limited seating and no reservations — groups of 8 face real waits in peak season. Three meals a day at restaurants adds up fast for a group, and scales with party size and choices.
A shared kitchen lets you handle breakfast and pack trail lunches, reserving the restaurant budget for one dinner that everyone actually wants. Across a multi-night trip with a group, that adds up. Combined with the nightly accommodation savings, the total cost difference between hotels and The Lumberyard for a group of 8 over 4 nights is substantial.
Booking a Group Stay at The Lumberyard
The Lumberyard Condos has five units that can be configured based on group size: individual units for smaller groups or couples, multiple units for larger parties, and full-building rental for groups up to 10. The dog-friendly policy covers all units — no negotiating which rooms allow dogs.
Book direct at ouraycondos.com to discuss the unit configuration that fits your group's needs. The owners know the property better than any platform can communicate — which units share walls, which have the best canyon views, how to configure bedding for mixed group compositions. Direct booking also means no Airbnb or VRBO guest service fee on top.